by Alma Russell Dobra

July 1994

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My twin sister, Irma Russell Collins and I entered Columbia Union High School in White Salmon, Washington in 1943 in our junior year from Lyle, Washington. I had enough credits my senior year to finish mid-term so I went to work at the White Salmon hospital. I had wanted to be a nurse for so long that I thought the experience of being a nurse’s aid would help me. I graduated with the rest of the class in June, 1945.

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In September, 1945, I entered the Cadet Nurse Corp for three years of nurses training. The first nine months were spent at Eastern Oregon College of Education in LaGrande, Oregon. I finished my training at The Dalles School of Nursing in The Dalles, Oregon, receiving my R.N. degree in July 1948.

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By then, my parents had moved from Lyle to Dexter, Oregon, near Eugene. I had been out of nurses training only two weeks when my younger brother had a plane accident. I went to Eugene to take care of him at the Sacred heart Hospital for a while until he was transferred to the Veteran’s Hospital in Portland. Eugene was where I met Frank Dobra. He was a student at the University of Oregon and was the minister at the Dexter Baptist Church my parents were attending. He had graduated from Northwestern Bible School in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1945 and had been in the Army in Japan before I met him. We were married July 24, 1949.

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Our first home was in Forest Grove, Oregon. Frank was assistant minister at the Forest Grove Baptist Church and attended Pacific University there. Later, we moved to Marlene Village in Beaverton where Frank helped build and was the minister of the Village Baptist Church. Our two daughters, Ruth and Lois were born in Frank’s hometown of Hillsboro, Oregon during this time.

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In September 1951, we moved to San Diego for two years to attend Linda Vista Bible School and Seminary. In July 1953, we were appointed as missionaries under The Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society, now known as Conservative Baptist International. We lived in Harrisburg for a few months in 1955 where Frank was interim pastor of the Baptist Church while we were awaiting our visa. It was while there that our third daughter, Julia was born. We left for West Pakistan, (now known as Pakistan), in November 1955 with our three daughters. Albert was born in Taxilla during our first year in Pakistan.

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After serving for seventeen years in Pakistan we went to Uganda in September, 1972. At that time, the cruel dictator Idi Amin was in power. Because he refused to issue work permits to new missionaries we were forced to leave after three and a half months. Therefore, we went to the neighboring country of Kenya, where we worked on the lovely coast at Mombasa for the next seventeen years. We retired in June 1989 after thirty-six years. Much could be written about or adventures during these years.

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We now live in Hillsboro, Oregon. I went to Clackamas Community College for three months in 1990 to get my R.N. license re-instated.

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I have been working ever since in the skilled section of Oak Villa Health Care Center here in Hillsboro. I will probably retire in March 1995, which will give me five years of work.

We have nine granddaughters and two grandsons.