By Steven Calhoun/Staff Writer

The church body of Lomax Assembly of God spent Saturday, Jul. 30 cleaning, painting, and sprucing up the grounds of Isabella High School.

There were between 70 and 80 people from the church who worked from 8a.m. to 2p.m. trimming bushes and trees, putting down fresh pine straw and pressure washing the sidewalks and buildings. The people of the church brought their own equipment to work with.

“They had a small army out here,” said Ricky Porter, the principal of Isabella High School. “They had it very well organized.”

The team worked on the playground repairing swings and painting some of the equipment, according to Porter. They also put a fresh coat of paint on the lines in the parking lot and the school’s sign and mailbox.

“We estimate that we did between 7 and 10 thousand dollars of work,” said Jeff Calhoun, the senior pastor of Lomax Assembly of God. “We just love knowing that we’ve been able to save them that amount of money and they can put it towards more of the education.”

The church did this event to help the community, according to Calhoun. He said the church has a sense of pride in the community, so when they saw the need they knew it would be a chance to have a positive effect.

“We just want to give to our community and let them know that we’re not here to take; we’re here to give,” said Calhoun.

On Friday, Aug. 12 a classroom of children was out playing on the playground during PE. They swung on the recently repaired swings and climbed a freshly painted slide with gleeful expressions on their first Friday back in school.

Students are not the only ones who have taken notice of the sprucing up done around the school.

“We got a lot of compliments about it,” said Porter. “Especially on our orientation night … we had lots of parents commenting on how good the grounds looked.”

Porter thanked the church and praised their work.

“They went far above and beyond what we had expected,” said Porter.