Debra is a board-certified internal medicine physician, former U.S. Army Major, and longtime missionary who has served in seventeen countries, often in disaster and war-torn regions. Guided by a lifelong call to faith and shaped by a spiritually rich family heritage, she witnessed remarkable miracles throughout her work and ultimately entered the Catholic Church, becoming a secular Franciscan. She now writes and speaks on the miraculous, the mystical, and global evangelization, and is the author of Hope Dances in the Dark.
Debra had dreamed about being a missionary doctor most of her childhood. At family reunions her relatives recalled her talking about this before she began elementary school. It was not always an easy road. She came from a family burdened with heavy medical expenses and paid her own way through college and medical school. She honored her military family’s legacy by serving in the United States Army and then launched into her missionary travels.
Over the next twenty five years, she did short term missions in seventeen countries and traveled in thirty countries. During her travels, she witnessed undeniable miracles and was privileged to talk to first hand reliable witnesses of a remarkable variety of supernatural events. Her life began at Ellington Air Force Base when she was born as the daughter of a U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer and a devoted Christian mother. Her loving maternal grandparents, an Assembly of God minister and midwife, had a marked influence on her life. She and her siblings stayed with them often in the summers for long periods of time, as her mother worked outside the home. These grandparents had mystical gifts and were of Irish and Native American ancestry, cultures which are deeply spiritual and accept the mystical as a normal part of life.
Debra was accepted into medical school the first time she applied, during the most competitive decade of the past century for medical school entrances. She entered with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry and was granted the Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Arkansas upon graduation. She did a residency in internal medicine at the City of Faith Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, California. She is Board Certified in internal medicine.
After residency, she believed God was directing her to commit time to her country and to honor the legacy of both her paternal and maternal families. One of her first patients at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu was an Army colonel who was a beloved Catholic Franciscan chaplain. As she had with her grandfather, Debra enjoyed theological discussions with (Colonel) Father Floresch. He invited her to Mass, where she encountered the Eucharist for the second time in her life. Now perceiving a Presence she had not encountered before, she began to examine Catholic beliefs and to pray about them.
Over the next few years, Debra began to have dreams directing her toward the Catholic Church. During this time, she finished her Army tour of active duty and was the second youngest person in the United States Army promoted to the rank of Major her last year of Active Duty. At a time when the Army was 3% female, she was awarded the Army Commendation Medal, the Overseas Service Ribbon and the Meritorious Service Medal.
With a love of the military making the decision more difficult, she believed it was time to start short term missions, much in the style of the 101st Air Assault Division her National Guard unit had once been attached to when she was in medical school. Her focus was on medicine in disaster and war zones in impoverished countries. She helped to start clinics, hospitals, orphanages, schools and churches. This was done across denominational lines, but always with a church and in honor of Jesus.
In the mid 1990’s she made the decision to officially enter the Catholic Church. She supported herself in missions with contracts in emergency rooms and clinics, substituting for physicians who were ill or had left unexpectedly. She also became a secular Franciscan (Third Order). Her travels were in Africa, Europe (when the Berlin Wall fell), Far East Asia, Central America and Mexico. She was actively involved in evangelism of those that had little or no knowledge of Christianity. Her speaking experience has primarily been in other countries and in addition to evangelism, she has spoken on the miraculous, the mystical and the importance of church unity without losing individual church traditions.
Debra has recently written a book on the miraculous in her travels which is available on Amazon and Audible, as an audio and Kindle book called “Hope Dances in the Dark - and Waits to Bring Light to All.”
Debra currently resides in Las Cruces, New Mexico, with her husband Gary Morton and three fur babies Adel, Lady and Panzer.
SPEAKING TOPICS
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MIRACLES
An exploration of the world of miracles. These include those miracles Dr. Cole witnessed, as well as those experienced in the recent past and recounted by reliable first hand sources. Healings, preservation and rescues from danger, angelic visitations, resurrections from death, dreams, visions, animals and the supernatural, and the preservation after death of some holy people’s bodies from the natural process of decomposition.
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ONGOING PERSECUTION AND MARTYRDOM IN OUR WORLD
More Christians have died in the twentieth and twenty first centuries, rather than deny Christ, than in ALL the COMBINED NINETEEN CENTURIES before our time. A discussion of the most dangerous countries for Christians, how their deaths lead to untold thousands of conversions, little known accounts of amazing heroism of unknown martyrs, how each of us can directly help alleviate the suffering of the Church Militant, and how each Child of God can have an impact and defeat evil in this tremendous unseen fight.
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THE RISE OF THE OCCULT AND OUR PART IN THE BATTLE
The number of members of Satanic groups in the United States is now equal to the number of members of the Presbyterian churches of America. Unfortunately these numbers continue to grow, with sadly uninformed people (especially the young), drawn to false promises of power, wealth and the allure of the unknown. A discussion of this evil trend and how they grow their numbers. How every Christian can participate in God’s Army and fight the “fight of faith” according to their individual calling from Him.
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MISSIONS ARE FOR EVERYONE!
Perhaps many of us tend to think of missions as the realm of ministers, priests, monks and nuns ONLY. No matter what our station in life, each of us that belongs to Christ is called to bring the lost of the world to Him! A stimulating discussion of opportunities in short term mission work, how your vacation time can be offered up for the Kingdom, where and how you can volunteer, and how these missions heal, restore and assist THE VOLUNTEER (not just the lost!)
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BUILDING AN ARMY
What?! Why would you want to do THAT? Is that even possible? Yes, it is very possible. Each and every Child of God is able to do this. These reasons are explained, and the listener is instructed in the steps to accomplish this for themselves. (Hint: an army of the Holy Souls in Purgatory, what they can do for the world and you, and the amazing way this pleases the Heart of God Himself).
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THE DEBT WE OWE TO THOSE NO LONGER HERE
Did you know that the average life span of Americans in the early 1700’s was only 25 years? That even in the 1860’s it was only 39 years? That it is estimated that one in three women died in childbirth in ancient times and even in the early days of the American frontier? What tremendous hardship! What a debt of gratitude we owe! A discussion of this and the history we should all know, as well as how we can show gratitude, learn from our own families’ histories, and immensely please even God Himself.
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YOUTH ON A MISSION
Debra grew up in a devoted Christian family very committed to spreading the Gospel in everyday life. Although not Catholic at the time, she was deeply affected by a mission trip her church youth group (when she was an adolescent) took to the Four Corners Navajo Reservation, the most poverty stricken place in the United States. The Jesus movement in those times inspired many young people to commit to time in missions. Debra saw the trajectory of young lives positively reversed as she helped to lead and direct students and youths on missions to West Africa and Central America. This talk centers on the need for young people to find purpose and direction, how their thirst for adventure gives great resilience in missions, and how they often benefit from missions more than the people they serve.
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A MYSTICAL JOURNEY TO CATHOLICISM
Debra’s ethnicity is from two deeply spiritual cultures, the Irish and the Native Americans. She describes how these holy experiences were not uncommon in these families and were discussed like many families discuss world events at the dinner table. Her first two encounters with the Eucharist (one through the invitation of an Army Chaplain, a Franciscan) drew her into further investigation. She continued to pursue this for some years until another Franciscan priest (charismatic and half Irish himself) Admitted her into the Church. Mystical events on this path are described, as well as the centrality of the Eucharist in her conversion.
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