Listen to this article
Jasty was locked down in one of the classrooms at his school in Honolulu, Hawaii, as police officers searched for a fellow student who brought a gun to campus. He was concerned and texted Captain Raghel Santiago: “Captain, please pray.”
Santiago, who is The Salvation Army Kauluwela Mission (Hawaii) Corps Officer with her husband, Captain Jose Santiago, said the lockdown ended without incident, though violence is a regular occurrence in the surrounding neighborhood.
“Some of the kids that come to us have seen somebody get stabbed,” she said. “They live in hard places. The parents actually trust us to allow their children to come here because they feel it’s a safe haven…These kids cannot go out roaming around their neighborhoods. They cannot play outside.”
When the Santiagos arrived at their assignment in Honolulu two years ago, they sought opportunities to serve youth.
“We noticed that music really runs deep in the veins of their culture,” Santiago said, adding that music lessons typically don’t fit in family budgets.
So, they established a free music program that meets Wednesday and Sunday afternoons. It marries both the rich music heritage of the Army and local interests. Students are offered training in ukulele, piano, brass instruments and hula. Spiritual mentorship is also woven in.
“It boosts their confidence knowing that they can do something that they could be proud of.”
Captain Raghel Santiago
The program has grown to 25 students and, last year, several students advanced to the territorial music competition, Encore, where the hula team and a ukulele soloist won first place. The corps is now in the process of developing a junior worship team.
“It boosts their confidence knowing that they can do something that they could be proud of,” Santiago said.
In addition to music, the program stresses accountability as Santiago and her team help the students process the transition from adolescence to young adulthood.
“We speak to them and ask them how they’re doing in school,” she said. “If they’re experiencing any peer pressure, they know that they can come to us. We have some young adults who are leaders they can speak to and pour their hearts out.”
During the previous school year, one student was failing three classes at the end of the fall semester. By the end of the school year, she worked her way onto the honor roll.
Jasty has also excelled, Santiago said, adding he loves being chosen to read Scripture and takes to heart not only his spiritual development but also that of others. Santiago said he reminds her of Timothy in the Bible.
“He started to evangelize to his older sister and his younger brother, and they started coming to church now,” Santiago said, adding that Jasty’s brother recently asked for his own Bible because “my brother is trying to teach us.”
The success at the Kauluwela Corps aligns with findings from the “State of the Church 2025,” a newly released study by Barna. In it, the research team discovered that since the pandemic, there has been a resurgence in the number of younger Americans, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, expressing a commitment to Jesus.
Their commitment was cited as a driving factor in a 12-percentage point increase in the number of all U.S. adults indicating “they have made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important in their life today.” Specifically, 66 percent of respondents said they had a belief in Jesus, up from a three-decade low of 54 percent in 2021.
“This is the clearest trend we’ve seen in more than a decade pointing to spiritual renewal—and it’s the first time Barna has recorded such spiritual interest being led by younger generations,” Barna CEO David Kinnaman said in the report.
When it comes to gender, younger men are more likely to be Jesus followers than younger women—the commitment to Jesus among Millennial men saw a spike of 19 percent between 2019 and 2025, while Gen Z men jumped 15 percent.
For Santiago, watching youth develop and further their spiritual commitments brings great joy.
“That is one of the best gifts of being a corps officer because you see the growth, you see growing seeds,” she said.
And that growth brings impact.
“We see so many bad things happening in this world now, but there’s hope,” Santiago said. “This next generation, there are still sensitive and sensible kids who choose Christ, who choose to live the right way, who choose joy over the hardship that they’re faced with on a daily basis.”
Do Good:
- What cause best fits your personality? Take our quiz and discover where you can make the biggest impact for good today.
Download this page as a PDF
