Mission Endeavors Heads to Ensenada

Mission Endeavors recently organized a team of 15 to serve as a missionary group in Maneadero, Ensenada, Baja California. Mission Endeavors was founded by Packinghouse Pastor Robert Probert, and has served in parts of Africa, Israel, Hawaii, and Mexico. They hold mission trips to Baja California every other month. Dr. Bryan Sowell and Alexander Probert led the group to Ensenada where they served the women and children of Casa Esperanza (House of Hope), a safe haven for battered and abused women. “Casa Esperanza started about 13 years ago. When we [Mission Endeavors] first started to visit Casa Esperanza, the mothers were scared of the men in the group and would hide. They didn’t want to let the children play with us. After a few trips though, you could see a change in the women. They started to trust us and were happy to see us come and play with the children,” Leticia Clemensen explained. Leticia has been a part of these mission trips for over 10 years. The home was started by Arlene Reynolds in an effort to lower the number of homeless women and provide a place for abused women to call home. They also provide daycare for children of underprivileged families that need to go out and work. Casa Esperanza provides a new home and offers hope for hurting families. They teach the mothers trades and provide work for the families so they can learn to support themselves. After two months of living at Casa Esperanza, the mothers then participate in making and selling scarves, purses, tortillas, and other foods and items. Casa Esperanza also provides education for the children and held a kindergarten graduation Thursday, June 20. The home also serves the families breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The last names are kept confidential, and all the mothers answer to a first name. Mirna is one of the mothers who has finished her program and was able to save the money from her hard work to buy her own property. She now works and provides for her daughter Ximena. On June 22 the team arrived at Casa Esperanza and promptly began to serve. Bryan Sowell took the men and began to clear out the overgrowth and rubble from around the building. Leticia Clemensen, Vina Moreno, and AnnMarie Berrera taught the children, utilizing wordless books. The wordless book is a simple tool to teach children salvation, as it correlates colors with the path to salvation. AnnMarie Berrera is currently attending Cal Baptist University to receive her teaching credentials. AnnMarie reached out and communicated with the children using games to solidify the memorization of the teaching. “She did a great job! This is her gift. The kids really liked her,” Vina Moreno said about AnnMarie Berrera. The team also brought water balloons. Both the children and Mission Endeavors group were soaked from the water fight. One of the mothers, María-Christina—nicknamed "Merry Christmas"—had also joined the water fight. Merry has three children and has been living at Casa Esperanza for two months. As the group was getting ready to leave, Merry asked with a smile, “When are you guys coming back?”