‘I Wanted to Give My Life to the Poor’

Some 23 years later, Janelle still shakes her head in amazement at the trajectory of events that unfolded since that defining trip, eventually leading to her assuming the role of FFHM executive director in 2015.

From 2000 to 2006, Janelle continued working at Park Community Church and leading church groups on mission trips to FFHM’s mission bases in Baja and Oaxaca, a state in southern Mexico. Then in 2007 she decided to take the bold step of joining FFHM full time as an assistant at its Oaxaca mission base.

After a few months as an assistant, Janelle accepted an offer to become director of FFHM’s Oaxaca mission base, serving in this capacity until 2011. In 2012 her career path took a different path when she was named executive assistant to FFHM’s founder and executive director, Charla Pereau, and worked out of the ministry’s US offices in San Clemente, California.

Three years later, when Pereau retired, Janelle agreed to replace her. Janelle recently completed her seventh year as executive director of the organization that opened her eyes to the pressing needs and opportunities to help the poor in Mexico.

“Janelle is a visionary leader,” said Cheryl Trevor, school director at FFHM’s Baja mission base. “She wants to make sure everything we do is with a clear purpose. She’s a great administrator, communicator and fundraiser. Most of our budget comes from donations, and she’s brought great financial stability to the ministry. If she didn’t do all the things she does, we wouldn’t even have a ministry.”

Since its founding in 1966, FFHM has remained devoted to the same mission: making disciples of Jesus Christ by rescuing children, reaching the lost and restoring the broken. To achieve this mission, FFHM’s vision is to transform communities starting with kids. FFHM runs children’s homes at its mission bases in Baja, Oaxaca, and Tijuana, providing round-the-clock support and care for boys and girls unable to live with their families because of being orphaned, abandoned, neglected or abused.

“Four years later, after hard work by our staff in every area of these children’s lives, God changed their hearts tremendously,” said Jonathan Deras, director of FFHM’s Oaxaca mission base. “They are living examples of God’s miracle.”

Besides children’s homes, FFHM operates free daycare programs for indigent families, nurseries for orphaned newborns and toddlers, and schools for its children’s homes that give students a quality education, a vital component to breaking the cycle of poverty.

FFHM also recently added a special education learning center in Baja for kids with special needs and maintains student apartments in Tijuana that help orphaned teens from its children’s homes gain the skills and support to transition into adulthood.

As Janelle observed firsthand on her initial mission trip to Baja, millions of children suffer under abject physical and financial hardships in Mexico. More than 40 percent of families live at or below the country’s poverty line of $111 a month in rural communities and $170 a month in urban centers. Just 62 percent of Mexico’s children reach high school, and only 42 percent earn high school diplomas, principally because of poverty.

Making matters worse, no social safety net exists for children in Mexico. Government services to meet basic living necessities are inconsequential at best.

A foster care system hasn’t been created, international adoption has been outlawed since the 1980s because of the influence of human traffickers, and in-country adoption is rare due largely to widespread poverty.

As a result of child abandonment, abuse and neglect, numerous children suffer from a range of disorders—anxiety, depression, malnutrition, learning disabilities and debilitating trauma stemming from emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

When Janelle was hired in 2007 to direct FFHM’s Oaxaca mission base, as a first-time director she learned how to manage a large, diverse staff representing every aspect of the Oaxaca mission base.

“I made sure they had what they needed, created budgets and did the vision work that comes with leadership,” Janelle said. “I had a great staff. Everyone lives together at the mission base in staff housing. I lived and ate with the people I was also leading.”

Janelle’s time as FFHM’s Oaxaca director was a valuable learning experience. “The biggest thing I learned is dependence on God,” she said. “I was director in 2008 during the Great Recession. We were doing work where we depended on God to do it or else it simply wouldn’t happen. With 95 percent of our budget coming from donors’ giving, we learned a deep dependence on God.”

After four years as a director and three years as executive assistant, Janelle accepted the greatest challenge of her career when she was hired in 2015 to replace Pereau, FFHM’s founder and its executive director the previous 49 years.

FFHM is still thriving under Janelle’s executive leadership. One shining example is its free daycare program in Baja for the children of indigent field workers. In 2018 the program moved into a new facility donated to FFHM by Mexico’s government. The bigger building enabled FFHM to increase the number of kids served each day from 30 to 100.

“Kids ages 6 and under come at 6 a.m. and stay till as late as five or six o’clock,” Janelle said.

“The program is free; their parents do back-breaking work in poor conditions for $8 a day to support their families.”

FFHM also broadened its work with teens in 2020, purchasing apartment buildings in the state of Tijuana so that young adults graduating from its children’s homes can continue to receive training and support while attending college. At the same time, FFHM opened a shelter for 14- to 17-year-old girls who need to be equipped to withstand the dangers of sex trafficking and drug cartels when they reach adulthood.

Under Janelle’s direction, FFHM also opened its fourth mission base in the state of Sinaloa in central Mexico.

As executive director, Janelle presents FFHM’s vision and mission to prospective donor families and churches across the US and Canada. Through her fundraising efforts, FFHM has continued to expand the donor base to its child sponsorship program. FFHM depends on monthly support to sustain the needs of over 500 kids and teens directly cared for in its children’s homes as well as its shelters, daycare and nursery.

“Eight to 10 kids are in each home at the children’s homes,” Janelle said. “They live in individual houses to keep numbers down and create a family environment. Besides our schools, we do events, camping and various trips—things you would do as a family—that create memories for the children. The staff and house parents are very involved with the kids, helping them feel chosen and loved.”

While rising inflation in the US and Mexico is another significant hurdle to climb, Janelle also sees these economic woes as an open door to Mexican residents’ hearts.

“People being worried about the economic crisis in a country that already has a lot of poverty, that gives us more opportunities for ministry,” she said. “When people are at the end of their rope as poverty and the violence of the drug cartels increases, they’re more receptive to Jesus and the good news of the gospel. Making disciples of Jesus Christ will always be our mission.”