Juan Daniel Quiroga sat surrounded by friends at a college party during his senior year. The music pounded. People laughed. But, somewhere in that chaos, a question cut through everything else: What am I doing with my life?
“I was living a double life,” he admits. “I reached the bottom where I was numb to God’s voice. I was hurting people and I was so far from God.”
It was a long fall from where he’d started.
Eight years earlier, at age 15, Juan Daniel attended a youth retreat at Puembo Church in Quito, Ecuador. The three-day event was designed to help teenagers encounter Christ personally. Something shifted in him that weekend.
“I realized Jesus really loves me. I understood His love and the sacrifice he made for me. I saw clearly how Jesus only wants my heart” he recalls.
Juan’s new identity proved harder to carry through high school than at the retreat. Classmates mocked his glasses, his acne, his weight. The bullying ate at him. He started questioning why God would let people hurt him. He grew more willing to do anything to fit in.
When COVID-19 shut down Ecuador in his senior year of high school, Juan Daniel found unexpected relief. “I know it was something tragic, but for me it was the best. There was no one to impress. I re-encountered Jesus as my best friend. It was He and I again.”
That reprieve lasted through his first year of university. But when restrictions lifted for his second year, Juan Daniel saw his chance. New school, new friends, and no longer the object of bullying, Juan built a new reputation, one he wished for back in high school.
His popularity grew. People saw him as a cool guy. For three years, he barely attended Puembo Church, despite his family’s continued involvement. Even his father, also a doctor, gave him permission to step back. “Jesus will understand…Medicine is so demanding.”
Juan Daniel volunteered at the annual medical brigades connecting Puembo Church with partner churches in the United States. But he knew the truth. “I was serving just because I thought it was the right thing to do as a ‘good guy.’ I was paying my debts.”
Then came that party. The realization that popularity had cost him everything that mattered.
He began to pray. “God I am tired of doing this. If you need to prune me, please do it. Know my heart and change what needs to be changed.”
Soon after, his friends turned against him when they saw the change. They stopped including him in plans. But this time was different. Juan Daniel was different. “I was not worried about being accepted by friends, but being accepted by Jesus and enjoying a restored relationship with Him.”
He committed to Luke 9:25: Take up your cross. “I let go of my future. What I want or I don’t want is up to Him now.”
His routine changed completely. He prioritized his time with the Lord even when big exams loomed the next day. Two hours minimum of prayer and Bible reading every morning. “God is faithful. I started giving him my time. My day starts with the Lord. I don’t use my medical studies or my social status as an excuse to not put God first.”
His grades improved. His GPA increased. But more than that, his heart changed.
In 2024, Juan Daniel felt called to work with youth at Puembo Church. When he got the chance to mentor a young man, his first thought was his demanding schedule. I can’t invest what’s necessary.
Then he remembered his commitment to put God first. He met the teenager for coffee and discovered the young man battling the same struggles: the desperate pursuit of popularity, money, and validation from all the wrong places.
“I am so grateful that I was able to offer what I did not receive,” Juan Daniel says. “At the moment, I am discipling 4 guys, and sharing my experiences as a teenager trying to follow Jesus.”
Juan Daniel is finishing his final year of residency in endocrinology. While serving with the medical missions brigade, a doctor gifted him an otoscope. “A great gift for a great guy,” the doctor said.
Juan Daniel couldn’t hold back tears. To him, it was the Lord speaking: I have a plan for you.
Because of your partnership with CMI, Puembo Church became the place where a bullied teenager met Christ, where a lost medical student found his way back, and where four young men now get the mentorship Juan Daniel never had. Your support makes spaces like this possible throughout Latin America, where one transformed life multiplies into the next generation.