This year, Crossroads Gospel Mission was awarded United Way of Colquitt County’ s Non- Profit of the Year. Lisa Vereen Zeanah, United Way board chairman, presents the award to Crossroads Gospel Mission Director Jamie Lowery.
“ To show them, you have to have this continual support of other people who have been through what you’ re going through, and you’ re going to have to leave behind those other people, because they’ re going to drag you back to where you were,” he said.
Phase 2 of the renovation will be affordable housing for the men after they’ ve graduated from the program.
Then, the men would have a place of their own but it would still be loosely connected with Crossroads.
“ We’ re not going to let them totally loose because when we’ ve done that, too many of them have failed,” he added.
Crossroads is now looking at different options and getting bids to expand the facility that they’ re in. They were also looking into ways to address the homeless population. He said Crossroads’ approach would be to still have the one-on-one approach that is one of the principles of its mission.
“ See, that’ s the thing. Most homeless shelters, there’ s no one-on-one. You just come there, live there,” he said.“ It’ s a way station. It is. And when you leave, you’ re no better off than you were.”
He said their hope would be to transition homeless individuals from the homeless shelter into Crossroads, using the one-on-one approach. He said, also, addressing the mental health of the individuals was important.
He said they realized that getting the men who were in the Crossroads program employment did not, necessarily fix their problems.
“ They can still be right where they are. The only difference is they have money to buy drugs and alcohol. So we realized that is not a benchmark for success, having them all employed,” he added.
He said there were a lot more issues to address and mental health was a big one for their residents and the homeless population in general.
“ So we’ re in negotiations. We’ re talking about actually doing an in-house mental health with PCOM and things like that to help our people,” he said.
Benner said that all of the counselors at Crossroads were volunteers and each person who comes in is matched up with a volunteer.
“ You have to have a life coach is what we call them. So we have volunteers, and that’ s your life coach,” he said.“ When you come in, whoever the person would be, that’ s the person that calls on you, checks on you, meets with you weekly, prays with you. That’ s the person that walks you through and helps you with either your license or Social Security card, whatever it might be.”
He said they have been blessed with a lot of volunteers and God has poured out his favor on them.
Mr. Randy’ s ability to discern and speak truth in love had a profound impact on me. His words, though simple, carried a depth that reached into the brokenness I was experiencing and illuminated a path toward healing.”
~ Jamie Lowery, former Crossroads resident and now executive director
24 MoultrieScene AUGUST 2025