Overseas Personnel in Current Service

• London Conference
• Serving The Moravian Church of Nicaragua
• June 2009 to present

Deborah Elliot was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA. She immigrated to Canada in the early 1980s. She was granted a Bachelor Degree in Administration and a Masters Degree in Hospital Administration by the University of Ottawa. Deborah did her Master of Divinity at Queen's Theological College in Kingston and was ordained in 1995 by Montreal-Ottawa Conference. She has served at three pastoral charges: Sebright Pastoral Charge (Lindsay Presbytery), Mountjoy United Church (Cochrane Presbytery), and most recently St. Paul’s United Church in Sarnia (Lambton Presbytery). While in Timmins, she also served as Timmins and District Hospital Chaplain for three years.

Donald Gibson was born in Val d’Or, Quebec, and moved to northern Ontario (South Porcupine) when he was six years old. Donald graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts in Recreation and worked for the Ministry of Correctional Services, Ontario, from 1980 to 2006. Donald is now retired and hopes to be able to use his skills working with inmates either in jail or as they reintegrate back into the community.

Don and Deborah have five adult children, three grandchildren, a young teen who is their godson, plus many other young people they call family.

As overseas personnel, Deborah and Donald were appointed to serve The Moravian Church of Nicaragua on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. This is a four-year, renewable appointment that began in June 2009 and will last until June 2013.

Deborah has been serving as a parish minister in the English-language congregation of the Moravian Church in Puerto Cabezas. She holds a weekly prayer group and Bible study, as well as meeting with a local young adult group and youth group. Donald is assisting with the daily operations in the ADSEM office (the development department of the Moravian Church of Nicaragua). In the near future, Donald hopes to work within the local jail facility, collaborating on ways to improve the programs offered to the inmates.

Together, Deborah and Donald are participating in two community development projects. The first is working with retired pastors to find ways to alleviate the symptoms of extreme poverty within their community. They hope this discussion will lead to community members participating in self-sustaining projects that will generate income. The second project involves working with the local artisans to organize a co-op and find wider markets to sell their goods.

The Moravian Church of Nicaragua is the oldest Protestant denomination in Central America, established in 1849, and has been a partner of The United Church of Canada since the mid-1970s. The Moravian Church has a long history of providing social support, health care, and quality education in addition to ministry of word and sacrament. The Moravian Church is a fast-growing and vital church that ministers to four peoples: the Creole (Afro-descendants) and three Indigenous groups, Miskitu, Sumu Mayagna, and Rama. Over the years, many relationships have flourished between the United Church and leaders of the Moravian church in exchanges, continued education, and commissioning of overseas personnel.

• Read Deborah and Donald's Letters from Overseas