Craig, the general manager of Derrick Truck Stop, is spearheading an effort to construct a place of worship for truckers. The chapel, which will be located next to the existing truck stop, will offer a welcome change for the truck drivers.

Sunday worship is now carried out in the trucker’s lounge, amid the blare of television sets and the clinking of silverware. Craig believes the chapel will provide a much-needed private, formal venue.

According to Jeremy Schwartz, leader of the Sunday services, “The building is not as important as what goes on inside it.” However, he admits that the chapel will allow him more success in getting his point across.

“The privacy will help some and will give the opportunity for more one-on-one work,” he said.

Craig, a member of Main Street Baptist Church in China Grove, began the Sunday worship services after a group from Truckstop Ministries in Atlanta asked if he was interested in becoming part of their organization. With the help of the Rev. Larry Beaver, pastor of Main Street Baptist, plans began to take shape.

Schwartz, who heard about Truckstop Ministries on the radio, contacted Craig and asked if he needed a volunteer. Schwartz is a teacher at Sheets Memorial Christian School in Lexington, and he and his wife, Jennifer, volunteered to lead the services. With the Schwartzes’ help, Craig and Beaver were ready to get started. Nine months later, on the first Sunday in September 1998, the truck stop held its first worship service.

The Schwartzes’ 2-year-old daughter, Adrienne, stays with a grandmother on Sunday mornings. The couple’s newborn son, Jack, comes to the truck stop with them “because he’s still attached to his mom.”

The couple covers most Sundays. Randy Klocke, another volunteer, handles the service on the third Sunday of each month, Schwartz said. “... My wife and I were on vacation over Christmas break in 1997 and heard a radio program with Joe Hunter, and he mentioned the fact that if people were interested in helping to give them a call.”

So Schwartz called, and Hunter put him in touch with Craig at Derrick’s.

The truckers who attend the Sunday services usually stay at the truck stop all day, and Schwartz sometimes stays well into the afternoon talking to the weary travelers. Over a plate of food, he gives the truck drivers the companionship and listening ear they crave after a lonely week on the road.

Many times, only three or four people attend. Schwartz says attendance doesn’t matter, as long as he helps one person.

The low attendance actually helps the couple’s work. With fewer people, he and his wife can take more time to talk to truck drivers. In most cases, he is able to encourage them to go on with their lives and spread the word of God.

As long as the truck stop has been offering worship services, no truck driver has come more than once. But because the truckers travel such diverse paths, Schwartz believes that everything said at the worship services is spread throughout the United States.

The construction process for Derrick Truck Stop’s chapel is already well on its way. Workers poured the concrete floor on Aug. 31, and Craig, Schwartz and Beaver hope to open the chapel in early November. They just need a little more help — in money or labor.

So far, donations have reached almost $20,000, but Craig says he needs another $8,000 to finish the 24-by-40-foot frame-and-block building. The chapel will accommodate about 34 chairs at a time with a podium and altar.

Volunteers are also greatly needed for the future; today, Craig said, is the first official volunteer work day to erect the chapel building. Anbody who wants to help should just come to the truck stop at 1105 Peeler Road.

Worship leaders and people who are able to help out around the chapel on weekends are welcome, according to Beaver. Those who believe they aren’t qualified shouldn’t worry because training will be offered.

Schwartz believes that the most important thing anyone can do, however, is pray.

Craig says that the experience has changed him completely. He wishes that the new chapel and what takes place inside it will help others as well.

Truckstop Ministries is led by the Rev. Joseph Hunter, a truck driver who had a conversion experience and began witnessing to other truckers. Soon, he decided to organize a ministry, and Schwartz said Hunter and his wife now work on it full time, driving from truck stop to truck stop in a converted Greyhound bus. Besides the truckers, Hunter lobbies executives with trucking companies for financial support.

He noticed that many truckers wanted to attend church services, but because of parking problems and limited time, they weren’t able to. Through Truckstop Ministries, truckers could either be provided with transportation to local churches or could attend the worship service at the truck stop.

Roughly 54 truck stops coast to coast now participate in Truckstop Ministries, including three in North Carolina. The next closest to Derrick’s is Jake’s Red Ball truck stop in Charlotte, which has a full-time chaplain supported by local churches and contributions from the drivers and trucking companies. All worship services are nondenominational, coordinated by local churches and staffed only by volunteers.