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CHAPLAIN JOSIE DEAN - BOUNDARY BREAKERS MENTOR

I started volunteering for church services at Black Canyon School for Girls on July 20, 2001. Along with other volunteers, I helped hold Sunday evening church services for a total of four hours a month. Then, in 2005, I teamed up with Athletes International Ministries (AIM) to hold additional church services at the school. I also became involved with AIM's Christmas concerts and special pro athletes ministry at the Black Canyon School. In addition to ministry at the Black Canyon School, I helped with AIM's church services at the Adobe Mountain School for Boys, Church On The Street, and the Boundary Breakers Christmas party for homeless children at Church On The Street.

In March of 2005, I completed chaplaincy training at the Southwest School of Chaplaincy at Grace Community Church in Scottsdale. I have been a mentor at Black Canyon School for Girls since 2004. I've attended continuing offsite mentors network training classes under the direction of Kathy Twitchell. Under the sponsorship of Kathy Twitchell, I completed Tres Dias, a three day non-denominational spiritual retreat in April of 2009. I continue to team up with inter-denominational Chayah Ministry to serve with their various special functions such as the candlelight service, Christmas day activities, etc. I also serve under Chaplain Rose Martin, Volunteer Coordinator for the Black Canyon School, to assist with internal needs and donations for the young men and women at the Black Canyon School and Adobe Mountain School.

My experiences as a mentor at the Black Canyon School have been extremely rewarding. Each time I have been there, God has placed the right young girl in my path for me to minister to. We also bring them food and drinks. We talk about our experiences, laugh together, cry together, share our goals, and pray together. Each of them has a very special place in my heart and prayers. I have had the opportunity to mentor girls of all faiths from different walks of life. I have taken an active role on family night, filling a void for the girls who don't have family visitation. I've also assisted Veronica Maguire and other mentors when their schedules or personal travel have not allowed them to make it to a particular appointment with one of their mentees. I've also had the opportunity to help the girls I have mentored after they leave the Black Canyon facility, by assisting them with personal expenses, personal need items, and a safe place to stay. Our primary goal is to pray, and take action to help when it is needed to supply those we help with resources and contacts for their educational and emergency needs.

One girl I helped received an award for "Most Spiritually Improved" at a special ceremony. She was one of many examples of what God has done in these young lives, and I believe she will succeed in continuing to grow in her faith. My husband and I have spent time with her by driving her and her mother to church, and to her mother's group home for Thanksgiving dinner and a group home graduation ceremony. I've also had the chance to take this particular mentee on shopping trips, and to lunch and dinner. Working with this particular girl has opened the door for me to spend time with her mother as well.

Having grown up in a dysfunctional family myself, I can relate to the pain in their lives. I truly believe that these young men and women can be reached and have their lives changed through prayer, love, and compassion. I take a personally active role in helping because I know God has put me here in this time and place to do so. I seek to bring hope for young men and women so they can know for themselves that the Lord Jesus Christ has a plan and a positive future for them. I want them to know that they too can become future role models themselves, and a positive force within their families and communities.

I currently attend Calvary Church of the Valley. I am married to a wonderful man who is my inspiration and the wind beneath my wings. I have three children and am blessed with nine grandchildren. I became a Christian at nine years old. God blessed me with two wonderful Christian mothers and mentors, who spiritually guided me with a lot of love, compassion, prayer, and patience. Both were named Mrs. Smith. One was my best friend Maxine's mother, and the other was a pastor at a small Pentecostal church.

I am continuing to work. in spiritual unity with Director John E. Williams and Boundary Breakers to take an ongoing active role in the local community, churches, and the Black Canyon and Adobe Mountain schools to provide faith-based education, prayer and spiritual guidance to those in need. It has brought me great joy to see others joining us under the same vision to futher the Great Commission under the banner of Boundary Breakers.

Personal Mission Statement: I seek to bring encouragement, hope, faith, love and compassion through our Lord Jesus Christ to a young generation that needs spiritual and personal guidance without judgement or condemnation. I work to offer them a listening ear, to speak truth into their lives, and to love and be there in their time of need, for their safety and well being.

Psalm 71:17-19, NASB "O God, You have taught me from my youth, and I still declare Your wondrous deeds.
And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me
Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your Power to all who are to come.
For your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens.
You who have done great things, O God.
Who is like you?