Group seeks Jesus while helping Gaston County people with home repairs

While ankle replacement surgery allowed Cindy Fisher to abandon her wheelchair it made going down the front porch stairs of her Bessemer City home difficult.

“I broke [my ankle] in 2006… and when he went in there to operate, it was worse than they thought,” she said.

But young people with Carolina Cross Connection made Fisher's life a bit easier by building a 24-foot ramp into her home.

Fisher’s husband was introduced to Carolina Cross Connection from his pastor and was able to ask them to build a ramp for his wife. Carolina Cross Connection did the work for free.

“The ramp’s going to be 100% better,” Fisher said.

Carolina Cross Connection started the project at Fisher's home on Monday, June 20, 2022, and finished that same week on Friday, June 24.

Fisher and her chihuahua, Gertie, can now walk down the ramp with much more ease.

“The way that their face looks is indescribable,” said Laura Glomb on the last day of construction. Glomb is a camp director for Carolina Cross Connection and has been a part of this ministry for more than a decade. “It just lights up.

"You can tell, like, this is something that they needed.”

Glomb and the other members of the organization find just as much satisfaction as the people they help. They find meaning in every connection they make with the members of the community.

“We don’t remember the projects; we remember the people,” she said.

Carolina Cross Connection is a faith-based organization that goes out every summer to provide free, small-scale home repairs for those who cannot do it or afford it themselves. When they are not working on projects, they host camp activities for their members to create a safe space for people to learn and share about Jesus.

Their clients, whom they call “neighbors,” have been benefiting from their services for 35 years throughout North Carolina and Honduras.

This non-profit organization is funded through grants, such as the Glenn Foundation, which was awarded specifically for projects in Gaston County. They have also received funding from the Royce and Jane Reynolds Ministry Fund of the United Methodist Foundation of Western North Carolina to support their entire home repair program.

“They helped us tremendously this summer to be able to do what we love doing — help others,” said Glomb.

Carolina Cross Connection also has a lot of people who donate monthly, called “cornerstone members.” They can donate anywhere from $10 to $5,000 per month, which have helped keep the organization going, Glomb said.

Their annual week-long camps allow members to spend time alone in worship and with the camp community. They also spend time on sites before attending worship at the end of the day to discuss where they saw God that day.

These opportunities are open to students and adults alike. Nineteen-year-old Max Hedrick has been working alongside Carolina Cross Connection since 2009 and says that one of the most rewarding parts is being able to see the younger kids grow.

“Whenever they come to camp… they’re going to a camp of 30, 40 people that they have no idea who they are… so they can get really, really shy but, by the end of the week, they’re all hands in and they’re growing a community,” Hedrick said. “You can see the change in them.”

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Group makes home repairs in Gaston County while seeking Jesus