Finding a Mission in a Smile — A Teen’s Smile Leads Him to Finding His Purpose

With a 4.0 GPA and mile-long list of activities, honors, and awards, 16-year-old Stephen Tadena appeared to have every reason to be happy. But a heavy load of AP classes and packed extracurricular schedule made him question why he was working so hard. Stephen had big goals, but without a sense of purpose, they seemed futile. He soon discovered that his radiant smile was the key to unlocking his mission.

Stephen is a natural at making people smile — perhaps because he is always smiling himself. Even through an illness in his family and other difficult circumstances he remained grounded in his faith and greeted each new day with a smile. “I choose the art of celebrating, being happy, and like Rick Warren said, having an attitude of gratitude. God puts challenges in my life to shape my character,” he explains. It was that faith that made Stephen a lighthouse of strength that carried his family through some overwhelmingly tough times. “He was my inspiration. He was like a pillar — he remained so strong and would face everyone like nothing was going on, when in reality, there was a real storm,” his mom Dee says.

To fulfill service hours for a Boy Scout badge, Stephen committed to volunteer at the PEACE Center’s Homework Club — a community outreach program that provides free homework assistance to kids in Grades 1–6. He had planned to meet his obligation and never return, but when he quickly went from the new guy to the go-to guy, they wouldn’t let him go. Although he had yet to realize it, Stephen had an unmistakable gift of relating to kids, and he had become an instant favorite.

Stephen volunteered at the Homework Club every week for the rest of the school year, sometimes even taking the bus to get there. It wasn’t until the kids started bringing in their 100% test scores to share with him that he began to see the impact he was having. “I realized that I was really good at working with kids,” he says. That was when it all started coming into focus, and Stephen discovered that serving kids was his purpose. “It was enlightenment. This was what God made me to do. It was one of the greatest feelings I’d ever had — like discovering fire.”

Last summer, Stephen began volunteering as a weekend leader at the Edge, Saddleback’s class for kids in Grades 4–6. He instantly connected with this wildly active group of kids and was even able to reach and engage kids who were a little more reserved. After introducing himself, he’d invite them to play a game called finger sword fight. He laughingly recalls a day that he started the game with two kids and within minutes, it had grown to 20.

Now, Stephen has fine-tuned his life-long career goal of becoming a doctor to include his unique gift of working with kids — he’s going to be a pediatrician.  “If it wasn’t for the Homework Club and Edge, I wouldn’t have found my purpose.” All of his hard work now has meaning — and that’s something to smile about.

To learn more about volunteer opportunities at the PEACE Center Homework Club, email peacecenter@saddleback.com.