Local couple returns from Mexico mission

Judy and Mike Patterson, right, with fellow volunteers Candy and Tom Crestman from Cottage Grove. Photo provided

Judy and Mike Patterson recently returned to their home in Sisters after spending six months in Vicente Guerrero, Mexico. They joined hundreds of other volunteers to work at the 80-acre mission there founded by Charla Pareau in 1956.

The Foundation For His Ministry is dedicated to serving God through His people. In this instance, those helped are the poorest of the poor - babies-found-at-the-dump poor, people in such dire poverty that life's basic necessities, even food, become luxuries.

"We went this time with a specific goal in mind," said Mike, a professional painter by trade, "and that was to paint, but God turned it into so much more."

The picture the Pattersons paint is not only about wall coverings, murals, decorative touches and brushes. It is revealed in their faces as they relate how the needs among the people are supplied every hour. It is a huge undertaking and dependent upon the network and hands-on efforts of people willing to make a difference.

Orphans abound and were it not for the care provided, few would know a bath and de-licing, let alone being held.

The mission day care is serving a population of 15,000, mostly migrant farm workers.

The Pattersons tell of the townspeople going to the dump. Acres of horrendous-smelling garbage and waste are turned over scrap by scrap for food, for a treasure.

There are photos of children in it, smiling, as if it were an Easter egg hunt on the lawn of the White House.

This kind of poverty is foreign to our western culture, the Pattersons note. For some it is too much to assimilate and so they turn away.

"We are insulated by our abundance," said Judy. "It's uncomfortable to touch that we throw away leftovers that could ... Well, you get the picture ... No, no, you can't unless you've been there and seen it, smelled it."

And that's where people like the Pattersons come in. They fly in from all over and bring their talents, treasure and the gift of their time.

The ministries multiply. Right up there with medical facilities, soup kitchens, clothing and shoes, even a local radio station and Bible school, there is a wedding dress ministry.

The mission marries couples and the women dreamed of wearing a real wedding dress. Sixty brand new gowns were donated.

There is a hair salon, a wheelchair ministry and fire and rescue services. Operation Blessing, a team of eye surgeons performed 1,700 operations at the mission in two weeks.

"People have reached out in a million ways," Mike said.

"And it all began," Judy said, "when each one of them said 'Yes' to God."