MD Guard Chaplain Honored for Really Caring

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] The American Baptist Home Mission Society bestowed their highest honor to a Maryland National Guard Chaplain who has dedicated his career to serving those in need.

Chaplain Col. William Sean Lee, Joint Force Headquarters chaplain for the state of Maryland and co-pastor with his wife of Calvary Baptist Church, Towson, Md. received the Lorraine K. Poter Military Chaplaincy Merit Award for faithful and effective pastoral and spiritual care in a July 2 ceremony in Portland Oregon.

Lee was selected from all other military chaplains affiliated with the American Baptist Church and said the award was a total surprise and very reaffirming on a number of levels.

“I wasn’t expecting it,” said Lee. “Next year I finish up [serving in the military] after 39 years and it was like God saying well done good faithful servant.”

The American Baptist Church has about 600 endorsed chaplains nationwide and identified Chaplain Lee as from a list of distinguished nominees nationwide.

“We believe that your work and witness epitomizes the life and spirit of the award as you have strengthened and nurtured military personnel in an exemplary way,” reads the award citation letter.

While serving as the Maryland National Guard State Chaplain, Lee created Partners in Care, which assists left-behind family members with chores and household repairs, which was one of the persuading factors considered by the board of directors.

The Maryland National Guard’s Partners in Care initiative matches Maryland National Guard members, in need of support, with local religious congregations and will now lend spiritual support to a multi-faceted assistance initiative helping the DOD to aid service members in need and has been adopted nationwide.

“They really like the bridge I have with the community,” said Lee. “The Guard is community.”

After nearly four decades of selfless service to the nation, the military and the community around him, Chaplain Lee remains humble about his long list of accomplishments and he hopes Soldiers remember that his heart was always in it.

“I’d like Soldiers to smile and say Chaplain Lee … he’s a guy you can always go to and he really really cared,” said Lee.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]