Jimmy and Janet Dorrell

Transcript

Derek Smith:
Hello, and welcome to Baylor Connections, a conversation series with the people shaping our future. Each week, we go in depth with Baylor Leaders, professors, and more, discussing important topics in higher education, research and student life. I'm Derek Smith, and today we are talking about the legendary Waco organization, Mission Waco and Mission World, with Jimmy and Janet Dorrell. Jimmy and Janet Dorrell are the co-founders of Mission Waco and Mission World, and are the 2024 recipients of Baylor's Pro Ecclesia Medal of Service.
Mission Waco was created to build a Christian-based, relationship-focused programs to empower the poor and marginalized, equip middle class Americans to become more compassionately involved among the poor, and engage individuals in communities to overcome systemic issues of social injustice which oppressed the poor and marginalized. Jimmy serves as President Emeritus of the organization and is pastor at Church Under the Bridge. Janet serves as Director of Mission World. The organizations have served generations in Waco and far beyond and equipped countless others to serve around the world.
Jimmy and Janet are both Baylor graduates. They met at Baylor and earned their bachelor's and master's degrees from the university, and they're with us today on the program. Janet, Jimmy, thanks so much for joining us. It's really a pleasure to have you with us and thanks for taking the time to share with us today.

Janet Dorrell:
Thank you.

Jimmy Dorrell:
Yeah, we're glad to be here.

Janet Dorrell:
It's fun to be on the radio.

Derek Smith:
Yeah, it's fun to have you here and talk about what you do. I know that there's going to be a lot of Baylor alumni who have served with you, who will hopefully enjoy hearing this conversation or have just been a part of what you do.
So, just to start this off here, let's talk about the idea of neighbors. We talk a lot about the Bible, of serving our neighbors, those around us. So I'm curious for you both, Jimmy, I'll start with you. How has a neighbor here in Waco blessed you or put a smile on your face in recent weeks?

Jimmy Dorrell:
The neighborhood we live in by choice is a lower income neighborhood, and so when people a lot of times think of neighbors, they think of nice, pretty suburban neighborhoods, but we're in a very visible place where people are around on the streets. They're across the street talking out because there's no air conditioning or they're in a lawn chair somewhere. So we have that privilege to visit with a lot of people all the time, and there is the loudness and also the joy of that.
So there's a guy named David Daniels, who's been a friend of mine in the neighborhood for probably 30 years and works at the Jubilee Food Market, and just about every day David and I talk about something and engaged it, but he goes to Church Under the Bridge and all these issues. So we just laugh a lot and enjoy each other and have great respect for one another. He grew up in a completely different culture than me and he sees me as his pastor, but I'm just Jimmy, we don't do the religious outward stuff, we just are friends.

Derek Smith:
That's great. What about you, Janet?

Janet Dorrell:
I have a miniature horse and it lives across the street from me and I have a good friend that helps me take care of her when I have to travel. So, he gives her apples or carrots most every day because that's her favorite food. And two weeks ago he rang the doorbell and brought over a beautiful roast with potatoes and carrots and he said, "Here, this is for your dinner tonight." It was just so sweet, I don't know that people get that-

Derek Smith:
That's wonderful.

Janet Dorrell:
... kind of love. He's a good cook and he doesn't usually have a lot to share, but he loves to share. So it's really sweet, really sweet.

Derek Smith:
That's wonderful. Now I do have to ask you, I don't know if we were expected to talk about miniature horses on the program today. How long have you had the miniature horse and what is its name?

Janet Dorrell:
Her name is Magic and she's four years old. I got her just after she was weaned, and she is a neighborhood mainstay because people will drive by her fence. And there's two places, she's on a corner, and you can yell out, "Hey, Magic," and she'll go... I mean, on cue, on cue. And she walks the neighborhood with me and lots of our neighbors, they don't have teeth or they have false teeth, and so but they get apples and carrots and they save up their apples and carrots and give them to her and they can't wait for her to come and visit.

Derek Smith:
That's great.

Jimmy Dorrell:
On more than one occasion, I've looked out the window and Janet is walking down the street with three or four children, low income kids behind her, and it looks like a parade. So, Magic and Janet are very popular.

Janet Dorrell:
Mm-hmm.

Derek Smith:
Well, that's great, I didn't know that.

Janet Dorrell:
[inaudible 00:04:54].

Derek Smith:
So, that means something we learned. Yeah, well, we'll keep an eye out if people are traveling in the neighborhood or visiting there, as we visit with Jimmy and Janet Dorrell.
So, I gave a brief description. I think a lot of people throughout the Baylor family are familiar with Mission Waco and now Mission Waco, Mission World, but for those who aren't or maybe their understanding is incomplete, could you both kind of share with us, Jimmy, I'll start with you, what Mission Waco and Mission World are all about?

