I am Eloise Castro, a 27-year-old nursing student. I grew up in a non-Adventist home. When I was a child, my older sister had the habit of encouraging my brother and me to visit various evangelical churches. When I was about 10 years old, my brother and I were talking about the end of times. I told him that we had to pray for God to show us the true church because I wanted to prepare myself for the return of Jesus. So I prayed.

Two years later, my older sister went to live in a rural area where there was an SDA missionary school. When I went to visit her, she invited me to go to church at this school on Saturday morning. It was a remarkable experience. That place seemed like a little piece of heaven, full of good meetings, and they welcomed us very well. A few weeks later, a missionary from this school came to my house in the city and began to study the Bible with me and my family. After finishing the Bible study, I made my decision to be baptized. I was 14, and it was the most important decision of my life.

My missionary journey began soon after that when I asked God what He expected of me when I became an adult. I understood that He called me to medical missionary work. I was very shy at the time, and I felt unqualified to be a missionary, but even so, I obeyed God’s will, believing that I would become the missionary He expected me to be.

A year later, during a week of prayer, I heard for the first time about the people of the 10/40 window. I felt deeply moved to be a missionary in this region. I wanted to share Jesus with these people. My heart was saddened to know that there were people who did not know the Savior Jesus. They needed to have this opportunity and decide who they would serve. However, I was just a teenager.

Years went by. I got involved in several missionary projects. Then I met a missionary from AFM South America. She told me about the organization’s goal, which was to plant churches in unreached regions of the 10/40 window. I decided right at that moment, “I want to be a missionary through AFM.”

During that time, I had begun studying nursing because I knew that God wanted me to work in the health field. I love taking care of people and seeing them recover. This is my gift. That is why Jesus called me to work in the medical missionary work. Now I am an AFM missionary being sent to a creative access project. I pray that God will use me and that I will be able to make sincere and deep friendships that will allow me to talk about my beloved Jesus and use my gift of caring and that people will have the opportunity to know Jesus through my life of service.

For now, I am gladly going to serve as a short-term missionary, but after I finish college, I want to become a career missionary and work for Jesus until He returns.