Resident Stories

"A Story of Love and Redemption"

June 29, 2023

A few months ago, Johnny, a former City Mission resident, traveled to Washington D.C., as an advocate for the homeless and low-income families, and spoke with a United States Senator about continued funding to help those in need. “It’s an honor to serve the homeless in this way,” Johnny said. He is the only advocate from Washington County who is a member of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition and the Pennsylvania Housing Alliance. “Four years ago, when I was sitting in a jail cell, I never thought I’d be in a US Senators’ office one day talking about the federal budget.” People can change. Johnny is living proof of that. Five years ago, his truck careened down the highway as he led police on a 63-mile car chase. His vehicle suddenly flipped over and crashed into the Ohio River Spillway. “God pulled me out of that truck,” Johnny said, recalling the terrifying moment. “That’s what saved my life. I know that may sound strange to some people. But it’s the only reason I’m still alive.” After he was captured by police, they took him to jail, and he was immediately drawn to the Bibles on the jail pod. He joined a Bible study group, and even when all the other guys fell away, he continued to wake up at 4:30 every morning to pray, read the Bible, and worship. “It just gave me this overwhelming peace that I’ve never known,” he explained. “It was really the first time I ever had a relationship with Christ.” The experience changed him. “I started to think for myself. I decided, no more drugs or gangs on the inside. And I just started changing. I started writing sermons and worship songs.” When he got out on parole in January of 2020, he came to City Mission, and he became a new person. Johnny was born and raised in and around Washington, PA, but he moved around a lot as a kid. “I’ve never lived in any one place more than two years, except for jail cells,” he explained. He and his brother were raised by a single mom. “She worked three jobs. She did the best she knew how to do,” he said. At age 6, he suffered childhood abuse, and he kept it a secret for 20 years. “I had a good life in some respects. I was never hungry. I always had clothes, but I had this secret,” he explained. “I never told anybody. I was too scared. One day, somebody asked me if I wanted to get high. I said sure. They were huffing gas. For a split second, I didn’t feel anything. All that fear was gone, and all I wanted was to be without fear.” He was eight years old. His life of addiction had already begun. He started huffing inhalants and abusing over-the-counter drugs. When he was just 10 years old, he went away to a mental hospital. He committed his first felony at 14. When he was 16, he dropped out of high school and moved into his own apartment near Washington & Jefferson College. He got a job and paid his rent and lived on his own. His life actually started to normalize a bit. Then, he met a girl and started drinking again. “I just thought I was normal. I was drinking, but everybody around me was drinking,” he said. “And I had a full-time job, so I didn’t think there was a problem. I didn’t understand addiction yet.” Then, when he was 18, he was in a horrific car wreck that left his entire lower body broken. He couldn’t work or even walk without assistance, so he moved back in with his mom. His then-girlfriend introduced him to some new drugs that helped him at the time to deal with the pain of his injuries, but his drug use created conflict with his mom. She kicked him out of the house as soon as he could walk again. “I deserved it,” he recalled. With nowhere to live, he moved in with his grandparents. When his grandmother, who had worked as a nurse at City Mission, passed away in 2006, Johnny moved to Florida. “I was just trying to run away from my problems,” he explained. He moved in with a cousin in Florida, but eventually, he wound up homeless. And in 2009, his addiction landed him in prison. He got out for 10 months and then went back to prison for another five years. In 2016, he got married and then