Jimmy Dorrell:
Well, the history is about what we are. We grew up middle class America like most, came to Baylor and eventually we met, I went to work at the state home a while after I'd youth directed for four years here in Waco, and it was a whole different culture of kids that were broken in so many ways. And so I began to rethink who I was and how I looked at my calling in life. Janet eventually became a volunteer there, and so she bought into that and we eventually got married.
And then eventually over time, we moved to Houston for a while, but then we traveled the world and we spent four and a half months literally traveling around the world among the poor, being among the poor and volunteering. And it so shaped our worldview that we thought we can't go back to middle class America. And so we moved into what had been a middle class neighborhood in Waco years before, but as racialization and all the issues of economics and color mattered to people, as the blacks moved across the river, the white flight happened to the suburbs, and this particular neighborhood really flipped and it became an all African-American neighborhood, mostly poor, a lot of tenants and crammed into different houses.
So we bought this old house 47 years ago and it was a mess, and moved in and it was in the midst of moving in that our worldview continued to develop. So we didn't go down there to start Mission Waco, we went down there to become a neighbor and it was the relationships that changed us. And when we built a basketball court on our property because no kids had any place to play, they came and Janet got to know the mamas, we got to know the children and the teens.
And over the years, literally several years, I had another job for a period of time, and we created Mission Waco out of the relational stuff. So it's a bottom up mindset, we didn't think in terms of, we got something we don't go do for those people, it was listening and then they would ask questions like, hey, my husband needs a job, can you help? And so we'd create a job training program. Or, my uncle's own crack cocaine, but there's nowhere for poor people to go to get recovery, so we would create a recovery program. So everything that has been done through these many years was just the next step.

Derek Smith:
So you saw a need, worked to build it, and one day the organization just sort of was what it was.

Jimmy Dorrell:
It was, that's right.

Derek Smith:
Yeah, wow, and then Mission World, Janet, I know you're Director of Mission World. When did that come about and how does that expand that focus?

Janet Dorrell:
When we traveled around the world, I think I was 23 years old, and I think my heart was broken for poverty and also the injustice that I just was witnessing just being kind of a tourist. And caring about women that were in persecution or having to swallow injustice every morning, became something that was real heavy on my heart.
Moving to the neighborhood in Waco, those same kinds of injustices can be seen if you're looking for those. And so I can... A lot of times I'll see invisible things, things that other people maybe don't necessarily see.
So Mission World has always been a part of Mission Waco, and what makes that powerful is that the people and the women, the friends, the neighbors, they're brought into hearing about the injustice in Haiti. If I go there, they want to know about the trip when I get back. Sometimes we'll be under the bridge and some of the guys will find out I'm going to India and they'll use some of their drinking money and put it in my pocket and say, "Feed some hungry kids." It gives people a place to give and be a part of something else bigger than themselves. So that's why the powerful love of the church and the togetherness changes that.
When people hear about Church Under the Bridge, that we work under a bridge, that we meet under a bridge, in India or in Haiti, it kind of blows their mind because a lot of times that's not what they think about a US American church. So it changes how they see what we're bringing, what we're wanting them to see about the kingdom of God, because the kingdom of God's not a building. The kingdom of God is the people and the kingdom of God, people can be anywhere at any time, not just on Sunday to serve and to be a part of something.
So, I've incorporated Church Under the Bridge to be a part of prayer teams and for long periods of time, like two and a half years of praying for something specific and just believing that God was going to answer and he does.

Derek Smith:
And Church Under the Bridge, when did you start that? How long has it been a part of things here in Waco?

Jimmy Dorrell:
It grew out of our relationships in the neighborhood, it's literally almost the same years. It was six months after Mission Waco started in 1992, that Janet and I were having breakfast at Taco Cobana across from the interstate and looked across and saw the people living under that Interstate 35 bridge. And we said we don't understand homelessness, let's go invite them to breakfast. And so we walked across the street and five or six of them came with us. We bought their breakfast and just talked for the next couple of hours. Again, everything is relational for us, so we found out about their horrible past and their abuse and the neglect and the alcoholism and in and out of county jail. And so we did that for three weeks.
I kept buying breakfast and the more people kept coming and it got more expensive, so we said we can't keep doing it this way. And they said, well, why don't you come under the bridge and lead a Bible study for us? And so we went, Janet sings and plays the guitar, and so we went down probably in September of that same year after Mission Waco had started, and it was really fun and they said, come back and we did. And we've been coming back now for 32 years. So it's been just a natural thing to see it now grow from six or seven folks to about 225, 250 people.

