Baja Youth Mission Trip 2025
We’re going to Ensenada!
Baja team Remind text thread: text @baja-2025 to the number 81010 to join, or click HERE.
Top team member tasks for right now:
1. Gather your supplies for your ministry assignments. Make a list of things you’re gathering, things you’re buying, and things you’re hoping to buy when we get to Ensenada. If you have to buy ministry supplies, keep receipts and I’ll reimburse you from our ministry supplies budget.
2. Go over the packing list and make sure you’re prepared.
3. Practice our songs (see below).
4. Pray for our trip, for your teammates, for the people we’ll be serving, and for Jesus to show you Himself.
5. If you’re under 18, get this form notarized and pack it with you.
Recap Meeting Wednesday May 21:
Remaining meeting:
Wednesday May 28 at 6 pm (No Wednesday evening groups that night – bring your supper with you if you need to)
NO MEETING Sunday May 25
Downloadable documents from this week’s meeting:
Permanecer - Abide - Capo 4 C chart for guitarists
Alabare Al Senor (Anastasis) - G chart
Our version of Praying Pelican’s packing list
Tentative Trip Itinerary (second page includes flight, lodging, and other trip info)
Links to songs to practice:
Recap Meeting Sunday May 11:
- Remaining meetings:
o Wednesday May 21 at 6 pm (there are no Wednesday evening groups that night – bring your supper with you if you need to)
o Sunday May 25 at 12:30 pm (lunch included)
o Wednesday May 28 at 6 pm (No Wednesday evening groups that night – bring your supper with you if you need to)
- Team building/training: “Killing the Clique” lesson I Cor 12:12-19
o We NEED annoying people in the body of Christ
o What is God doing in my heart?
o Pivot and open up the circle! Don’t tighten it up!!!
o Pause the conversation to be friendly to kids
o Be friendly in pairs
o Pray EVERY DAY (make a phone reminder) for the trip – including “annoyance” issue
- VBS plan – Captain Tessie
o We still need people to plan these components – I’ll be in touch this week.
o Using our Eldo curriculum – Bible lessons repeat (Cindy with students helping)
o Game time (students)
o Song time (Interpreters with students helping???)
o Craft time (Raders????)
o Women’s group (???)
- Clinic Day plan – Captain Andy and Sergeant Krystal
o Monday and Wednesday??? (One at each church)
o Intake (forms & greet & vitals) + Eval + Treatment + Prayer & Love
o Intake: Hannah, Sadie, ??
o Eval: Krystal & Andy, Kenli?
o Treatment (meds etc): Olivia & Sophie, Val, Cameron, Cherokee
o Pray: Grace, Trent, Isaac
o Medical and Non-medical people needed
- Plan Spanish worship songs – Karcyn, Grace, Isaiah, Isaac pick 4 (Adriana give us a kids’ song or two?)
- Anyone packing guitars? (Val has a hard guitar case) – Isaiah, Jude, Isaac (maybe uke)
- John E packing walkabout drum? Jack P?
Recap Meeting Sunday April 27:
- Passports – get them in your hands and check them! Probably need to expedite at this point if expired or nonexistent
- Clinic days at both churches with Dr. Wyant
- Funds due May 10
Apr fundraiser: Mex Fiesta – May 4
- Team captains for components:
- Décor/Music: Setup Saturday evening May 3 – Tessie, Jude, Sophia, Cherokee, Jack B, Andy
- Menu: Mex restaurant, desserts by us
- Tickets/money (in advance or at door): RHIELYN has ticket envelopes. Everyone take an envelope. Sell tickets, mark the sheet for adults/kids, and here/to-go. More tickets available any time – message Jim. A few tickets will also available at the door. $15 adults. $10 kids under 10yo.
