Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Living Lent: Lauren Lee


Living Lent: Answering the Call to Love and Serve the City

Throughout the 2012 Lenten season, we will be highlighting a few of CSM's wonderful staff team members and asking the question "Why do you work for CSM?" This week, we introduce Lauren Lee, CSM New York City Staff.



Being a new staff member for CSM was quite intimidating. I knew a lot about the organization, the mission, and the purpose of CSM. It was quite overwhelming to finally be on the other side of the door and see the amount of work everyone puts into this ministry. I am grateful for the leadership of my City Director, Tracee; for the New York City Associate City Director, Jami, who spends ALL her time managing the schedules; and for our amazing hosts, Emily and Aubrey, who lead the serving groups around the city. I am excited for my new role as “City Staff”! I will be handling the grocery shopping (for LOTS of people), making copies, running errands, trying out new restaurants, building relationships with our ministry sites, getting lost in the subways, and occasionally hosting (and much more!)

I recently hosted a CSM group for the first time and it gave me a whole new perspective for this ministry. The group traveled all the way to CSM New York from Tennessee. We made an instant connection and warmed up to each other very quickly. We went on a prayer tour of the city, served at different ministry sites, built relationships with different folks in the community, did some more praying, spent some time debriefing all that we learned, laughed a lot, enjoyed our free time, but what moved me the most was our sharing time on the group’s last night with us.

Each trip participant shared how they served God during the week. During that time, one of the members of my serving group shared the most intense and heartbreaking story of abuse in their past. After that, one after another, people started to share their burdens, life struggles, and heartaches with the group, and one after another, we prayed for healing, while giving praises to our Lord! A stressful week became a heartfelt night of tears (of both sadness and joy) and healing.

This one night reminded me why I chose this job – God has simply just grabbed hold of my heart for the people in NYC. I’m honored to be working for CSM and feel so privileged to serve under the leadership of Tracee and Jami. I love my job because I get to interact with different people around the city but also, being able to see lives transformed in the renewal of our Lord Jesus Christ, is just simply humbling.   
           



Learn how YOU can serve with CSM in New York City!

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