Day of service: Daystar, Desperation Churches spend Saturday helping out

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Desperation Executive Pastor Cody Miller with Colony Mayor Donnis Leeth at the Colony Community Center playground (W.C. Mann for The Cullman Tribune)

CULLMAN, Ala. – Desperation Church and Daystar Church, both multi-campus congregations with bases in Cullman County, on Saturday held a day of service, supporting worthy causes in local communities.

Desperation Church visits Colony Community Center

Around 20 volunteers from across Desperation Church’s campuses went to Colony to clean the building, playground, parking lot and yard, make a few minor repairs, and assess needs for further repairs on a future visit. 

Desperation Church Executive Pastor Cody Miller told The Tribune, “Desperation Church is a part of ARC, which is the Association of Related Churches. July 11 is a global serve day for ARC, so there are literally hundreds of churches all around the globe that have gone out to serve their cities in practical ways.

“So for us, we just wanted to find community partners that we could go out and serve our cities in those very practical ways, just to be the hands and feet of Jesus, to just say, ‘Hey, we love you, and today loving you looks like shrubbery, and it looks like cleaning the floors, and it looks like freshening up the playground.

“We’re thankful to Mayor (Donnis) Leeth, who met (Desperation Senior) Pastor Andy (Heis) playing basketball here in their community center, and just saw an opportunity to come out and freshen things up and be a blessing to Colony, because some of our guys come and play basketball, and built that relationship with the mayor and kind of opened up that door to come and be a part of what he was doing in his city. We’re super excited and appreciative to Mayor Leeth for that.”

Desperation volunteers were joined by Colony residents who wanted to take a hand in the refurbishing of their community center. Kim Carwell organized a group of area youth to help with the cleaning and yard work.

“What we really want to do is show the community that we’re here to support and continue to have this area right here for kids to have a safe haven. What I mean by that is it’s important that they understand we care about them, and to have them do some positive things and have a positive place to come to,” said Carwell. “This community center, to me, should be open 24/7 for these kids. They love sports, they love to come out here and play, and it’s been kind of messed up for a little while. We are really thankful for Desperation Church coming out here and helping us get things back on track.”

Said Leeth, “Today we’re out here trying to get the center cleaned up pretty good and opened up for the kids. I think it’s a great thing to get it cleaned up, let the kids come out again during the summer while school’s out. It’s just a good thing for the whole community and around the community. They come from everywhere to play basketball down there: Jasper, Blount County, Cullman, Hanceville. They come from everywhere: Cold Springs; all of them come, you know. It’s a good thing to see people together and playing sports and having a good time. I just love it and love it and love it!”

Daystar Church visits Good Hope Middle School

Around 20 volunteers from Daystar Church met at Good Hope Middle School to paint hallways and convert a storage room into a new teachers’ lounge. Saturday’s activities were the start of a project planned to be completed before the start of school in August.

Daystar Global Outreach Director Chris Hopper told The Tribune, “We are helping them finish paint out their hallways, and we’re also redoing a teachers’ lounge for the teachers. Right now, they have a little bitty one, and they’re taking an existing room that’s kind of been used to store stuff, and they’re turning it into a teachers’ lounge for the teachers. You know, they’re here; they’re the ones teaching the next generation and raising them up, and they need a place to kind of come and relax, and regroup during the day.

“We started this project back right before coronavirus hit, and then now we weren’t actually able to come through with it, but we’re starting phase one today, and that’s painting the walls and painting the cabinets, just being a blessing to the teachers. They’re a blessing to this community, and we want to bless them.”

“The last semester of the school year last year was crazy, because the teachers were moved to doing virtual school and Zoom and all over the place,” said volunteer Carol Ann Hopper. “We really wanted to revamp the teachers’ lounge here at Good Hope Middle to give them a place to rest and relax, and catch their breath, and just honor the teachers for everything that they do.”

Once painting in the new lounge is completed, the Daystar team plans to return to install new flooring and furniture.

For more on Desperation Church, visit https://desperationchurch.tv.

For more on Daystar Church, visit https://daystarchurch.tv.

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Daystar volunteers begin converting a storage room into an enlarged teachers’ lounge at Good Hope Middle School. (W.C. Mann for The Cullman Tribune)
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W.C. Mann

craig@cullmantribune.com