- Ticket table for church Sunday??: Kenli
- Ticket taker/donations table: (need to get table, envelopes from everyone, sign, donation box/basket/bucket/hat/Brinks truck - will have 20 adult and 10 kid walk-ins available, but after that we’re sold out) Noah, Camren
- Plating: Hubbards (Students helping)
- To-Go manager: Cindy (Students helping)
- Serving: Jim (Students helping – drink refills, chips and salsa at tables while waiting)
- Tear down/clean up: Jim (Everyone helping)
DESSERTS: To-Go Cookies by Cindy (10 doz) and Trent (4 doz), Valerie 60 servings, Cam & Isaiah 24 servings, Jack and John E 24 servings, Krystal 36 servings, Tessie 36 servings, Paityn GFDF 24 servings
Students to talk for 1 minute or less in Sunday services (Students, pray about this and message me if you’re willing to take on a time slot by yourself or with a buddy):
May 4 early: Sophie and Grace May 4 late: Jack B and Cherokee
May 11 early: Anna and Audrey May 11 late: Kate and Josie
T-Shirts: Shirts included. Extras $25.
Air mats and pillows recommended for trip:
AIR MATS:
Cheaper option (about $40): https://www.amazon.com/Sleepingo-Camping-Sleeping-Pad-Backpacking/dp/B07FP4Z3RZ/
Nicer ultralight option ($130 - Purtles camp with these all the time and love them):
https://www.amazon.com/Sea-Summit-Ultralight-Insulated-Sleeping/dp/B084RLK2JW
Super deluxe option ($240):
https://www.rei.com/product/171695/therm-a-rest-mondoking-3d-sleeping-pad
PILLOWS:
Nicer option ($50-70 depending on size):
https://www.rei.com/product/151400/sea-to-summit-aeros-premium-pillow
Very good cheaper option ($17 for a two-pack):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089SC1WKN/
SLEEPING BAG:
Anything that packs small is great. Even a decent fleece blanket (or two) you can wrap around you like a burrito would work fine as long as it packs small and fits in your luggage.
Schedule next meeting: Sunday May 11 (yes, Mother’s Day), During Sunday School, in main sanctuary.
Fundraising this year:
You need to raise $1495 by April 10.
Kerri Rader (Karcyn and Kenli’s very cool mom) has agreed to track our fundraising accounts this year.
Kerri’s number is 417-296-2635 and her email is raderfamof5@hotmail.com .
You still give your money to the church as usual, but here’s the new thing. Any time you’re bringing in money toward your mission trip AND any time you find out someone else is donating toward your trip, let Kerri know. So for example, you’d send her a text saying, “Kerri, you’re awesome. This is Jack Bland, and my Uncle Stavros McGillicuddy is donating $____ toward my trip this week.”
Then when the church secretaries get Uncle Stavros’ donation, Kerri will know whose account that goes toward. (If you don’t know the amount, at least let her know the donor’s name.)
Also, you could send a text saying, “Kerri, you’re awesome. This is Jack Bland, and I put my $75 lawnmowing money toward my mission trip using the church’s text-to-give.”
This way Kerri will keep the spreadsheet of everyone’s fundraising status as up-to-date as possible, and we’ll hopefully have less frustration trying to figure out how much we have raised. Then if you have questions about your account, you could send an email like, “Kerri, you’re the bees’ knees! How much do I have raised toward my Mexico trip?”
One of the main sources of fundraising, though, is sending out support letters.
Each person should send at least 10 of these letters.
Pray about who you should send them to.
Send them to people outside our church as much as possible – that way we don’t have people in our church getting a dozen letters when they’re already planning to give.
Include a photo of yourself, either just inserted into the Word document, or a separate photo.
If you need to use the church printers to print your letters, we can do that, but please get on this ASAP!
A sample fundraising letter is available HERE. Personalize this to sound like you instead of a generic nobody. (It’s a fantastic idea to include the bullet point list you prayerfully made (see above) of reasons you believe God wants you to go on this trip!)
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Where are we going?
A: To Ensenada, a Pacific coastal city in Baja California, Mexico. We’ll get there by flying to San Diego on May 31, and meeting our guides from Praying Pelican Missions there. They’ll take us across the border in their vehicles, and we’ll travel through Tijuana and down the coast to Ensenada. There, we’ll meet with a local host pastor and church, with whom we’ll be working for our week of ministry. We’ll be back in San Diego the evening of June 6, and fly home June 7.
Q: Who is going?
A: Youth group students who will have completed grades 6-12 in May of 2025. Parents are also invited to come along! Sorry – this trip is not designed to accommodate younger kids. (Exception: students completing 5th grade in May are invited, as long as they have an accompanying parent.)
Q: How much will it cost?
