MOULTRIE — From Egypt to the Promised Land. Around the walls of Jericho. From Selma to Montgomery.

History has proven that when people join together and march, powerful things can happen. At least that’s what some Colquitt Countians were banking on Saturday when they took to the streets to “Pray God’s Love Be Poured Out On Moultrie.” And specifically, Moultrie’s northwest quadrant.

Kevin Williams, pastor of Glory Tabernacle and Praise Church and one of three pastors spearheading the “prayer walk,” said that one of the things that the walk would do is come against the death spirit that he and others believe had fallen on northwest Moultrie.

While some may call a death spirit nonsense, Williams seemed to have a pretty strong case.

In early June, just after the prayer walk had been announced, a house fire killed six people not far from the convenience store where an Albany man lost his life in March of this year.

The Rev. Ronnie Averitt, pastor of Grant Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Moultrie, said, “With the murder rate and all the crime in the community, the preachers have got to do something to get the church back on track. It’s time for us to take the church back.”

“Police have done a wonderful job, but they come after (a crime has occurred),” Averitt said. “(The church) has to come in before.”

Williams also said that he hoped the prayer walk would instill a sense of brotherhood among the different races of Christians in Moultrie. “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity,” said Williams, quoting Psalm 133:1.

But Williams, known for being a mover and a shaker added, “not only do you live together, you got to do something too.”

While about 60 showed up to walk, the Rev. John Eubanks, pastor of Moultrie’s Heritage Church, said as long as “two or three are gathered,” that he’d be happy, gleaning from Christ’s promise of his presence when at least two are in a place because of him.

The four-mile route circled the perimeter of northwest Moultrie beginning at Grant Chapel on West Central Avenue and then following the West Bypass onto North Main St. and back to West Central.

Jeff Milton, one of the walkers, said that his hope for the walk was that “the neighborhood would see us as a unit and for some of them to be pulled into us.” Milton also said that he wants the crowd of people ready to do more events like the prayer walk to be so big that they could go into Mack Tharpe Stadium and “out-yell the Packers.”

Before the group started, they met in Grant Chapel’s sanctuary for a time of worship and a pep-talk from Averitt where he said the church had been silent for too long, a message that receive more than a few “Amens!”

Averitt also read from II Chronicles 7:14, a verse he felt applied specifically to the walk, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

“God wants to give a new name to northwest Moultrie, that people will think about Jesus when they think of northwest Moultrie,” Eubanks told the throng.

And after a singing of “The Old Rugged Cross” seemed to cloud many an eye, the group went outside to watch Jerry Jenkins use a three-pound hammer to drive a cross in the ground.

Jenkins had a similar three-pound hammer used on him in an attack at his shop earlier this year that almost left him dead.

Averitt, Eubanks and Williams don’t want what they hope is a revival to stop. They, along with others, will converge on northwest Moultrie on July 28 for what Eubanks called “free food, fun and good news,” saying that he wants himself and others to “share the gospel with (northwest Moultrie’s residents) and just love them.”

— By Mitch Kimbrell

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Jerry Jenkins uses a three-pound hammer, similar to the one used to attack him earlier this year, to drive a cross in the front lawn of Grant Chapel AME Church in Moultrie. (





Photo by Mitch Kimbrell/The Moultrie Observer)