moved to Florida with his family in 2018. He landed a great job. But it wasn’t long before he abandoned his wife, his two daughters, and his job to go get high. Once again, he ended up in prison. When he was finally paroled in 2020, he came to City Mission. It was early on in the Covid pandemic, and we were locked down to protect our residents. It was a difficult and isolating time for everybody, but for people in recovery, it was downright dangerous. When Johnny arrived, he poured himself into helping other people. “It was a rough on everybody,” he remembered. “I couldn’t see my kids. But I made sure we always had AA meetings running and that Zoom was always setup so people could join remotely. I made sure the women always had services on Wednesdays.” During that time, he also built a beautiful fountain behind the women’s shelter and planted rose bushes to help beautify the City Mission campus. The Mission turned out to be the perfect place for his recovery. The morning devotions, chapel services, and Bible studies stoked the fires of his newfound faith. The on-site recovery meetings helped him stabilize his addiction and find meaning and purpose in helping others. The Mission also connected him with a local therapist to address his childhood trauma and mental health issues. Since 2020, he has continued to stay clean, go to therapy, and take his medication. Additionally, the Mission provided a safe place for him to rebuild relationships with his wife and two daughters. And over time, he was able to reunify with his family. Today, they all live together, pray together, and worship together. Johnny has learned how to be the husband and father that they need. In September, Johnny and his wife will be renewing their vows. “My wife has endured,” he said. “Our story is a story of love and redemption, and together, that’s what we’re trying to give back to the world. God is guiding our family. All people are God’s people. So we just love everybody. All love, all ways—that’s our family motto.” When Johnny was preparing to move out of City Mission, he needed a job, so he connected with our Career Training and Education Center. He filled out 116 job applications before he finally got a job. “All people saw was who I was on paper. They couldn’t see beyond my past,” he explained. “But who I was when I was using and out on the street was completely different from who I ever was clean. I’ve never been violent. I was more of a coward than anything. Being at the Mission taught me how to be a man.” When he finally got his first job, there was much rejoicing at the Mission. At last, an employer saw who he was instead of who he used to be, and they gave him a chance to prove himself. It was a retail job, an industry he had zero experience in, but he worked there for just under a year before landing a job for an oil and gas company, where he worked there for one year, starting out as a shop hand and working his way up to valve technician, responsible for millions of dollars worth of inventory. Recently, City Mission hired Johnny as our new Work Readiness Coordinator. “I needed more fulfilment in my life,” he explained of his move to this new job at the Mission. “I love working in treatment. I love having the opportunity to just love people unconditionally until they can love themselves. God didn’t save my life and carry me through all these situations in my life for me to not give back and help others.” Johnny is a new man. He has a new life. He rebuilt relationships with his familiy. He surrounded himself with good people. He worked hard to make himself a better man, a better husband, a better father, a better son, a better friend to those in need. “City Mission saved my life,” Johnny said. “It taught me how to be a man so that I could in turn be the man for my family that they deserve. It taught me how to value myself and love myself and in turn helped me to love other people. City Mission not only saved my life, but they helped me put my family back together.” Give today to City Mission, and help residents like Johnny turn their lives around. Visit www.citymission.org

