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Weather cant slow down Habitat crews
01.27 habitat 2
At Saturday's Christ Build enough volunteers showed up to help raise the roof on the new house. - photo by Photo by Pat Donahue

Gloomy skies, a persistent and nettlesome rain and another cool Saturday couldn’t get in the way of the Habitat for Humanity’s Christ Build project.

Nearly 120 workers, from 10 different churches, came to Ephesus Church to help Habitat with its latest homebuilding project.

“We were expecting 60,” said George Groce, “and all of a sudden, you’ve got 120 people.”

The flooring for the home had been the previous weekend, when crews took on below-freezing temperatures to get that part of the construction done. So a little rain wasn’t going to get in the way to put up the walls and most of the roof.

“They don’t want to quit,” said Brett Gordon. “From last weekend, to when it was 19 degrees, when George and the crew worked like there was no tomorrow, it’s not like the post office but (these conditions) won’t deter them.”

Crews had the walls up by 11:30 in the morning and then went to work on getting the roof done.

“This has been a phenomenal turnout for us,” said Jimmy Rutland, a member of the Habitat board of directors and a part of the First Baptist Church of Springfield’s contingent. “We didn’t expect quite so many but we couldn’t have gotten quite so much done without the numbers.”

Groce said Habitat also made some connections through the Christ Build efforts.

“We met a lot of people who worked for different businesses who want to donate to Habitat,” he said.

Churches that took part included Port Wentworth Alliance, Christ Community Church, Ephesus Church, Savannah Christian Church, Miller Grove Missionary Baptist, Rincon United Methodist Church, Crossroads Baptist, Effingham Baptist, First Baptist Church of Springfield and St. Mary Magdalene Orthodox Mission.

“This is probably the best ecumenical effort in the county we have seen,” Rutland said. “Our mission is to represent Christ and we do that by building homes. That’s one way we do it.”