Moisés and Jade Alpuche, from Valle de Gracia Reformed Church in Shafter, CA traveled to Baja California in 2024. Under the auspices of Reformed Mission Services, the two spent a week of service at Mount of Olives orphanage in Baja California, Mexico. This report is drawn from their experiences.
Moisés: We heard about this opportunity from Rob Brinks, who has done a lot of work at this orphanage over the years. Reformed Mission Services (RMS) organized the trip. We worked mainly with the orphans on site, but others in the group helped others who lived further away.
We spent much of our time there working on job sites helping improve the orphanage and its facilities. We also helped with VBS, translating into Spanish. Since everything had to be translated, we were very involved! At VBS you could have from 30-50 kids, with an age range of 2–14 years old. The lessons dealt with Creation, the Flood, the story of Jonah, and the death of Jesus for our sins. We also spent a lot of time with the kids
at the orphanage, just playing games inside and outside.
It was worth making this trip, because as a Christian it really helps grow a closer connection to God. Helping and spending time with kids is very much worthwhile. It’s also a very good place to meet other Christians who share your beliefs and you can maybe even form long term friendships! Another reason it’s good to make this kind of trip is that for people who haven’t seen what life is like outside the USA, it really helps open your eyes to how privileged you are to have been born into the country where you live. We take many things for granted, but going to a poorer country helps us be thankful.
I learned quite a few things from this trip. At the job sites we were mixing cement, painting, and building roofs, so I got to learn those things. Going and working there really helped me remind me of all that I have!
Jade: The trip to Baja California was really fun. We got to stay in an orphanage in Ensenada. The nice thing about doing these things is you get to meet more Christian teenagers. You also get to see a perspective on how people live in Mexico. The stay at the orphanage was a nice experience. We got to see the orphans. They were the nicest kids and really special.The person who took care of them says that the smallest amount of time you spend with them can create a bond that will last forever.
We started work on Monday. After breakfast we went to our worksites where we learned how to mix concrete and make a floor from 9 AM to noon. At 1 PM we ate lunch, and from 2-4 PM it was VBS for the orphans. That was where my brother and I were translating, which gave us lots of good practice. Some kids from town would come out to the orphanage for the VBS.
Tuesday we took all the weeds out and did VBS. Wednesday we started to burn the weeds and paint the soccer pitch (called a cancha in Spanish). Thursday was the last day for work projects and VBS, and we finished painting the cancha. At the end of each day we would do devotions and prayer groups, then after that we had free time which would last from 9-11 PM, after which we would
go to bed.
Friday was our free day. We went to see some migrant camps. People from Oaxaca (further south in Mexico) were living in the migrant camps, known as Triquis. They are sometimes treated very badly. So we went to their camps and gave them bags of food and clothes.
The tap water is not drinkable. If you were to drink water from the faucet you could get very sick. They have a rule not to flush toilet paper, because it gets stuck in the plumbing, so instead used toilet paper has to go into a trash can.
The stay there was such a nice stay and really fun! I would definitely go again if I could. I encourage other people to go and help at the orphanage and meet the kids, because when the kids there see people go down it gives them some hope. Those kids maybe come from abusive families, or their parents have died, or are addicted to drugs and can’t take care of them anymore. That’s why they were taken to Mount of Olives orphanage, where the house parents take care of them like their own kids.
More information about RMS, including opportunities to participate in mission trips, can be found on their website: https://rms.org
Moises and Jade Alpuche