As the sun beamed down, the knocking of hammers could be heard in the background. Blake Sowell was covered in roofing dust and had been up scraping shingles off a roof since 7 a.m.
“The work is hard; we have to take off a roof pretty much, which was not put on very well, which makes it harder to take off,” Sowell said. “It’s dirty work and the sun is very hot down here in Moultrie, Ga., but once we get all the roof off, it’s a lot easier putting a new one on.”
Most students would probably not visualize this scene when they think about their ideal Spring Break, but for Sowell, a sophomore from Georgia Tech who will be transferring to Tennessee in the fall, it was exactly how he wanted to spend his week.
“I decided recently that I’m going to transfer to the University of Tennessee and after talking to friends and family I decided to go on the Cross (Greek Ministry) Spring Break trip,” Sowell said. “Rick Kuhlman, my mentor, really encouraged me to go on this trip and so did my brother Ryan Sowell, who’s been on multiple trips with the Cross, so it’s really a great thing to get involved with.”
The Cross Greek Ministry has been going to the small agricultural town of Moultrie, Ga. for the past three Spring Breaks in an effort to improve the community.
The projects the students accomplished varied. Some students roofed a house, others built a wheelchair ramp for a paralyzed man, and some worked on a local park, among other things.
Cheryle Reeves is the Discipleship and Connections Coordinator for Heritage Church, which facilitates the trip and hosts the students during the week. She had been working all year to coordinate the projects and has been the Cross’ liaison in Moultrie for the past three years.
“It really came through a couple of friendships,” Reeves said. “It seems like something that was kind of a fluke but I really think it was through the sovereignty of God to begin to knit our hearts together with this ministry with the University of Tennessee. So many neat things have happened over the three years.”
Students believed the impact they made on the community was invaluable to the people who were affected. Joseph Machett, the executive director for the Boys and Girls Club in Moultrie, was incredibly thankful for all the hours the students put into fixing up the facility.
“The impact is priceless in the sense that when kids see the age of the facility, which we don’t control, or the upkeep of the facility, that we do control, are presentable and nice and clean, the kids, who are less fortunate to have that, it’s very valuable to them,” Machett said.
The community welcomed the 130 or so students who came on the trip. Heritage Church provided the students a place to stay and facilitated the projects that took place during the week, along with hosting a cookout the first day the students were there. Other local churches fed the students each night.
The Moultrie community felt a great impact, but for many students, the impact the trip had on them was incomparable.
“It’s really nice to help other people get something out of Spring Break instead of just going somewhere for myself,” said Michael Griffin, senior in communications studies who worked on refurbishing Crossroad’s Mission.
“We gave Crossroad’s Mission, which is a homeless shelter, a full makeover,” Griffin said. “We painted everything, took all the old furniture out and put new furniture in. We cleaned everything and through away a lot of stuff that needed to be thrown away.”
The partnership between Heritage Church, the city of Moultrie, and the Cross, was somewhat unexpected but transformed all that are involved in the week-long project.
“Three years ago (the Cross) were planning to go down to Louisiana to do cleanup work after Katrina, but that fell through at the last minute, so they called us and asked if they could come to Moultrie,” Reeves said. “So that first year it was kind of thrown together at the last minute, but we felt it was great because it gave them a place to come, and gave us an opportunity to really begin to go out in our community with the love of Christ.”
The end of the week was bittersweet to many students. They were glad to see their hard work turning into a finished project, but were sad to leave Moultrie, which they had grown to love, and all the new friends they had made.
“Coming into this trip I knew maybe five people from high school and haven’t really seen them in a long time, so it was kind of a step in the dark, but now being with a group of people that I did not know at all beforehand, after just a couple of days I feel extremely close to all of them and have made so many friends on this trip,” Sowell said. “This trip has also granted me a lot of spiritual growth and that’s really what I needed, especially transferring back home to Knoxville.”
