February 20, 2013

By Rachel Daly
Staff writer

Plattsburgh - I’ve known Dominican Sister Debbie Blow for about five years, ever since my first trip to Nicaragua with the North Country Mission of Hope (of which she is co-founder and executive director).

In that time, I’ve had the opportunity to see firsthand the fruits of her labor and that of the Mission’s now-enormous network of volunteers - hungry children fed, home-shelters built, medical care given, orphans’ lives touched, and the list goes on much longer.

Yet underlying her role in the remarkably successful humanitarian and spiritually based work of the Mission of Hope is the fact that Sister Debbie is a person of extraordinary faith, and one whose life represents a beautiful unfolding of the kind of story only God could have envisioned.

An early stirring of faith for Sister Debbie occurred at her First Communion. “Without necessarily understanding the theology of it,” she said. “ knew that I was being invited into something special.” Then, in eighth grade, she found herself in Sister Stephanie Frenette’s religion class, where she says, “Everyone, especially the girls in that class, wanted to be like Sister Stephanie.” It was there that she started to realize that she might be called to become a sister.

She underwent some ups and downs in her faith life as she journeyed through high school, but by the time she went away to college, she was “doing the ‘I’ll-do-anything-except-be-a-nun’ thing.” However, a serious illness brought her home from college, where suddenly, all God seemed to be saying to her was, “Listen to Me.”

Finally, in December of 1973, she realized what she needed to do. She talked to her boss and told him she was leaving to become a religious sister, and though he offered to pay her double – DOUBLE - if she would stay, it only increased her assurance that she was doing the right thing. That very same winter, Sister Stephanie drove her to Massachusetts in a snowstorm to begin her formation as a Dominican Sister of Hope.

After her formation, she began teaching middle school religion and English at St. Peter’s School in Plattsburgh. “It felt right,” she says. She loved encouraging the kids to ask the tough questions about their faith. She later became principal, and though again, everything seemed to be going great, as the years unfolded, she somehow still felt like she needed something more.

A turning point came in 1995 when she went on a year-long sabbatical to a place in New Hampshire called the “Berakah,” Hebrew for “place of blessing.” There, she updated her studies in theology, met religious sisters from around the world, and spent time in prayer and reflection. The experience brought her a great deal of healing, and she underwent what she calls a second conversion. She would later look back and see this as a way in which God was preparing her for what was to come.

In 1996, she became a religion teacher and campus minister at Seton Catholic in Plattsburgh, and in 1998, she led a group of students down to Nicaragua to help serve in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch. She recalls that it was there, looking into the eyes of the children, that she truly felt she was looking into the eyes of God.
In the midst of her trip, as she drove home from the orphanage with a bus full of tearful students, one of her them asked her, “Sister, do you know what the greatest sin would be?” The answer he gave was, “If we never came back.” In time, Sister Debbie realized that she was in fact being called to go back. At that point, her words to God were, “If this is what You want, You’re going to have to lead me.” And she was not disappointed. Shortly afterward, with the help of Eve McGill and Yamilette Flores, the North Country Mission of Hope was born.

Now, Sister Debbie makes several trips to Nicaragua each year, and the Mission has expanded to include volunteers from around the country and around the world. The Mission continues to make a remarkable difference, and though the needs of the poor are endless, the stories of hope which arise from the missioners’ hard work and self-sacrifice leave no doubt that it is all worthwhile. Sister Debbie says that her role in the Mission is the culmination of all that it means to her to be a Dominican—especially a Dominican Sister of Hope—and a person of faith. “I can now look back and see that there was such a plan,” she said, “and it wasn’t mine.”

Her life is a living witness to the fact that God is seeking to do great things with us, and a beacon of the Gospel to all those whom her life has touched.

Mission of Hope photo
Dominican Sister Debbie Blow, director of the North Country Mission of Hope, is shown with one of the Nicaraguan children served by the 15-year-old humanitarian organization. Sister Debbie says that when she looks into the eyes of the children, she feels like she is looking into the eyes of God.