"Eternally Grateful"

May 17, 2023

Four years ago, Joe almost died. He was rushed by ambulance to the hospital. His pancreas was on the verge of exploding. The emergency room doctor told him if he had waited another day, he would be dead. “That was an eye opener for me to say the least,” Joe said. A week earlier, he got into a heated argument with the woman he was living with, so he left his home with nothing but the clothes on his back and all the cash he could carry. For the next week, he holed up in a hotel and nearly drank himself to death. “I probably would have, if I had more money,” he admitted. But he wasn’t exactly drinking liquor or beer. He was drinking mouthwash. The woman he was living with before he moved out had introduced him to drinking mouthwash, because it was so inexpensive and easy to access. “That was the beginning of my rock bottom,” Joe explained. After a weeklong bender at the hotel, he started feeling sick. The manager of the hotel took one look at him and called 9-1-1. “At the hospital, they took every fluid out of my body and tested it,” Joe recalled. Eventually, he was diagnosed with acute alcoholic pancreatitis and stayed in the hospital for seven days. After that, he checked into rehab…on his birthday. Ironically, it was on his eighteenth birthday, forty years earlier, when he took his first drink. He never had much adult supervision growing up. His parents were in their forties when he was born, so for the first three years of his life, he was raised by his older sister, who was only sixteen. His siblings were both grown and out of the house by the time he was in kindergarten, so he was raised for most of his life as an only child. “I was on my own for most of my life when I was growing up,” he explained. “It made me become very resourceful for myself. My parents didn’t want to be bothered, so I found my own way. And I found ways to entertain myself.” He worked hard at school and was a good kid, but when he turned eighteen, he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. He couldn’t afford college. So when his best friend showed up on the night of his birthday with a bottle of whiskey, he went along for the ride. They spent the night in a cave in the woods and got completely drunk. “That was my first step down the road to alcoholism,” he said. After graduation, Joe joined the Air Force and served a full term of active duty working in electronic communications, maintaining cryptographic equipment that scrambled and descrambled highly-confidential print messages and voice communications. To do this work, he had to gain top secret security clearances. “I could have walked into the White House and shook hands with the President if I wanted to,” Joe said. After the military, Joe floated through a host of other jobs including security at a college campus, being a mechanic at a quick oil change shop, a fabricator at a steel manufacturing plant, and a salesman for an insurance company. He also got married at one point. Tragically, his wife passed away from ovarian cancer only a few years into their marriage. All the while, Joe was using alcohol to escape the everyday problems and stressors of life. “I was basically killing myself for forty years,” he said of his alcoholism. “I felt like the alcohol helped me function, but in reality, it was hurting my functionality. I felt like I could do things better, but really it made things worse. It was hiding emotional pain – from my upbringing, from life in general, but it’s the aftermath of drinking where you pay for a few hours of feeling good. The problems you are trying to hide from are still there. The best way to deal with problems is to hit them head on.” After rehab, Joe finally decided to hit his problems head on. With nowhere else to go, he came to City Mission and lived for nearly four years at our Crabtree Kovacicek Veterans House. During that time, he transformed his life. He got himself sober and connected to veterans’ services. “City Mission gave me an opportunity to take a step back from the world, to concentrate on myself and get my life back together,” he said. “Get the mental health treatments I needed. Go to meetings. An opportunity to refect on myself and stop beating myself up like I was 40 years.” At our Veterans House, Joe was surrounded by men he could talk to who understood his struggles and could relate to his problems in ways he had never really experienced before. “I can discuss veteran problems with the guys here that other people just don’t understand,” he said. “And I feel a lot better about being a veteran now than I did before I got here.” In additional to case management, recovery services, and emotional and psychological support, City Mission helped him with the fundamentals of independent living, like getting his Driver’s License back. “That was a big step for me to independence,” he said. “I didn’t like having to count on other people to take me everywhere. Tomorrow, I’m even going to look for a car of my own.” The Mission also helped him get a job that he loves at a local manufacturing plant. “It’s the kind of work I was born to do,” he explained. “They like me, and I like them, and I like the work I’m doing.” Now, Joe is working on moving out on his own, but he will never forget what the Mission has done for him to turn his life around. “I am eternally grateful to the Mission for giving me the time and resources to get myself back together again,” he said. I’m not stuck in my past anymore. Now, I just focus on what I have to do next.” Joe is not alone. Nearly seven percent of Pennsylvania’s veterans live in poverty, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates there are nearly 1,000 homeless veterans in Pennsylvania alone – though the number is likely much higher, since veteran homelessness is complex and difficult to track. City Mission is proud to provide food, shelter, resources, and hope to those who served our country. They served us. Let’s serve them. If you are or know a veteran who is homeless or in need, please call City Mission at 724-222-8530. If you would like to donate to our ministry, please visit https://give.citymission.org/for/citmis/info/preheader

"Everything Changed for Me"

December 8, 2022

Earlier this week, Jeremiah moved out of the Mission and into his very own place. Staff and residents prayed him out on Monday. On Wednesday, he started his new job on the Residential Support Staff at City Mission. Jeremiah came to us in June of 2022 from the Washington County Jail and stayed with us for 183 days. During that time, he worked on his recovery and eventually became a Resident Assistant, assisting the City Mission staff and mentoring the new residents at the Mission. “I really think he found his self-worth here,” said Brad Nelson, City Mission’s intake coordinator. “He found the person who God intended him to be.” One of Jeremiah’s favorite memories from his time here is when he was asked to join a team of staff and residents to help represent City Mission in a local 4th of July Parade. “That was a lot of fun,” he said. “You know, I spent time in jail, and I just thought people were always going to look at me like a convict. But people were happy to see us that day – happy to see me. It helped me realize that people can look at me differently.” “This place is amazing,” he said about City Mission. “The employees actually care about you from the moment you walk through the door.” “Everything changed for me since I came here,” he added. “My whole outlook changed. For the first time, when I look in the mirror now, I don’t see a convict or a loser or someone who’s gonna amount to nothing. I feel like I have a future. This place made me love myself. I’ve never felt that before. And if I just keep doing what I learned here, there are no boundaries for me in my future. This place has just opened up so many opportunities for me to help people. It’s unbelievable!”

