OUR STORY

In the summer of 2010 while jogging on the streets of Chicago, God broke Josh Dorrell’s heart for the city of Galveston. It was four little words that did it: “Galveston is the place.” Josh described it as the “clearest voice I had ever heard." He went home and told his wife, Danielle, who was at home with their two year old daughter Zoe. The Dorrells packed up and found themselves in Galveston that very same weekend.

Armed with a 3 year start up grant from Christian Mission Concerns, they hit ground running. The Dorrells moved into the North Broadway neighborhood, one of the communities hardest hit by Hurricane Ike, and began just doing life with their neighbors. In addition to doing disaster recovery for a short season, the Dorrells organized street camps for the neighborhood kids, and Josh even took a job at Wright Cuney, the local community rec center. Having been part of Mission Waco with his parents Jimmy and Janet Dorrell, Josh knew that in order to affect real change, his neighbors needed to be a part of the solution. So he began interviewing everyone he came across, asking them “how can we make this neighborhood we love better?” The answers came pouring in, but three answers seemed to out shine the rest: after-school programs for kids, mentoring programs for youth, and adult job training. From these needs Galveston Urban Ministries was born.