Derek Smith:
Wow. This is Baylor Connections, we are visiting with Jimmy and Janet Dorrell, co-founders of Mission Waco, Mission World, and the 2024 recipients of Baylor's Pro Ecclesia Medal of Service.
When we talk about Mission Waco, you talk a lot about service to the poor and marginalized, and I think sometimes those terms can mean different things to different people or can get boiled down to an experience or a statistic. So I'd like to talk about that through your eyes a little bit, and Janet, let's start with you. When we talk about the poor and the marginalized, how have you come to know individuals and what have you come to know about individuals to whom those terms could be applied?

Janet Dorrell:
In the bigger world, if I was describing that in Haiti, it would be described as women who stretch every grain of rice and every bean to feed however many children are in her little sphere. She gets exploited with the little business maybe that she does, she tries to sell vegetables or she made decide to sell hair barrettes or ribbons or something, and if she doesn't understand how math works, she gets taken advantage of. So there's the injustice a part of when there's poverty, there's also maybe lack of education or there is lack of ability to become who you were created to be, that bigger purpose of as a woman, as a mom, as a community member. If I was discussing it in India, it would be describing a nomadic group of women who are stuck in one little small, maybe 24, 25 people, extended family without education, can't read. Spend, first one up, last one to go to bed, last one to eat. She's very thin and doesn't have enough nutrition. And so underneath her eyes, there's dark circles from lack of iron and lack of protein.
To me, those are injustices that happen because people are either in poverty and also marginalized. That group of people would be Islamic, and so they're living as a minority among Hindu population or maybe few Buddhist, and they would be a minority among the mainstream Islamic group. So, those kind of things to me, I see and love to be a part of to see if there's ways that that could improve. Could this change? Could these girls get some kind of education that could prepare them for being able to go to school? Do they always have to have buffalo or would they be able to have some other choice? So if you don't have choices, to me, that seems, that's poverty to me. Lack of possessions isn't what I would describe that as. It's people that don't have a lot of stuff, is not poverty to me. It is the lack of choices, it's the lack of freedom, it is, you are stuck. In fact, it's almost like you're in prison, you can't get out unless somebody advocates for you.

Jimmy Dorrell:
Statistically in the world, if you make less than a $1.90 a day, you're considered poor. United States, it's a different framework. The average family today of four, income is around $28,000 or less. If you make less than that, you're considered poor by American standards. But as Janet said, and I completely agree, it's the marginalization of the poor. A lot of our families, grandmamas and others, people back there, they lived in poverty at some level, but they still had healthy families and choices.
The people we tend to look at are usually on the edges. They may be struggling with an addiction, they may be in and out of county jail, they may be mentally ill. Those are the folks that typically are pushed to the edges, and at Church Under the Bridge for example, we have many... we have a guy who thinks he's Jesus. He's schizophrenic and he can't not think the way he thinks. Well, he's rejected everywhere he goes, but at Church Under the Bridge, it's okay for him to be there and if he says something out loud, that's okay. We're around people who are struggling with different disabilities and nobody knows what to do about that, but loving people first is what matters.
And then we are connected some, even to Baylor more and more now, with the disabilities people here on campus and trying to work through some of these tough issues. We have vans that we bought specifically so we could pick up wheelchair people, because a lot of times they don't get to go to church. So our whole focus is those on the edges and we love having middle class people come and they do, but they're not the priority. And so we're going to make sure that the person who doesn't speak well gets to pray, or somebody that sings really badly still gets to sing, because everybody's important. And it's that sense of valuing people that both of us understand, whether it be local or global, that gives people a sense of self-esteem and valued and the love of God begins to be heard in a different way.

Derek Smith:
How much does what the Bible has to say about the poor and marginalized impact the work you do?

Jimmy Dorrell:
It's everywhere. I think there are more Bible verses about wealth and poverty than there is about heaven and hell, but the average Christian doesn't hear that in the church. We read those particular passages sometimes at Christmas or different holidays, but it is a major theme of the scripture. Jesus spent his time with the broken people, the demonic, the lady touching him when she's going through the streets, the people who were on the fringes, and the people he got onto were people like me, the Pharisees. We were the ones that had all the religious training and sat in church and nodded at the right time and sang the Christian song.
But when you really start looking at the kingdom of God, as we talked about, it is different than we have been told. And so we feel like we get to be a part of something that's so much more bigger than we are, and we think if anybody is a serious Bible reader, they're going to realize that Jesus still is the rich young ruler, go sell all you have and give it to the poor and come follow me. Those are horrible verses. We don't want to hear those kind of verses, but they're there. And so instead of rejecting the power of the challenges of our lifestyle because it makes us uncomfortable and we stay with people who are like us so we can feel more comfortable, we invite them to come out of those shells and come be a part of a broken world and find out, it's so fun. We would never go back to that world that we came from because it's so much more meaningful and we hear the kingdom of God in ways that most people don't get to.