"I Was Completely Broken"

October 27, 2022

As a little girl, Suzanne witnessed her father abuse her mother, and it terrified her. "He would throw her down the stairs, then yell at me for crying," she recalls. Her parents eventually separated, but the damage was already done. By the time Suzanne was in high school, both she and her mother were using alcohol and drugs to numb their emotional pain.Suzanne moved away at 21, longing to leave her past behind. but she, too, fell into an abusive relationship. "You say you're not going to follow the pattern, but somehow you do."The couple had a little girl who struggled with health challenges, so Suzanne quit her job to stay home with her, leaving Suzanne even more at the mercy of her controlling partner. When the toxic environment threatened her daughter's safety, too, Suzanne knew they had to leave, but she had no resources and nowhere to go. So we welcomed mother and daughter into our program. After all she'd been through, Suzanne had buried her faith. But with the guidance of our Christ-devoted staff, it began to resurface. "I used to question God, but now I know He has a plan.' Through classes and counseling, she's learning to live a healthy lifestyle and maintain her sobriety. And we're providing resources for the next steps toward independent living, including housing and assistance with her daughter's special needs. "I'm definitely healing and making a lot of progress," she said. "The Mission does so much for everyone who walks in the door," Suzanned says today. Most importantly, it is giving her the tools and opportunity to become a godly mother and role model for her little girl, breaking the cycle of abuse and addiction.Suzanne is excited to celebrate the restored hope she has been given this Christmas, and she wants you to know just how grateful she is. "I'm thankful to the Mission, because they have truly given me back my life."

Breaking the Cycle

October 20, 2022

When Matt was growing up, things were rough at home. He had 10 brothers and sisters and a stepdad who was not a nice man. “He put his hands on me,” Matt said. “And he beat my Mom.” His family struggled to make ends meet and didn’t ever have enough money to buy him new clothes or new shoes. When he was ten, he even came to City Mission with his Mom and stayed here for a few months until they could get back on their feet. “We were bouncing around from house to house and from shelter to shelter,” he recalled. “I remember being here and playing on the playground and running through the hallways.” But things weren’t just bad at home, they were rough at school too. Because his family didn’t have the money to buy him new shoes or clothes, kids teased him relentlessly and looked down on him. So he acted up in school, which made things even more difficult. “I was bad in school,” he admitted. “Read bad.” His only safe place was on the football field, where he played nearly every position on both sides of the ball. “That was my safe spot,” he explained. “I was a violent person, and football was a chance to get all my anger out from the stuff that was happening at school and at home.” When he was a Freshman in high school, coaches from Ohio State University’s football team, came to school and pulled him out of class. “They told me if I could keep my grades up, I could play for them when I graduated,” he said. Unfortunately, Matt dropped out of high school before he could graduate, and he never got to go to college. When he was a teenager, he started running the streets and making money illegally to help support his family. “My Junior year, I was in the streets. I didn’t have time for school no more.” Eventually, he was expelled from public school and sent to a nearby alternative school. “I went there for one day and never went back,” he explained. “I didn’t like it. I couldn’t do what I wanted. They were very strict.” By the time he was 18, Matt was arrested and sent away to prison for two years. He got out when he was 20, but he was arrested again just 10 days later. He spent two more years in prison. While he was in prison, he earned his high school diploma. But it was a hard time. “It’s hard because you miss the people you love,” he explained. “It’s hard to be away from them for so long.” When he was about to leave prison, he had to establish a home plan before he could be released. And the prison denied all of his proposed plans. They were being careful, because the last time he got out, he ended up right back in prison. But he had nowhere to go, so he called City Mission. House Coordinator, Doug Bush, answered the phone. Bush remembered his family from when they were at the Mission over a decade ago. He invited Matt into our program. “I would do anything for Doug,” Matt said. “He got me out of prison.” After his release this past August, he entered our program, and he has been living here ever since. “I ain’t ever going back to prison,” he said. He is doing things differently this time. He got an ID. He got a job. “I never had an ID. I never had a real job before. I’m going to keep it. I’m going to save my money.” But the biggest difference in his life this time around is that he’s a father now. He has a one-year-old daughter. “It changed my life,” he said of being a father. “I missed a lot with her, because I was in prison. I missed her birth. I missed her first steps. I missed everything. But I want things to be different. I want to do better for her.” Matt is determined to break the cycle and create a better life for his daughter than he ever had. “I want good things for her,” he said. “I want her to stay in school and go to college. Things I never had. I don’t want nothing but the best for her. And the best way for her to get that is for me to stay out of trouble.” And the Mission has helped him stay out of trouble. “Oh, I needed to come here,” he admitted. “They kept me on the right path. They gave me everything I needed. If I hadn’t come here, I probably would’ve done things I regretted.” He appreciates the chapel services and the meetings at City Mission. “I have a better connection to God than I ever have before,” he said. And even though he never had issues with addiction and never even tried a hard drug, the recovery meetings at the Mission have helped him a lot. “I love hearing other people’s stories. They’ve been through so much. I can relate to that. I feel like I’m not alone.” Matt is listening, learning, making friends, and growing closer to God. One day, he hopes to save enough money to buy a car and a house for his family. And he wants to travel. “I want to go everywhere,” he said. “I never left Washington except to go to prison. I’ve never been to the beach before. I want to go the beach.” You can help people just like Matt to turn their lives around. They just need a hand up, a hot meal, some encouraging words, and the redeeming love of Christ. Visit www.citymission.org.

