Who, When, and why DOLLS
It was 2004 and our organization’s founder, Gale Carter, was starting her junior year at Texas State University. Having not been raised in a church-going home herself, God pricked her heart with the Truth of Jesus Christ by way of a youth ministry at a church in the town where she grew up. It was during her time in college that Gale began to feel a heavy burden for those teenagers who did not have the advantage of growing up in a home where the Good News was taught. She began to ask God, “How can we get this knowledge to them? Where are they, God?” The answer was clear. They were in the schools;
Hundreds and thousands of lost and perishing young people, just like she used to be, wandering the halls of public school campuses across the country. The where had been answered.
At the same time, the Lord had simultaneously led Gale to the fellowship of a Christian organization on her campus called Sigma Phi Lambda. During her involvement with this ministry, Gale noticed a profound thing happening. She was learning and understanding God at a level she had never before experienced. She believed a huge factor in her new understanding had much to do with the fact that it was an all-female environment, void of the distraction of cute boys.
Now, before you go judging our founder, face the facts; teen girls are obsessed with boys. Take them out of the picture and you have effectively removed a HUGE portion of that which so easily entangles girls during this ripe, young age. In its place, room is left to focus on the things of God.
Gale found herself surrounded, instead, by other God-fearing women who were modeling for her what it looked like to be a young adult in love with Jesus. That’s discipleship. And that was where God burst through into Gale’s heart and mind, connected all the puzzle pieces, and began whispering His vision for what would one day become Daughters of Our Living Lord & Savior.
Gale soon after added a teaching certification to the Communications degree she was already pursuing with the goal of becoming a teacher to “infiltrate the system.” Upon graduation, she received a teaching position as a theatre director at a middle school in Allen, TX. During her first year of teaching, the Lord connected her with five beautiful young ladies who were deeply mature in their faith named Karis Vaughter, Caitlyn Herres, Natalie Kelly, Elizabeth Mize, and Abby Humphrey. These girls became the first team of student officers in the organization’s history.
After enduring 7-months of push-back from the school district and campus administration, the first official DOLLS meeting finally took place in mid-April of 2006. In 2010, God blessed our organization with an attorney who helped us secure our legal incorporation. Our founding Board of Directors was comprised of three incredible ladies named Tiffany Willingham, Andrea Taylor, and Gale Carter. Our newly incorporated status then allowed us to achieve our 501 c (3) nonprofit status in 2011, permitting us to take public donations to support our cause. We have since spread into nearly a dozen schools in the North Dallas region. In 2014 we will be blessed with our first physical office location which has enabled us to perform ministry at an entirely new level. The stories of God’s favor and provision are endless.
Over the years, we have seen God do incredible things through this organization in the lives of our members. Many students have initiated, for the first time, a relationship with Christ. Many others have fallen more deeply in love with their Savior. Young leaders have been empowered and sent out to live lives of influence. Each year, more and more campuses are lining up to be a part of the things God is using this ministry to accomplish. Teenage girls from across the Metroplex are finding out about this revolution of young women of faith who refuse to sit idly by as those around them perish. We have only just begun! To God be the Glory!