Turning a house, in this case a motel, into a home

It was in May of 2002 when the Lord put it on my heart to go to this old motel and establish a home for single mothers and their babies. When I was in my car I had no idea where he was leading me, but, when you follow his lead you will always end up at the right place. And this is where I ended up, in front of a fenced overgrown old motel that looked as unloved as any place could. However, as I stood there looking at it I never saw what it was, I saw what it could be, a place of safety, love, sanctuary, and most of all a home.
I saw the flowers, children playing, mothers visiting, and love abounding. I saw a home and this is its story.

This is what I looked like when Cora first saw me, unused and unloved since 1989. From now on you will be able to watch my transformation as I come to life to provide new lives to those in need.

Saturday August 5, 2006 was the opening day and the beginning of my new life as a few friends of the ministry put up their sign and the Crossroads Ministry Board pushed open the gate to my new beginning.

On Saturday, August 12th the first group that came to work on me were nine boy scouts from Troup 328, led by Scoutmaster Bill Mills and his Assistant Scoutmasters. They worked for hours pulling up, tearing down, and cutting up tons of vines, trees, and overgrown shrubs before settling down to a lunch of Papa Johns delicious pizza. As you can imagine this is not an easy task but the board and I can unanimously say that we have never seen team work such as they showed on this day in such a young group. We had expected them to completely clear away everything from my front building but by lunch time they had not only finished that building but had finished my other longer building in the back. This was a milestone we had not expected but of which we are eternally grateful.

The End of an Era

On Thursday, September 14 th at 4 p.m. the ‘Oak Ridge Motel’ sign, with its atom insignia on top, perched on the peak of the old motel. By 7:45 p.m. it was removed. A new era has begun, for this motel will be the new home of Crossroads Ministry and except for the sign it will be renovated to look almost as it did when built in 1949, when for years it housed many scientists and dignitaries from around the world

Words cannot express how the board feels about the generosity of Barnhart Crane and Rigging Company of Oak Ridge who supplied the crane and bucket machines for the removal of the sign, Tommy Thomasson, Manager of Project Services, who pulled the project together and to the three men who gave of their own time, Roger Griffith and Danny Moore who went up in the bucket to disconnect the sign from the structure and Joey Byrge who guided the sign to the ground from the crane base. It was a fascinating feat to watch and without their expertise it would not have been accomplished so seemingly effortlessly and without mishap.

Now that was something to watch…..the sign that had been on the manager’s office building for over 50 years being taken down so that work could begin on that little building, which will become the housemother’s residence. Things are a changin!

While Hazmat worked on decontaminating my two buildings that will house the moms and babies in a healthy environment, others began taking down the top floor of the manager’s building. It had been burned by treasure hunters in the 1990’s thinking there was hidden money in the old safe. Of course, there wasn’t, but that was the rumor and since they couldn’t open it their anger got the best of them and they set fire, probably thinking that would melt the safe, who knows. In any case, a good deal of valuable family heirlooms was destroyed, in addition to the building. This, of course, made the building unsafe and unable to be renovated. It would have to be taken down to the stone and rebuilt. Now that was also something to watch. I could hardly take my eyes (figuratively speaking of course) off the workers. After this work was finished it was time to shut down for the winter.

A Discovery! The next thing that happened to me was that when my front porch enclosures were removed, wonderful ironwork between the doors with a metal porch post supporting the roof was discovered. Quite unexpected, except that I knew it all along! I will look so nice when that is repainted and left exposed.

Volunteers try to smother me!

In January 2007 a large group of men and women from Kern Memorial Methodist Church in Oak Ridge and Memorial Methodist in Clinton placed plastic sheeting over my roofs for protection from the weather until my two buildings can be renovated. They accomplished this feat with help from Barnhart Crane and Rigging and Roger Griffiths. They were the same ones who took down the sign. It is so nice to have friends in high places! Unfortunately, good ideas don’t always work and in this case the winds come through that area with such force that the plastic was shredded after three months, but that was after most of the bad weather was over.

During the summer a group of women worked weekly trying to clean up the area surrounding the buildings, clearing debris, cutting back overgrowth along the creek and exposing more ‘treasures’, both the flowering kind and stationary kind. Many articles from the early 1950’s have been unearthed from the rubble, one of the original crab orchard stone light posts and a lovely crab orchard stone pond, needing repair, with fountain was discovered in the overgrowth. However, this will be turned into an herb garden with birdbath fountain for safety’s sake.

The Spring and Summer of 2008 will bring those women back, this time to transform and retake their land. Because the area around the creek was cleared out the birds have begun to return along with frogs, turtles, and lizards. I just love listening to nature, don’t you?

Overrun Again – Will it ever end!

From 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 20 th, 2007 the future Crossroads Ministry facility site was overrun by 52 extremely competent, structured, fun loving, dedicated group of men, women, and children who give their all twice a year to help others in need. This wonderful group of people from Faith Promise Church participate in a ministry called “Operation In As Much.” Twice a year, in the Spring and Fall, they send out approximately 800 people, in all directions to take on projects that otherwise might go undone or be put off for a long period of time.

In my case I had a lot of work to be done inside the buildings to ready them for renovation. The last of the ceilings were taken out, walls were removed so the plumber would have access to the bathroom pipes, water pipes in the attic were taken out, walls scraped, flooring pulled up, and nails pulled out. There was something for everyone to do regardless of height or size. And boy did they work! It was even hard to get them to stop for a yummy pizza lunch provided by ‘Endzone Ellie’s’, of course, it helped that its owners were helping with the work. We also had the help of two bobcats, one for the hauling and dumping of debris and the other, donated for the day by John Deere, was used for taking down the fencing and partially dead trees.

The day couldn’t have been better, with no rain, a slight breeze, and a comfortable temperature. Each group of people had a designated leader so that the work went smoothly, with each person concentrating on his or her designated job. Cora Rhew, President was on hand to run back and forth answering questions and frantically running in front of the bobcat driver so he wouldn’t put the wonderful old cedar trees on the burn pile, but save them so we could use two as replacements for the wood inserts above the mantel in the housemother’s residence and the rest as arbor supports in the walkway crossing the creek from the main facility to the garden area.

All in all it was a wonderful day spent with new friends and at the day’s end we were looking forward to our next time together, in smaller groups, to finish up what was started. For the work these people did for us and the work other volunteers did all over this area, these folks deserve a big hand!!

The noise was so deafening I thought they would never leave, but finally I was able to take a deep breath and begin wondering what will happen in 2008. Will they be back and continue cleaning me up again, with all their laughter and hard work. Will I ever have peace again? When will the flowers bloom and trees blossom? When will the moms and babies come to live in my new rooms so I can hear their laughter when they’re happy and share in their tears when sad? Ah, only God knows the answer to those questions, and he’s not telling, yet!