Staff Spotlight

September 23, 2022

Five Fun Facts about Rich 1 He once had a dog named Moose. Moose was lab who loved children and loved going to work with Rich. “He was a greatest dog,” Rich said. “He was like a kid. The kids in my neighborhood thought he was a kid.” 2 He served in 2 different branches of the military. He joined the Navy for 4 years right out of high school as a jet mechanic. He was also a nurse and an officer in the Air Force. He was stationed in Korea. 3 He took flying lessons as a teenage and could fly a Cessna 150 at the age of 16. 4 He once caught 3 foul balls at a single Pirate game. 5 He lived in Nome, Alaska for 7 months in 2019. Short Bio Rich is our Medical Clinic Manager. He grew up on a farm in Waynesburg, PA. When he graduated from high school, he joined the Navy and learned to be a jet mechanic. After 4 years in the Navy, he became a Park Ranger in Fresno County, CA at the Las Padres National Forest. After 9 years of that, he went to EMT school. He worked for an ambulance company for 3 years. “That’s how I broke into medical life,” he explained. After that, Rich decided to move back home to Waynesburg, where he earned his Nursing Degree from Waynesburg University, and he has been a registered nurse for nearly 20 years. In July 2017, he was hired as our Medical Clinic Manager. “The most important part of my job here is welcoming people to the Mission, medically,” he said. “I complete a thorough medical evaluation when they get here, and I try to identify things that could hurt them in their recovery. And then I pass that on so we can all work together to help them overcome that and ultimately be successful in their recovery process.” "And two goals I have for every resident when they first get here," he added, "is to make sure they are connected with insurance and a Primary Care Physician." Rich currently lives in Charleroi with his wife, Sue. He likes to listen to Sirius Radio, and he hopes to one day become a Nurse Practicioner, so he can help the Mission do even more for our residents. Thanks, Rich, for your dedication to our residents and for everything you do for City Mission!!

