By Sarrah Peters
News Editor
This last week, Hepzibah Baptist Church out of McCalla has been on a mission to improve the Gadsden area. While here, the youth worked with Breakaway Ministries, which already aims to provide Gadsden with services.
According to its Facebook page, “Breakaway Ministries is based in Gadsden and was founded in 1990 with nothing more than a burning desire to demonstrate the love of God by proclaiming the truths found in the word of God.”
The ministry aims to show God’s love through actions. Breakaway Ministries helps run two transition homes, one for men and one for women. The ministry brings groups to McGuffey’s nursing home to visit with the seniors. The ministry also works with the City of Gadsden Community Development Department to provide house repairs to people in need.
This program includes emergency housing repairs with a loan up to $5,000 ($7,500 in rare cases) for emergency repairs to qualified homeowners. The term of the loan is five years and zero percent interest.
For the elderly, the same assistance as the Emergency Housing Repair program is offered; however, if the homeowner is 62 years of age or older, the loan is deferred if the homeowner remains in the home for five years following the repairs. The program also provides up to $500 in supplies for the painting of the exterior of the home provided the homeowner is 62 years of age or older.
While here, the 32 members of Hepzibah Baptist hosted a vacation Bible school, painted houses, assisted in the transition homes and helped clean the newly bought old Boys Club, where Breakaway Ministries Eddie Nichols was director. The old Boys Club is now the Dream Center.
Although plans are not finalized and the building is in need of repair, Nichols plans to use the space for children’s after school programs.