A: As of now, it looks like the cost will be $1495 per person (sorry – no family discounts!). This includes airfare, ground transportation, accommodations (we’ll be sleeping on air mattresses on floors, but we will have showers available), clean food and water, ministry project funds, and insurance. You’ll need to bring your own money for things like souvenirs, etc. Also, if you don’t have a passport, you’ll need to pay to get one.
We realize $1495 is a scary amount for most teenagers to think about raising. You should raise as much of your trip cost as possible by the classic underrated method of working to earn the money! But we get that you’re not all working high-paying jobs. We’ll do a few fundraisers together as a team. If God wants you to go on this trip (I hope you’ve prayed about that), the money will come in, but you’ve got to be willing to work hard to get there.
Q: What will we be doing?
A: There are many possible ministry tasks, chosen mostly based on the needs of the host church and the skill set of our team. Basically, we’ll be serving a local pastor and church together, mostly in the poverty-stricken areas of Ensenada. Possibilities include kids’ ministry, music, construction, food distribution, medical help, and youth group partnering.
Q: Is Mexico safe???!?
A: Generally speaking, Ensenada is very safe for visitors. Violence against foreigners is rare. Ensenada is a large city, but not nearly as large as Tijuana. Our Ensenada partner pastors describe their city as “chill.” Local residents take general precautions like locking things up to prevent theft– but there is not a heightened sense of security precautions taken or even a significant police presence. Most of the “drug wars” violence is currently in the hot spots of Sonora, Sinaloa, and Chihuahua. Here in Missouri, we live closer to the gang violence of East St. Louis than our Ensenada host pastors do to the “drug war” areas of Mexico.
Any travel involves a degree of risk. You take a risk any time you go to Branson. But we’ve done this trip before, and feel confident that we’re using good wisdom regarding the safety of our students. There are no guarantees - you can be unsafe sitting on your couch at home if a big enough tree falls on your house - but we’ve done our diligence here. We draw on years of experience traveling internationally with teenagers and take careful safety precautions.
Q: Can I drink the water?? Can I use the bathroom there???
A: You’ll have plenty of clean water to drink; just don’t drink out of the faucet. Yes, you can use the bathroom. We’ll have showers at the place we’re staying (which you should use daily please), and laundry is possible (at a laundromat) if the need arises.
Q: What will we eat?
A: The best food. Seriously. People from the churches we’re serving cook us incredible homemade meals through the trip. Fresh Mexican food made by church ladies is some of the best food you’ll have in your entire life. For real. And if you need some American snack food (Doritos, Oreos, candy, etc) that’s available too, at lots of little snack stands and shops.
Q: Can I take my PHONE???!?? WILL I LOSE MY STREAKS????
A: You seem a little anxious. Take a deep breath. You good? Okay. Yes, you can take your phone, though your data and text plan may not work in Mexico (some networks work seamlessly, some charge you extra, and some don’t work at all). Several of the trip leaders will have phones that do work for the entire trip, so emergency contact is not a problem. Wifi is available occasionally in spots, but not reliable. We recommend mostly leaving your phone in airplane mode (your battery will last forever!) and using it as your camera and portable Bible. You can also download an offline version of Google Translate’s Spanish translation to use if one of the interpreter staff isn’t available.
You might lose your streaks. That’s possible. Has God called you to go on this trip? If so, decide how important streaks are to you.
We challenge you to do this trip mostly phone-connection-free, even if your connection does work well in Mexico. If we’re on our phones the whole time, we’re tragically missing the point.
Q: Do I need a passport?
A: Yes. You’ll need to start this process ASAP. You can get the cheaper passport card (instead of the full passport booklet) since we’re entering Mexico by land and not by air. BUT I highly recommend going ahead and getting the full booklet, because you never know when you or your child will have an opportunity to go on another international mission trip or do international study in the next few years. (Ask Darrin Griffin!) The best way to get a passport around here is to go to the Nevada Post Office, and get the paperwork. They can do the photos and everything right there all at one time. Your total cost for this should be $65-160, depending on options. (In 2023, the Passport office was running very behind, so the cost went up. We had to expedite this, which cost an extra $100. We think it will be back to normal this year.)
Q: How do I sign up?
A: Signups are currently full. Contact Pastor Jim to be placed on a waiting list.