"I'm Going Home"

September 1, 2022

“You can’t go forward until you fill in the gaps of your past,” said Wesley, a former City Mission resident, just one day before boarding a Greyhound bus to Phoenix, where he will meet his birth family for the first time. “I’m going home,” he said. “I can’t stop thinking about the night sky out in the desert where there is very little light pollution. The first night I’m there, I may just camp out in my sister’s backyard and spend most of the night looking up.” Wesley was given up for adoption at birth and never met his birth family who lives on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in White River, AZ. “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times,” he said of his experience with his adoptive family in Northern Illinois. He was very close with his adoptive dad, but his mom and brother were angry alcoholics who took their anger out on him. He suffered physical and verbal abuse and was told over and over that he would never amount to anything and would always be stupid. “I was only 13 years old when it was at its worst,” he said. “I didn’t know how to reach out for help.” After high school graduation, he joined the Army and was stationed for 4 years at Fort Benning, GA as an Airborne Ranger. “I loved it,” he said of his time in the military. “I loved everything about it.” When his initial commitment was up, he decided to re-enlist. On the night before he was to be transferred to different army base, his friends threw him a going away party. “I call that my day of regret,” Wesley explained. A call from the police woke him up the next morning. He had no memory of it, but apparently, in a drunken stupor, he had punched out an Army officer the night before. He was discharged from the military and forced to return home to Latrobe, where he worked part-time jobs and amassed “countless public drunkenness charges.” Then his adoptive parents both passed away around the same time. His drinking became even worse. He couldn’t hold a job. Eventually, he had nowhere to go, and he ended up coming to City Mission for the first time in 2012. “Doug Bush was my rescuer,” Wesley recalled. “He motivated me and made sure I went to meetings.” Wesley only stayed for 40 days during his initial stay, but it made a big impact on him. About ten years ago, right around the time of his first stay at the Mission, Wesley began searching for his birth family. He started at the local public library, and his search led him to a private investigator who offered to take his case for free. She was able to locate his mom in White River, and she negotiated indirect contact between Wesley and his mother, who only spoke Apache, no English. At one point, the communication suddenly broke down, and Wesley was left with no answers. Undaunted, Wesley continued the search on his own. Eventually, he received a message through Facebook that someone knew his mother. Unfortunately, before he could make contact with her, his mother passed away. “I never got the chance to meet her,” he lamented. But through that contact, he discovered a revelation. He had 2 older sisters and a younger brother. One Sunday, just a few weeks ago, he received a call out of the blue. “I recognized the area code,” he explained. It was from White River. Ever since he found out his mother’s identity, he had been working with the Tribal Council there to learn about his family history and to be reinstated into tribe. So he picked up the phone. “Hi, I’m Sharon,” said the voice on the other end of the phone. “I’m your oldest sister.” They spoke on the phone for over an hour and shared their stories. “Do you want to come back home,” she finally asked him. “Yeah!” The very next day, he received an email from his sister with a bus ticket. “I’m finally going home,” Wesley said. “Where it all began.” On the phone with his sister, Wesley learned that his younger brother is an alcoholic, and he is still struggling. “I got a mission now,” Wesley said. “That’s the way for those in recovery -- to help one that is struggling. Others have been there for me. This is my time to give back.” Over the past 10 years, Wesley has stayed at the Mission six different times for a total of just over a thousand days. “Wesley has been talking about reuniting with his birth family as long as I’ve known him,” said Doug Bush, one of our House Coordinators in the Men’s Shelter. “It seems to have been the missing piece for him. He’s been looking for a sense of belonging. And that’s why he kept coming back to us.” “I can’t thank City Mission enough,” Wesley said. “They rescued me. They will always be a part of me. The Mission motivated me and taught me to be assertive. Without that, I probably never would have continued my search for my family.” Wesley also made some great friends during his time at the Mission. “I have supportive friends here,” he explained. “They’re proud of me. They threw me a party when I brought home my 1-year coin.” “He has good friends, because he is a good friend,” added Clayton, a fellow resident at the Mission and Wesley’s close friend. Wesley has been an integral part of the City Mission family, and we wish him the very best on his journey to get to know his birth family. Please join us in praying for Wesley on this new adventure. You can help dreams come true at City Mission. Visit www.citymission.org. “Five years from now,” Wesley said, “I hope to be on my own -- living happy, joyous, and free!”

