Volunteer coordinator: How I got my job and where I'm going

So, how I got my job at City Team, I came here to do missions work. And the organization I was working with, Center for Student Missions, we volunteered with City Team, and I loved it. Eventually I started coming out and volunteering on my own. When I was volunteering on my own, as my internship was ending, City Team just so happened to have an opening. I was talking to the director and he told me to apply. The things they told me that stuck out in my interview were I had experience working with people for drug and recovery, I had experience working with homeless people, I had experience working with people who were just out in the streets, or doing things that were harming themselves. That was one of the things. You do have to be Christian, to work for City Team, so that was a plus. You have to tell your story, how you came to find God, you have to have your pastor or whoever it is under or over you, to kind of refer you to the program, and you have to have references that they speak to to know that your heart aligns with what you're trying to do. So yeah, those are some of the basics that you'll have to have for working for City Team. And I think they wanted probably, like, two years of experience with administrative work as well. Well, according to my mom, I've always had a heart for serving the homeless and the poor. Apparently, since I was a little kid, I would, if I got money, and I saw someone asking for money on the street, I would give them my money, or I'd give them some of my money. So, it's pretty much always been in me. However, when I got to college, I kind of went in for money. I went in originally trying to be a behavioral psychologist, and then I talked to my advisor, and I found out how little they make, and I was like, "Nope, that is not for me." So, I switched over and was like, I think I'm gonna do pharmacy, I love science, I love chemistry, this is going to work. So I kind of changed paths there. Graduated, started studying for the PCAT, got a job at a pharmacy, and loved my job at the pharmacy, but something in me was missing. I felt like I was not doing what I was supposed to be doing, so I stopped, and I kind of was like, all right God, what is it that you need me to do? Kind of prayed about it, held back for a while, continued working at the pharmacy, even though I felt like it wasn't something that I was supposed to be doing, which was weird 'cause I loved it. And then something in me was like, go for seminary. And I was like, seminary, I don't wanna go to seminary, I don't wanna be a preacher or pastor, why would I go to seminary? I ended up applying, and then learned about the different avenues that you can take in seminary, and I was like, I'm gonna be a chaplain, because I can still make money, and I can be comfortable doing that. And it didn't... I realized that that wasn't my calling either. I think it's something that I still love to do, I'm passionate about it, by my true calling is doing missions work. It felt like a joy when I came and did my internship, and was able to serve the community, and that's when I realized this is what I'm called to do. I am doing a master's in divinity with a concentration in pastoral counseling. We take several counseling classes, marriage and family counseling, crisis counseling, drug and addition counseling. So, my degree is not only equipping me to help people for City Team, but it's also equipping me to help the men and women who serve in the military as well. That add-on for pastoral counseling took it from a four to four and a half year program, to a five year program. So, that is what I'm doing now. I would like to see myself growing in the company that I am in right now. I love City Team, and I would just like to either be a director for one of the cities, which means, you're kind of over that city, you kind of are the person who brings in the donations, and you oversee everything that is done in the city. And you try to make sure the guys are comfortable, as well as everyone else, the people that you work for, or that work under you, and the people in the area. So your job pretty much is to make sure that donations are being used as we're saying they're being used, and that the people in our program are graduating and becoming successful, and the people on the streets are being taken care of. So that would be a job that I would be interested in for City Team. Or I would like to be able to be a part of the disciple-making movement. It's important to get people to know and have a relationship with God for who He is, and who they are, and understand it from their lens. I'm definitely interested in being a part-time chaplain, which is for the reserves, for the Air Force. You have to pray for patience, (laughs) you have to pray to make sure you're doing what it is that you're supposed to be doing. And you have to make sure you're equipped mentally, and spiritually, and physically, for this job. It could be lonely sometimes, and sometimes it could be stressful, because you come in thinking that you're going to save the world, and you're not, necessarily. And you have to be okay with that, that your job is really just taking it one day at a time, and doing the best you can do in that period of time. So yeah, I would definitely say come to peace with the fact that you're not going to save the world, but you are going to save some people, and you're going to change the lives of some.