Recently, Bethany Reformed Church of Albany had the opportunity to become involved with Family Promise to help care for our neighbors in the Capital Region—and the results have been nothing but transformative.
[Albany mayor Kathy Sheehan offers a welcoming address at the opening of the Capital Region’s day center. Photo by Ben Marvin.]
By Nancy Murray
Family Promise is a community, interfaith organization working to help homeless and low-income families achieve independence. They provide overnight hospitality, meals, day facilities, and assistance to families searching for affordable housing in the local community. Nationally, 80 percent of participating families secure housing and independence in fewer than three months of participating in this program.
Recently, Bethany Reformed Church of Albany had the opportunity to become involved with Family Promise to help care for our neighbors in the Capital Region—and the results have been nothing but transformative.
A key component of each Family Promise affiliate is a day center. At a day center, guests are able to shower, do laundry, care for their children, and receive case management services. Older children receive school bus transportation from this location as well.
In 2014, an elder at Bethany Reformed suggested that our vacant parsonage be offered for use as a Family Promise day center. After serious consideration by the consistory and a protracted review by the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals, Family Promise of the Capital Region’s day center opened in April 2015 with Albany’s mayor, Kathy Sheehan, offering welcoming remarks at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
As of November 2015, three families have enrolled in the program and several members of Bethany’s congregation, including me, are volunteers at the day center. Some members from Bethany also volunteer at Third Reformed Church in Albany, which hosts families overnight for one week at a time, four times a year.
Being a volunteer with this organization has been rewarding. It leaves me feeling satisfied that I am able to help others in their time of need. The ministry of Jesus Christ involves more than preaching, teaching, and speaking comforting words. It involves action. As St. Teresa of Ávila wrote:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, our salvation was won on Good Friday and is celebrated on Easter. Our future is secure. Unencumbered with the need to save ourselves, we are free to stick our necks out for the sake of our neighbor. We are called to speak the truth in love, to listen, to give, and to support the good work others are doing in love.
Each person from Bethany who volunteers or participates in this new ministry is forever changed for the better. In blessing others, we are blessed. We are grateful to the Regional Synod of Albany, which has encouraged Bethany with a $500 grant to provide welcoming baskets for each family that comes to us in need. We are also grateful that generations before ours provided this parsonage, which is now fully in use helping others.
Nancy Murray is a member of Bethany Reformed Church in Albany, New York. To learn more about Family Promise of the Capital Region, please visit www.familypromiseofthecapitalregion.org, email capitalregionfamilypromise@gmail.com, or call the day center at 518-650-8895.
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