God loves Chandler. That's the message six of the town's churches were hoping to get across Saturday through a special volunteer effort called 'Love Chandler.'

About 60 congregation members from four denominations were involved in the project, which included a variety of service activities throughout the town.

Groups handed out free water and baked goods at the intersection of the town's single stoplight, at State Road 62 and State Street, while another group offered free baked treats door-to-door.

One crew helped clean up Chandler's main thoroughfares, picking up litter. Another group trimmed around the sidewalks along State Road 62, and even helped a couple of elderly residents with their trimming needs.

Other projects included painting and general maintenance at both of the town's parks, and providing free car vacuuming and window washing services at Lynnville National Bank's Chandler branch.

Chandler Church of the Nazarene, Chandler Cumberland Presbyterian, Chandler United Methodist, Cypress Missionary Baptist, Faith Free Will Baptist and New Hope Community churches were all involved in organizing the project.

"There were two purposes (for the event)," said Geoff Bunting, a pastor at New Hope Community Church. "The first was basically just to show God's love through simple, tangible acts of service and kindness. And the second purpose was just for the churches to be united, for us to all come together and serve our community together."

Kenton Daugherty, pastor of Chandler Church of the Nazarene, said it's that unity that offers an example for others to follow.

"Strictly from the spiritual side, I would hope that Christ would be lifted up; that would be the number one thing," said Daugherty. "And then, the other thing, too, is a sense that the community has a kindness about it - just a sense that there is a kindness in the midst of when we're having to deal with anger management and all the other stuff that goes on around us."

To impress their unity, all of the volunteers wore T-shirts that had a large, red heart symbol and 'Love Chandler' printed on the back. The same logo was used on business cards, which were handed out to people accepting the project's free gifts.

The sponsor churches' information was printed on the front of the cards, with the back of the card explaining the project's mission: "We hope this small gift brings some joy to your day. It's a simple way of saying God loves you and Chandler's churches are here to serve you - no strings attached."

According to Bunting, many people offered to give donations for the services or free gifts, but volunteers turned the money away. He said the event was just about offering a small, kind gesture with no expectation of a reward.

"It was an effort to say we're here and this is the spirit of our Lord and Savior, to give and to give in love," agreed Daugherty, "and that's the spirit that it was done in."

But, that doesn't mean the volunteers didn't find their own rewards.

"There was actually one lady who participated who came up to me afterwards and said, 'I'm 80 years old and I've never done anything like this before, but I think it's great and I hope I'm around next year so we can do it again,' or something to that effect," said Bunting. "And it was really cool. It was very obvious that the people who participated really enjoyed it and felt touched by it."