My name is Débora and I was born in Mexico City. I am 33 years old and my family is made up of my mom and dad and 3 sisters. I am the second born in my family.
I grew up in a Christian family and I remember that serving was a routine part of our family. When I was 9 I decided to be baptized and I remember that even from a young age, I had a desire in my heart to serve in ministry.
When I was 17 years old, I studied at UNAM to get my degree in Nursing and Obstetrics. While I was studying in my career, I could feel the desire growing in me to travel to other places to serve and help others. I finished my studies and it became more clear to me that my profession could be a means for me to become involved in missions.
My first contact with missions was to participate with an organization called “Fishers of Men” that sent out medical and evangelistic teams out to various parts of Mexico and I served with them for 2 years. During that time, I attended a conference organized by the Mexico Christian Medical Society. While I was preparing and praying for this trip, something happened to me that I had never experienced before; God put a conviction in my heart that something would happen on this trip that would change my life.
During the conference, I was expectant, waiting for what God had for me. On the first day, a pastor presented a video about a hospital located in the mountains in the north of Mexico that treated indigenous people with the goal of presenting the Gospel. He showed the video and invited the conference attendees to participate in this ministry. While I was watching that video, my heart was set aflame for that place! Four months later, I made a visit to the mountains to see the hospital.
I returned to Mexico City, but while I continued to feel a strong desire to return to the mountains and be a part of that team, many things indicated to me that it was not the right time. One thing was that my church did not support missions and did not even have interest in missions. So I waited and prayed. As the months went by, however, I became more inconsistent in my prayers about returning to the hospital in the mountains to serve.
At the beginning of 2014, I asked God to forgive me for my lack of faithfulness in prayer and I told him that I would pray every day until I heard an answer about his will for this particular prayer request. Only 6 days went by until the answer came in a very unexpected, clear, supernatural way!
It was the Day of the Nurse and I was standing with my father and my youngest sister outside my grandmother’s house when my father introduced a friend that he had not seen in a long time. This friend was a believer and after talking for a few minutes, she began to say goodbye to each of us. When she got to me, however, she looked at me and asked, “What plans do you have for this year?” I responded that I wanted to travel. Then she asked me another question, “Is this trip to help people and have you been praying about it?” With tears in my eyes, I replied timidly that I yes, that was true. She continued, “God wants you to know that you have the freedom to do it and that He doesn’t want to just use your hands physically. He wants to use you in addition to your career. He wants you to know that your heart pleases him and that you are courageous. You should continue to pray and to seek to sanctify yourself more. You are special.”
God had answered my prayer! After that, I continued to pray to ask when I should go and what steps to take. Eight months later, I asked for a 4 month leave from work and I went to serve in the hospital in the mountains. I continued to wait and pray because after that, I was supposed to go back to my job in Mexico City. Then my pastors asked me to meet with them and asked about my time in the mountains and about my future plans. During that meeting, they also let me know that if financial support was an obstacle in returning to serve at the hospital in the mountains that they had decided to support me financially.
And so it was that after much prayer and aligning of various issues, it was time to return to the mountains. I quit my job in Mexico City and I went back to the mountains where I served at the mission hospital for 3 ½ years. At the present time, I continue getting to know other ministries while preparing myself to serve the Lord better.