Every year a small army of volunteers from Daystar Church works  inside and outside locations all over the community, doing everything from landscaping and painting to working on elementary schools and mentally challenged individual’s homes all over Morgan County.

It is part of an annual day of service for the church, which is based in Cullman, but has a campus in Hartselle as well as a new site opening in January in Madison.  The Hartselle Campus meets for two services each Sunday at 1010 Nanceford Rd.

Each campus has a number of small groups, and each group is encouraged to create service projects, but each site also has two or three big community projects in each city.

LaRhonda Ward, who teaches children at Sparkman Elementary, came to the church several months ago with needs at her school. She had a list of supplies that the school needed and were unable to purchase.  The church banded together and was able to supply nearly everything they requested.

After visiting the school and seeing some of the other possible needs, Daystar asked if they could add them to their yearly service project.  Members of the church banded together and showed the love of Jesus to this facility and many others all over the county, including FE Burleson Sat., Nov. 22.

“Our vision is to transform the community through the love and power of Jesus Christ,” Tom Watson says. Watson is the campus pastor of Hartselle in charge of overseeing the various teams serving all over the community.

The day is more than one of service to the schools. Other teams of volunteers at Daystar cleaned trash, repaired homes for people in need and supplied children’s clothing and toys for single mothers as well.

“The goal is to be the hands and feet of Jesus throughout the year, but once a year they can, as a church body, impact a large group of people at the same time,” said Teri Smith, the outreach team leader for the Hartselle campus of Daystar Church, “Outreach,” she explains, “is part of what they do.”

It’s also about creating partnerships with other community and neighborhood groups.

“Service is ultimately the goal,” said Watson. “We come to serve them first, and they get to know us and know our purpose for being here, and we ask them to reach out to us for anything they need. Anytime there is a need in our community, we want to be the ones to send teams to help meet that need.”

Julie Eve and others clean a kitchen at Living Free during Daystar Church’s annual day of service. | Special to the Enquirer

Steven Smith and others help put up a chain link fence at F.E. Burleson Elementary School during Daystar Church’s annual day of service. | Special to the Enquirer