Locals may have wondered why a man was carrying a cross through downtown Checotah on Nov. 15 and then through Eufaula on Nov. 19, but for those who were brave enough to stop and ask, one man’s journey across America may have stirred other’s faith to take up their cross too.
Originally a Virginia native, Pastor Nick Schindler of Redemption Railroad Ministries has been on a mission to tell others about the love of God that literally put him on the path to rehabilitation, reformation and total restoration.
“I started a little over two years ago training in Oregon with a much smaller cross, but I literally traded my cane for a cross,” Schindler said.
Schindler, who had suffered from two vehicle accidents which injured his pelvis and back, had been going to therapy and was having to learn to walk again. Yet even while he was on pain management God told him to take up his cross and walk the nation. So he started with a 45-pound cross but as he grew in strength he traded the smaller cross for the 75-pound cross he carries today.
“When God calls you to do something, He’s going to equip you and strengthen you to do it. Through this whole process He’s helped me and now I can literally run with this cross. Though doctors said I’d have to have a hip replacement and I had debilitating pain that ran up both my legs and into my spine, as I carried the cross my body actually got stronger each day. Through my injury God started teaching me not only about the foundation of my spine, but also about the foundation of the Church. Just like the pelvis is the foundation, particularly for the back and legs providing stability for the movement of the body, the foundation of the Church is Jesus Christ , the Chief Cornerstone, and all other stones rest on that firm foundation.”
Schindler demonstrated through his physical foundation the importance of the Church maintaining their spiritual foundation of truth for their own spiritual health and well-being. His own testimony of being displaced in his younger years and having to resort to selling his body to survive on the streets, only to end up HIVpositive, would seem heartbreaking to most, but not to him. No matter how bad he felt, he trusted God even when others had to physically pick him up and put him into their cars to get him to church.
Doctors had all but given up on him and refused to treat him because his CD4+, also known as T-cells, were in the 30’s, which meant he needed to be put on hospice for palliative care only. (A T-cell count of less than 200 is Stage 4 and his doctor had never seen someone with their count so low that was still fighting to live.) But Schindler wouldn’t give up and that’s when his pastor pulled the doctor aside privately into another room. “To this day I have no idea what my pastor said to my doctor but when they came out of that room he told me that they were going to try some extremely aggressive treatment and they did,” he said. “Now I’ve been in remission for years and I have been able to speak at several churches, as well as minister to people on the street with the help of other ministers, like Pastor Chris Chadsey, that Jesus loves us even when bad things happen.”
Chadsey, who walks with Schindler across small towns but picks him up once he walks across bigger cities, also is a testimony of God’s great love. He stated that he knew he had a calling on his life to preach when he was young but he ran from God and turned to alcohol to cope with life. But God kept pursuing him and now he’s been traveling with Schindler spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ to anyone who will hear.
Schindler knows God definitely pulled him from death’s door to be a walking, talking testament of His unfailing love and His never-ending grace and mercy. However, he sees the Church as a whole needing to step it up to bring the light of hope to those in need, especially to the hurting and homeless population which is growing at a frightening rate across the United States.
“As I walked through towns and cities, I literally retrained my body and spirit under the weight of the cross,” Schindler said. “Then I started really looking at the foundation of the Church, the foundation of the gospel and the foundation of our nation, and realized how desperately we all need to take the cross daily. In all my years of ministry and even in these past few years of mobile ministry with my wife traveling across eight states, we have never seen such a crisis as we are seeing today in America. The crisis of homelessness, especially among our veterans, and the lack of hope across our nation is growing rapidly. Statistics show that 60-70% of our nation’s homeless are people who have served in our military. It’s got to stop but it starts with us saying ‘Not one more.’
“Suicide rates are at a staggering high and division is running rampant. Even within our own churches there is division with 33,000 different denominations. Yet the Apostle Paul in Ephesian 4 obliterated division when he wrote ‘I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, exhort you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you were called. With all humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another in love, be eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.’” Schindler truly believes that if the Church doesn’t step up to help, things are going to continue to get worse. So he’s walking with a message to be your brother’s keeper and get involved within your community to be the hands and feet of Jesus by serving others. He also stated that this year his ministry has been blessed to give around $70,000 to people in need because it’s hard to believe God loves you if you have never been a recipient of His loving kindness. And it’s hard to hear that message while your stomach is rumbling.
“I’m grateful God has kept me for such a time as this, as we try to bring awareness that almost 600,000 people in our nation on any given day are experiencing homelessness and hunger. Even our children go home from school to bare pantries. Meanwhile, Protestant church revenue today is averaging $74.5 million annually. So I walk to promote change in Jesus’ name. I want to challenge people to fight for your neighbor not against him. It’s time to be the Church and be your brother’s keeper because there’s no hope without the cross and the love of Jesus.”
