Man walks across country carrying 75-pound cross to advocate for homeless

DANVILLE, Va. (WDBJ) - From Oregon to Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee, Nicholas Schindler has spent two years traveling across the country carrying a 75-pound cross every step of the way.

“It’s been an amazing journey,” said Nicholas Schindler, homelessness advocate. “It’s waking a lot of people up. It has helped a lot of people. It has encouraged a lot of people.”

Schindler is now heading through his hometown of Danville on his way to his final destination, Washington D.C. He’s on a mission to bring awareness to the need for affordable housing and advocate for the homeless.

“Churches do a good job in ministering to the need. But there’s so much need now, that we need to be making a greater impact. So that’s the encouragement that I’ve been seeking to share across the nation,” added Schindler.

In between the hundreds and thousands of miles he walks, he sleeps in tents or hotels. While it’s a choice now, it wasn’t when he was 18.

“For five years of my life, I personally experienced the traumas associated with homelessness. I had a really early onset look of how hard it was to not be able to know how to manage money, balance the checkbook, having shelter, the loss of identification,” said Schindler.

He says it was his faith that helped pull him out of addiction and homelessness. Now, he’s on a path to help others follow in his footsteps.

He speaks at churches and stops to talk to anyone he meets along the way, offering prayer and positivity in hopes of spreading a message larger than the cross he carries.

“I want to show people that my faith is alive and well by the works that I do and encourage others to do the same thing. We’ve got one or two choices in this life. We can look at the issues and be like, ‘oh man, stuff is bad.’ Or we can mobilize together and make it better, and love will cause us to do that.”

To follow along with Schindler’s journey, visit his Facebook page.