My great Aunt Dora was the eldest of my grandfather’s siblings. She was born in 1910. In 1936 Aunt Dora worked at  Spanish Mission in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida. She spent 8 years ministering there and during that time learned Spanish.

When she was 34 and 11 months, she entered nursing school just squeezing in as students had to be between the ages of 18 and 35. I was impressed recently when I learned that she was awarded the Linda Richards medal for the state of Colorado.

Aunt Dora lived a life As He Leads. Just before going to Europe for three months 1950 she was asked if she would consider going to the mission field as a nurse to either Ethiopia or Honduras. Before going to Honduras she was able to take a midwifery training course and then when that finished she took a tropical medicine course for nurses in Nicaragua.

In the summer of 1951, she was commissioned to go to Honduras. I enjoyed reading the ways that she trusted that God was in control and guides her steps. She was to sail from New Orleans but the ship sailed without her. She then boarded a plane for Havana, Cuba where she there met the ship that she was to have gotten on in New Orleans.

Aunt Dora was in Honduras until 1963. Then she was at a clinic in Belize from 1964 to 1967. At that time she came home to care for her mother. She worked in a doctor’s office and taught Spanish. She did continue to go to medical mission trips to Spanish speaking countries.

When I was growing up Aunt Dora lived in the same town that I lived. We saw her and my great grandmother at various times. I remember sitting on a sofa in great grandma’s living room and looking at cabinets full of various items that Aunt Dora had brought home from Central America. Aunt Dora taught Spanish at the school that I attended. I don’t think I learned more than, ¿ Cómo está usted?

Aunt Dora had a special name for me. She called me “birthday girl”. I was born on her birthday. Aunt Dora never married and so I was given some of her special things — her doll, a beautiful postage stamp quilt, and some dishes.

In some ways, my life had similarities to her life. I was the oldest of four. I spent time living overseas not Central American but Asia. I went to graduate school when I was 35 and 11 months. I wondered if I would remain single as she was but I did get married.

Aunt Dora wrote a book about some of her experiences in Central America. The title of that book is, As He Leads is Joy. As He Leads was the motto for her graduating class at Eastern Mennonite College. She added the two words,  is Joy. I love that those words give a bit of how she responded to all that God lead her through — leaving family and living in Central America, having her father drown while visiting her in Honduras, having her journals stolen but then returned, a stroke later in her life.  The stroke did not stop her, she learned to write with her left hand, use a typewriter, and did some hand sewing. She died March 2009 having served God faithfully.

When I began blogging a few years ago, I used the title of Aunt Dora’s book as the title of my blog, As He Leads is Joy. Just as Aunt Dora believed that so do I. I know that God guides my steps and as I follow him there is joy.