Guadalupe Got Her Keys

Guadalupe and her family in their new apartment

August 26, 2022

Guadalupe got her keys! She and her son, Samson, and baby Esther moved into their very own place last week. Samson, 3, has lived in homeless shelters his whole life, and Guadalupe has never owned her own home before. When they moved into City Mission in December, Guadalupe was pregnant. In June, Baby Esther was born, and she became our youngest resident. Guadalupe, who was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New York City had no friends or family in the area, so Sheila Namy, our Manager of Women and Children Services, went with her to hospital and stayed with her during her labor and delivery. “It was a joyful moment to watch baby Esther come into the world,” Namy explained. “I had tear-filled eyes, knowing that God had just formed a bond between this mom and child and that their lives, and mine, were forever changed by this day.” When Guadalupe finally got her home, the Jesus Fellowship church in Bethel Park volunteered to help her with her move. “The church really took her under their wing,” said Namy. “Guadalupe didn’t have to lift a finger. They went above and beyond.” Jesus Fellowship gave her all new rugs, towels, bedding, dishes, and everything else she would need to make her new home comfortable. They even purchased furniture at our City Mission Thrift Stores so the proceeds would come back to the Mission. Then, when the day of the move came, Jesus Fellowship showed up with trucks and manpower and moved in all her furniture and clothes and everything. They carried it all up three floors to her apartment and set it all up for her. “They even had family photos of Guadalupe and her children framed and hung up on the walls,” said Namy. “They even picked out a welcome mat for the front door that said, ‘I’m finally home.’ It was so touching, down to every detail.” When Samson came into the apartment for the first time, he ran from room to room, saying, “House! House!” And when he saw his new Paw Patrol bed, he jumped right in. “Guadalupe is just so grateful,” Namy explained. “She knows that it’s all a gift from God. She wants to live a new life. She wants to stay connected to the Mission. I see how much God has provided for her.” “God is within her,” she added. “She will not fail.” “I am thankful to the Mission because if I wasn't here, I don't know where I would be,” Guadalupe said of her time at the Mission. “And because they are so loving to my kids. Kids are so precious and pure. And when they are small, that's when they really have to flourish. And the Mission gave me a place to live and showed me a lot of grace and mercy when I was at my lowest.” Thank you, Jesus Fellowship, for helping Guadalupe and her family! You too can help those in need at City Mission. Visit www.citymission.org to learn more about ways to partner with us.

Feelin' Groovy

August 12, 2022

Last Tuesday, we held a tie-dye event for our residents. And it was groovy!! City Mission’s Manager of Career Services, Brianna Kadlecik, has hosted 5 tie-dye events for our residents over the past 3 years. “We started this event in 2020 as a way for our residents and staff to have fun during the COVID lockdown,” she explained. “It was suggested by one of our former residents.” Throughout the two-hour event, which was held under the pavilion outside of our Men’s Shelter, fifty-five residents and 13 staff participated in the event, making over 70 shirts. “There is so much joy and gratitude from the residents,” said Kadlecik. “They get excited when I announce sign-ups, and they have so much fun making their shirts. There is so much laughter during the event.” At City Mission, our residents are working very hard to turn their lives. This tie-dye event is a refreshing and necessary breather from all that intense self-reflection and hard work. “It’s just plain fun,” Kadlecik explained. “For many of our residents who are in recovery from drug and/or alcohol abuse, it is important for them to see that it is possible to have fun without being under the influence of a substance. It’s also an opportunity for some of our residents to get out of their comfort zones in a low-stakes way. You don’t need to have any experience to make a tie-dye shirt, and it’s a relatively easy and inexpensive activity for them to do in the future.” “It’s also beautiful to watch the kids making their shirts alongside their mothers,” she added. “Watching the family bond and make memories is so heart-warming. One of our goals as a Mission is to make this challenging experience of homelessness one of healing and restoration for the men, women, children, and veterans who live here.” Kadlecik hopes to continue hosting these events as long as our residents continue to show interest. “There are hours of preparation that go into this event, but each and every year the residents prove that it is 100% worth all the time and energy,” she said. “Every year, so many of the men, women and children, surprise me with their creativity and their gratitude.”

Our Residents' Journeys

Our mission is to serve our residents. We continue to be amazed by their strength and courage, and we love to see God working in their lives! Read some of their stories and learn about their journey to the Mission and on to independent living.