DEBINU KUE/FORT RESOLUTION - When she was a child, Ozell Borden dreamed of doing mission work for her church.

Just over a year ago, she continued to fulfil that dream by becoming pastor of the Fort Resolution Pentecostal Chapel.

It is her first posting as a pastor.

"My idea of being in mission started when I was seven years of age," she said.

That was when she was attending church in her hometown of New Glasgow, N.S.

"Our studies were always on different countries," she recalled. "At seven, I thought, would that ever be neat to go to another country and share Bible stories we were learning."

That part of her dream came true in 1992 when she went on a 10-week mission to Africa. There, she visited mission stations and conducted various outreach programs, such as talking to women's groups.

While she has been involved with her church all her life, Borden worked as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) for most of her career.

After graduating as an LPN in 1963, she worked at Halifax General Hospital and later the Toronto General Hospital.

From 1974 to 2000, she was employed at H.H. Williams Memorial Hospital in Hay River.

Borden had actually applied to work in the Hay River hospital in 1963, after then hospital administrator Ken Gaetz visited her Halifax church in 1962 on a recruiting drive for nurses.

Borden applied but was not hired at that time, and she believes it may have been because of Hay River's big flood of 1963. Back then, the hospital was on Vale Island and she suspects her application may have been lost in the flood.

In 1974, she applied once again and was accepted, and worked in Hay River until she retired from full-time nursing 26 years later.

"I just felt it was time to change," she said.

Afterwards, she worked at a number of places, including Diavik diamond mine and the Ptarmigan Inn in Hay River.

After three months, she returned to casual nursing, since she couldn't be without the work.

"It was so much a part of me," she said.

Over three years in the early 1990s, Borden studied to become a pastor through correspondence courses. She earned a master's degree in counselling.

Eventually, she decided to work as a pastor.

She arrived in Fort Resolution on June 6 of last year.

Borden had visited Fort Resolution before and also met people from the community while working at the hospital in Hay River.

She said it was not really a big decision to move to Fort Resolution.

"I sort of knew this is where I was to be," she said.

Borden said her first year overseeing a mission has been a learning experience. "Every day you're dealing with something different," she said.

She has focused her work on Sunday schools for youth and outreach programs, which are visits to homes.

"I've really enjoy it," she said of the work.

She has particularly enjoyed meeting the people of Fort Resolution and getting to know their ways and culture. Borden said that has been helped by the fact she has some Micmac heritage – aboriginal people on Canada’a East Coast -- along with ancestors from Africa and England.

Borden said she gets a lot of satisfaction from doing the Lord's work in Fort Resolution.

"It's knowing that I'm where I'm to be," she said. "It's like a fulfilment."

Borden said she hopes to serve five years in the community.

Her chapel is part of the Pentecostal Sub-Arctic Mission, which is headquartered in Fort Smith and operates mission stations in a number of Northern communities.