Prayer can move mountains — and it can also change communities for the better. City Gate, a 501c3 organization that started as a prayer room in Lancaster City, opened an Ephrata branch in 2016 with the mission to bring the power of prayer to the local community. City Gate’s goal is to be in the heart of things, to plug into the community and learn the unique needs of the people living in the area — first and foremost to pray for those needs, but also to find ways to bring about change through hands-on ministry. That is why City Gate’s facility has welcoming and comfortable places for people to gather both to pray for and to minister to the community.
City Gate Ephrata’s director, Kim Warner, told The Lancaster Patriot that she believes there is something powerful about being in the middle of what you are praying for. There is plenty afoot in Ephrata as well — specifically an opioid crisis and a marked increase in homelessness.
When the homeless population spiked last year, Mayor Ralph Mowen formed a task force of people from the borough and from Lancaster County-based organizations, like City Gate Ephrata and the Lancaster County Homelessness Coalition, in order to work toward mitigation. Mowen said that he had been astonished to hear that at the end of the 2021-2022 school year, there were 70 students in the Ephrata school district who were homeless. “I was shocked that there were mothers living in cars and sending their kids to school,” he said.
The problem is not simply one of Ephrata residents being without homes, however. Since Ephrata is not a closed-off little place — it is right by Route 222 and the turnpike, and the rail trail gives access to Ephrata from Lititz — there has been a problem of homeless individuals from outside Ephrata migrating to the community. According to Warner, Lancaster and Berks County hospitals have brought people to Ephrata and dropped them off. Hospitals used to not release homeless people without a place to go, but early last year, that changed. Warner said, “We had a hospital drop a woman, homeless, with her oxygen tank and no shoes, in March — dropped her at City Gate.” Both City Gate and the mayor have made attempts to stop this practice and are doing their best to track it, but it isn’t something that can be resolved overnight.
Since mental health hospitals are being closed across the country, a lot of people with mental health issues no longer have a place to go or the support they need to live, and this is greatly contributing to the increasing homeless population. Warner said that she would love to see a place where people with mental health issues could live and be supported by trained individuals who can help them set their lives on track.
Since the homelessness problem is directly impacting Ephrata, there have been complaints about the visual effect that homeless people on the street have on the community. City Gate has recently become the target of criticism since the organization welcomes homeless people into its Main Street location during the day in the effort to minister to them.
Floyd Shirk, the men’s support group and ministry leader at the Ephrata branch of City Gate, told The Lancaster Patriot that he hopes people will learn more about the situation so that things can improve. If people learn to stop thinking of the homeless as a single entity and instead see each person as an individual with their own unique problems and needs, the core issues can be better addressed.
“Beneath what we see on the surface of homelessness or addiction, beneath there, there’s so much trauma,” he explained, “and rejection is the number one enemy to a homeless person. It just drives them deeper into homelessness or addiction. So when we come alongside them and build relationships, it allows us to peel back the layers and get to the core of what it was — trauma or whatever it was — so that the healing can begin.”
The mayor also understands the importance of educating the community on the issue of homelessness, and he is organizing a meeting for that purpose. When and where to hold that meeting is the main agenda item for the task force’s next meeting, he told The Lancaster Patriot. He also said that City Gate has been doing a good job lending a helping hand — and although there have been complaints about homeless people hanging out on Main Street and giving the town a bad look, “we can’t just load them on a bus and send them elsewhere.”
Although there is much focus right now on the homelessness problem sweeping through the community, City Gate is working hard to shine a light for everyone in Ephrata through many different outreaches. The program the organization is best known for is its free Saturday lunches. Warner used to pray that the program would be able to take place once a month, but since January 2021 there have been enough volunteers and food donations that it has become a weekly occurrence and is set to continue every week of 2023. Church groups, businesses and even groups of friends purchase or make food, then bring it to City Gate to pack and serve. These lunches, handed out from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Saturday, benefit the homeless population, low-income families, people within walking distance and whomever stops by, no questions asked.
City Gate strives to offer hope and help to the entire community, not only to those in need of a free lunch. Different days of the week address different needs. On Mondays, Celebrate Recovery, a faith-based ministry for dealing with addictive behavior of any kind, meets for dinner at 6:30 p.m. followed by the meeting from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. On Saturdays, Main Point Men of Faith, a discipleship and support group started by Shirk, begins with a dinner at 6:30 p.m. followed by the meeting from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Main Point Women of Faith, a similar discipleship and support group for women, meets every Tuesday, with dinner at 5:30 p.m. followed by the meeting from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. On Sundays, City Gate hosts Sunday school at 9 a.m., a church service at 10 a.m., and a Bible study at 6:30 p.m. On weekday mornings, City Gate offers coffee, conversation and drop-in prayer groups for an hour or two. Often local pastors will read Scripture or give a short devotional, then lead the group in a discussion. During the day, City Gate provides activities like board games, puzzles, art projects and Christian movies, but also offers Bible studies, one-on-one discipleship, times of sharing — which are drop-in discussions centered around a specific topic — and anything else the staff and volunteers can do to make the best of the time that people are there and to help people to lead better lives without enabling destructive behaviors.
In addition to all such ministries, City Gate refers people to Ephrata Area Social Services, which can connect people with a wide variety of programs and assistance. There is also a shower trailer behind the Pioneer Fire Company station at 135 S. State St. — just a few blocks from City Gate — where homeless people can go for a free shower on Wednesday mornings. There will be some EMTs on-site to treat mild medical conditions, and there may be people there to do laundry for the homeless. This service is one of the benefits that has come out of the task force meetings so far.
Warner’s goal for City Gate in 2023 is for more people to come alongside the people in need within the community, especially for discipleship. “I’m praying for more understanding from the community. I’m open to talk to people. I do go to churches, when they ask me, to talk about City Gate and what we’re doing and that kind of thing. We’re open to questions or, you know, if people want to stop in to see what we’re doing,” she said.
She is also open to people coming in and trying new things within City Gate, whether an art ministry or anything else that can be used to encourage the people who come to City Gate looking for help and hope. Of course, since prayer is the foundation and main focus of the ministry, she hopes that more people will commit to coming in and praying — even for just 20 minutes.
Warner has already seen how much more God gives than what she plans for. One such instance took place in July 2022, when a worship and praise event was held in the bandshell and pavilion in Thomas P. Grater Community Park. The event was organized by a City Gate volunteer who is part of a Christian band. On what ended up being the hottest day of the year, the music event drew not just the audience of 75 that the City Gate leaders and volunteers had prayed for, but a crowd of 300.
To learn more about City Gate’s Ephrata branch, to get involved, or to donate food or funds, visit citygatelancaster.com, check out City Gate Ephrata on Facebook, or stop by 100 E. Main St. to say hello.
Thank you for this article. We would love to show you and share all the locations of City Gate with you including our new one to open in April in New Holland. Lititz will be packed today with Fire and Ice as a rest stop and free coffee.