Hey, There!
I’m Dori.

I love stories. I would like to know yours. Your long story of joys and struggles, of laughter and tears. I want to know where you have seen God open doors and give strength, where you have been led to take on a challenge and have lived in the bold honest ways of the kingdom. I wish I could sit with you to know your battles, the ones where you raised your arms in triumph, and the ones that have left you dancing with a limp.

I wish I could hear not only the words of your story but the excitement or pain in your voice, see your eyes and watch the way your hands move as you share your life and wisdom with me.

It is a beautiful gift God has given us to be able to connect with one another – the gift of language, of expression, the ability to see and hear and feel connection. We were truly created to live in connection with God and with each other.

I have loved stories for as long as I can remember. I was fortunate to have a mom who read stories to my siblings and me during the growing up years, and a dad and grandpa who wove stories with adventures and life lessons in a way that made us children beg for more.

I have
Loved stories!

While I have loved countless stories and been saddened to reach the end of many a book, it is the story of Divine love that continues to teach me, woo me, define me, challenge me, and transform me.

I have been blessed to watch stories unfold in the lives of believers and the life of the church. I watched these stories first from inside the parsonage as the daughter of a pastor/rancher and a choir director/educator. I learned early that Christians living their stories could encourage, enrich, and bless, but they could also devastate. It was through these Christians I first understood that beautiful tremendous calling God has given the church to share his story– a story of a loving God creating and then redeeming his precious creation. The
story we get to live into every day.

 

My story

includes…

…years in youth ministry in the now sorrowfully famous Texas town of Uvalde. It was during this chapter of my story I was able to work with Dr. Billy Abraham, one of the contemporary church’s greatest Wesleyan theologians, on the development and training for Basic Christianity. Little did I know his contributions to my story would influence my faith for decades to come.

My story contains a time when I was a Christian woman raising children and relocating, a story of homeschooling and not homeschooling, of being at home with the children and of working outside the home.

It encompasses not only working in a small church in a county seat in West Texas, but also working at a mega church in the suburbs with numerous worshipping venues and more church members than the population of most rural Texas towns.

More recently my story included walking with my dad through cancer and the final days of his earthly life, then walking with my mom through grief. It is a story of a faithful God, sometimes silent but never forsaking. My story in the last year has been enriched by weekends of learning from inmates while I share the Jesus story in a TDCJ unit. The women there honor me by trusting me with bits of their narrative.

My Mission

So, I want to share our stories, to connect our stories to God’s great story of  redemption, leading to growth and transformation for us, our ministry, and God’s church. It is through the sharing of our stories that we can see and celebrate God’s work.

Growing in Grace