ON A MISSION

By Harold Gwin

Pastor offers praise to those who help out

A group of Mahoning Valley residents conducted a medical mission to Mexico last fall.

NORTH LIMA — Pastor Tony Varela has nothing but praise for Americans who take the time and make the effort to participate in various missions to the poor areas of Mexico, where he serves as a missionary.

Varela, who works with the Youth Unlimited Gospel Outreach (YUGO) program along the Mexican/United States border, is particularly grateful for the medical mission conducted in the rural town of San Quintin on the Baja Peninsula by a group of Mahoning Valley residents led by a Youngstown State University nursing professor last September.

It’s been the only medical mission from the United States to come to the Tijuana/San Quintin area, where Varela serves as a missionary and pastor of Tijuana’s nondenominational Ebenezer Bible Church.

The mission team opened and operated a medical clinic in a San Quintin church for a week, providing services to some 300 patients. When the Americans come, they bring free treatment and medicine, he said.

Varela, who is visiting the Mahoning Valley this week, thanked the mission members and their wide group of area supporters for “being a blessing to our people.”

He’s using the visit as an opportunity to encourage others to do the same, speaking at local church service groups and to the news media.

“It’s very important,” he said, “We are blessed when we have people come from the United States for various ministries.”

Construction, education and medical assistance are just some of the mission categories, he said.

YUGO, which is headquartered in National City, Calif., has a goal is to challenge American churches to come to Mexico on various missions, Varela said.

San Quintin is a small farming community made up mostly of migrant farmers, he said. Most of the people are too poor to pay for health care at government or private facilities, he said.

Pamela McHugh Schuster, the YSU professor of nursing who led the local mission to that community in September, said there is a lot of diabetes and hypertension among the populace that goes untreated.

Many people rely on home remedies and old wives’ tales for cures for their ailments, Varela said.

Schuster said follow-up missions from the Mahoning Valley were scheduled for last March and this September, but both have been canceled.

The March trip was scrubbed because of widespread media reports of gang wars in the Tijuana area, Schuster said, explaining that that caused concern for the safety of mission members, especially YSU nursing students wanting to make the trip.

The gang activity proved to be much less significant than the national media reports, Varela said, noting those reports resulted in a number of cancellations by other American missions as well.

There are no gang wars in San Quintin, but there are some problems in Tijuana and other larger communities, much of it related to the government’s attempt to crack down on the drug cartels fighting to take over trafficking there, he said.

Schuster said the September trip has been canceled because of the concern over the swine flu. Inoculations might not be available in time for that trip, she said, adding that it appears next spring will be the earliest possible mission trip.

The support here for the effort has been widespread, she said, pointing out that members of the Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities have been participants and supporters.

They’re all working together for a common humanitarian cause, she said.

Varela, who has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Mexico, said there is a saying in Mexico that he likes to relate to potential American mission trip participants. It is, “Mi casa es su casa,” which, translated, means, “My house is your house.”

“You’re welcome anytime,” he said.

gwin@vindy.com