Derek Smith:
Janet, when you think about the people you've got to live and serve among, how has that impacted your own faith?

Janet Dorrell:
The people that I get to spend time with are colorful, and have a different vocabulary, and the way they describe life pushes me to see life through their eyes and it keeps me from being bored with life, because to show up and to have someone else speak about their need for food, how it happened, who they're caring for, what traumas they've been through their life, and then to see them go out and give something just extra of whatever they have, is a beautiful thing. To be able to be with someone who has very little to give and to be around them as they give more, is powerful for me.
My kids were very good at collecting unique and interesting vocabulary, children, and they would bring them home. And there were times when I was not real excited about loving the children that they would bring home, and yet my kids fell in love with kids that were needy. And so my own children pushed me to love deeper and wider, and that has been a powerful thing. I've loved having our children be in the neighborhoods where we have lived and I've loved having them travel with us and to share those experiences, and for them to see it with childlike eyes. I mean, I was 21 years old when I moved into the neighborhood, but to see children growing up in that and to see that they didn't have the prejudices that I had been taught, and so I relived my childhood through my children being in the neighborhood that we've been in and also the traveling. Traveling to other places, they were remarkable partners to be with.

Jimmy Dorrell:
I think what Janet said is worth repeating again, about sometimes we see the very opposite. People think we go down to do all this for them, but so much more comes back. A few months ago, a lady was walking toward me. She was clearly, she was a racial minority, she looked poor, dressed poor, and as she was coming toward me, I thought, this bum was going to ask me for money. When she came up to me, she handed me $20 and said, "Here, use this for somebody who really needs it."

Derek Smith:
Wow.

Jimmy Dorrell:
We see those kinds of things all the time. It's the upside down kingdom of God. It's the people who have the least that are sometimes more generous than we are, are more capable of loving people across the spectrum of the rejection in our culture. So we get blessed. It's not a matter of just saying, look what we're doing, and please don't produce it that way. We don't want us to be the heroes, we get to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Derek Smith:
Well in fact, as we talk about the concept, you all won the Pro Ecclesia Medal of Service. I imagine you would say that's really a whole lot of people, Baylor students, volunteers from the community and around the world probably, that play a bigger role, maybe even than you all have.

Jimmy Dorrell:
It is, and just this weekend we brought back 35 or 40 Baylor kids who are now 50 years old or older, that helped us start Church Under the Bridge and Mission Waco. That we were in the neighborhood, some of them, we've had 62 of those students live with us through the year, came and lived in our big old house, and they got involved in doing our children's clubs and the housing projects. And so these students that were 18 and 19 and years old back then, got it, and they would come back and work on their pre-med degree at the same time, go to Stella Maxine Housing projects that afternoon. And so we kept up with them through the years and we just spent three and a half days with them, incredible weekend of how that shaped their lives as they continue to live out this history that they have that most students don't have.

Derek Smith:
That's wonderful. Well, as we close, Mission Waco, Mission World, it's grown a lot over the 30-plus years. As you look forward, question for both of you, what do you see on the horizon? What excites you to continue to grow this work you're doing?

Jimmy Dorrell:
Well for me, I think we'll do this till we die. I am now retired from Mission Waco, I'm still engaged and around. We've done a couple of projects, working on a tiny home village right now for the homeless. Jubilee Food Market was a nonprofit grocery store in a food desert. Those things are still in the edges of what we do, but most of my time now is with Church Under the Bridge, and we'll leave this Tuesday for Mexico City to go work in an orphanage for physically and mentally disabled children. We've been down there 30 something years, we'll take people with us. So our goal is to live out what we already do and know, and try to train people as we go that will take our places as we one day say, that's it.

Derek Smith:
Anything to add to that, Janet?

Janet Dorrell:
In Haiti and India, my goal is to empower them to be able to continue the work even after I'm dead. So that investing in them, creating the organizations, providing the funding that they have to do to be able to continue on. We've got about 15 staff partners in Haiti and about 21 in India. So encouraging them, empowering them, teaching them, getting them the training they need to keep going.

Derek Smith:
It's fun to see it grow and I know it will continue to do so. Well, Janet, Jimmy, thanks so much for taking the time to join us today, for taking us inside the work that is ongoing here, and we're excited to see what's ahead. So, thank you so much.

Jimmy Dorrell:
Thank you.

Janet Dorrell:
You're welcome.

Derek Smith:
Wonderful to have you both. Jimmy and Janet Dorrell, co-founders of Mission Waco and Mission World, and the 2024 recipients of Baylor's Pro Ecclesia Medal of Service, our guests today on Baylor Connections. I'm Derek Smith, a reminder, you can hear this to other programs online at baylor.edu/connections and you can subscribe to the program on iTunes. Thanks for joining us here on Baylor Connections.