By Mary Owen
Patricia Dol loves serving others, a task she has undertaken for more than two decades.
A full-time missionary with The Institute for World Evangelization-ICPE, evangelizing for the Catholic Church, Dol’s most recent trip was to Peru in August with Samantha Marcott, who graduated from Regis High School in June.
“Having been on several mission experiences in Asia and Africa, I really enjoy serving the poor,” said Dol, who is the campus minister at Regis. “It is a response to a calling that I have, to evangelize and serve those who are in need.”
While in Peru, Dol reached out to the poor and the homeless of Arequipa, joining a group of 15 missionaries from the island of Malta, her birthplace.
After a weekend of bonding and preparing for the mission, the team was split into four groups that set out to parishes in the regions of Alto Cayma, Buenos Aires and Chapi. In four weeks, the mission team visited 64 families that are facing many difficulties, Dol said.
“Some of the families have no sanitary means, no beds to sleep on, shortage of food, not enough warm clothing and lack of medical supplies,” she said. “We went to visit a couple who had four children. This family of six lived in one small room that had two beds, an old broken commode, a one-burner stove with a soot-covered pot, a table shoved in a corner, a sack of rice and beans, and a handful of potatoes.
“As we were leaving the shack, the youngest daughter, who is only 6 years old, followed us outside and at one point asked me to stoop down so she could whisper something in my ears,” she said. “She told me that her brother wanted a red bicycle and asked if we could give it to him as a surprise.”
Dol assured the girl that she would do her best to make her wish come true. That same day, she received a call from family in Malta and shared the girl’s request.
“Instantly my family decided to make this happen by contributing funds for the bicycle,” Dol said. “On our next visit to this family, we had several items to give them, such as bunk beds, mattresses, a small stove, blankets, warm clothing, and pots and pans. As we were unloading the truck, the last to come out was the red bicycle. I wish I could have captured that moment as this boy’s face just lit up and he clapped his hands for joy when he saw his dream came true. What great love is shared amongst these two siblings!”
After making purchases for the families, the team had enough money left to buy 100 plastic chairs for a Catholic parish hall in Alto Cayma, a region with mostly shacks.
“It was beautiful to experience the joy that we saw on the faces of the poor as items were delivered to their homes,” Dol said.
Dol said family members lent a hand to assemble and set up furniture, making up the beds and sprucing up the home with newly purchased items, some as simple as a pot or a kettle.
“For some, it was like winning the lottery, and for others, a glimpse of hope for a more comfortable environment,” Dol said. “For the children, it was like Christmas.”
Dol said local churches were filled every day with people young and old. “They participated fully in the Mass,” she said. “What one has to understand is that some of them have to travel on foot for half an hour to go to church, and no one complains.”
The team’s own hardships dimmed in light of the hardships the families every day, she said. “We couldn’t use tap water for brushing our teeth,” she said. “If we needed to use the bathroom, none of the families we visited had one. The challenges we faced were mostly hygiene, sanitary conditions, speaking Spanish, and getting sick with dysentery.”
But getting to know the families, sharing with them some of their resources, and helping them improve their living facilities made the trip worthwhile, Dol said.
“The experience enriches my faith, because in spite of the difficult humanitarian conditions that these people live in, and the fact that they have so little, there I also experienced true joy and happiness,” Dol said. “With the little they have, they form community and reach out to one another’s needs.”
Dol and her husband, Mark, and their son, Joshua moved to Oregon six years ago from Germany to establish the work of ICPE in the area. In her spare time, she loves music, cycling and gardening.
