Heat Wave

On Friday afternoons at the City Mission a weekly Chapel service is held in the back of the community dining center. With the recent increase in temperature, the doors are held wide open, inviting in as much breeze as possible.

However, it is not just hot air and the occasional gust of wind that passes through the doorway. Recently, there has been the steady and buoyant movement of song and melody, a sound that is nothing short of uplifting and transformative in this dry and overheated season.

The music comes from the residents of both the men’s shelter and the women’s Family Life Center, both housed on the City Mission campus in downtown Schenectady. This past Friday the Chapel service featured the women, with a selection of songs, which they share every morning during their devotional time “Cultivating Community.”

Community was surely cultivated during the afternoon service, with not a single empty seat or frowning face evident in the crowd. As the women sang, hands clapped to the rhythm of older Gospel tunes claiming “Victory is Mine” and more contemporary Christian music like Britt Nicole’s “Walk on the Water.”

“You look around and everywhere you turn, another wave of doubt will pull you under. You wonder, what if I’m overtaken? What if I never make it? What if there’s no one there? Will you hear my prayer?”

These are the questions that the residents of the City Mission ask each and every day. Regardless of whether it’s a one night emergency stay or a year-long commitment to the Mission’s Freedom Academy discipleship program, there is overwhelming doubt and insecurity in the minds and hearts of those that enter the City Mission doors.

But then there are the stories of women like Stephanie*, who spoke at Friday’s Chapel service. During her testimony, Stephanie shared that she experienced a great deal of loss during her childhood, including her mother leaving her for prison bars when Stephanie was ten years old. It’s hard to blame her for turning to alcohol to numb the pain of having been left behind, time and again.

But Stephanie doesn’t turn to alcohol anymore. In fact, she just graduated from St. Peter’s Addiction Recovery Center, having been sober for the better part of a year. Stephanie acknowledges that she is still a work in progress, but she also knows that with a growing relationship with God, she doesn’t have to endure life’s hardships alone.

Friday ended with a Fourth of July picnic at the Misson’s Davis Pavilion on Hamilton Street. Watermelon, hamburgers, and hotdogs were passed around as staff and residents mingled in the shade. If Thanksgiving were a summer holiday, this would be the day to celebrate.

*Name has been changed to protect the privacy of the individual.