Published: November 12, 2009 10:16 am      

Love Loud: Hawk Creek's helping hands do it again

With people chatting during haircuts, laughing during make-overs, conferring over oil changes and saying “Ahh” to the doctor, love was indeed loud Saturday as members of Hawk Creek Baptist Church tended to those in need.

The event Love Loud, the second of its kind in less than a year, attracted more than 1,000 people and featured free oil changes, haircuts, dental exams, health exams, make-overs, legal advice and homemade vegetable soup to anyone who attended.

“I think the event was a home run,” Hawk Creek Pastor Trevor Barton said. “We had over 150 of our own volunteers out of our own church family and there were incredible stories of families that were touched.”

The parking lot of the London-Laurel County Farmers Market was particularly packed, with lines of cars waiting to get serviced. All told, 104 free oil changes were performed.

“They doubled their quota from last spring to this fall,” Barton said. “I think the average car was over 11 years old and had 200,000-plus miles.”

The London Community Center was likewise busy, with 45 gallons of soup, 500 sandwiches and “gallons and gallons and gallons of tea” served. More free food was handed out from the Feed the Children 18-wheeler parked outside, which was packed with enough food for 400 families for seven days. The meals were paid for by the church, which partnered with the national ministry for the event.

“They’re highly nutritional meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Barton said,

The idea for Love Loud got its start in churches in California and Georgia. A small group of Hawk Creek church members were researching charity events when they came across the concept and quickly started coming up with services they could provide for their own function.

“People tended to do what they do as a vocation,” Barton said.

Attendees were overwhelmingly positive about the volunteers’ generosity and spirit.

“I think it’s awesome that these people do such great things,” Becky Riley said.

Beverly Anderson agreed.

“It’s great,” she said. “It’s a good service to the community.”

Church members were also having a good time.

“It’s awesome,” Clifton Lawson said. “We’re doing it for the Lord, there’s nobody any mightier than that.

Ultimately, Barton, who hopes Hawk Creek Church will move into its new location off west KY 80 by Easter Sunday, plans to host Love Loud events in the spring and fall, as well as at Christmas time. He came away from this weekend extremely inspired.

“People were asking why we were doing this,” he said. “It was just really great to tell them it’s because we love you, it’s because we’re trying to be Christ to the community. We want to be the church not just on Sunday but every day.

Staff writer Tara Kaprowy can be reached by e-mail at tkaprowy@sentinel-echo.com.