CAIRO- On April 7, a group of Cairo locals will begin walking at 11 a.m. from Johnson’s Meat Market to the Family Worship Center for their annual Walking to the Cross event. 

Organizer Arnold Gonzales said that he’s been walking to the cross for the last 6 years, with this being his seventh. A recovering addict, he said that this event was him finally walking for Jesus. 

“I’ve been walking to the cross for the last 6 years, or should I say, the Family Worship Center from Johnson’s Meat Market,” he said. “I don’t know how many times I walked in the rain for dope, today I’m walking for Jesus.”

Currently on probation, Gonzales said he has walked alone in past years, but hopes he’ll be able to touch someone and help them learn what he had throughout the last few years. 

“If there’s just one person I can touch and help them realize, there’s more to life,” he said. “It’s just something that’s been put on my heart going on 7 years ago.”

He said that there would be nearly 60 to 70 participants this year, but that he’d love to have a spontaneous burst of participation like there was in the recent revival in Asbury, KY.

“I believe it’s up to 60 or 70,” Gonzales said. “I would love to see it up to something like Asbury in Kentucky, people just parking their cars and start walking.”

The walk will begin at 11 a.m. at Johnson’s Meat Market at 4050 GA-38, with their intended destination, the Family Worship Center, being 7 miles away, a sacred number according to Gonzales.

“Well it took God seven days, on the seventh day he rested,” Gonzales said. “That was number of completion in the Bible, the walls of Jericho, they circled it six times and on the seventh day they tooted the horns and the walls came crashing down. So hopefully the walls of addiction will come down from around a lot of people on April 7.”

Mint green shirts for the event will be sold for $10 and local law enforcement will be in attendance to keep the highway traffic from the event’s procession. 

According to Gonzales, funds raised from the shirt sales will be going toward paying for the shirt, with extra profit going toward the purchase of more 12-foot tall wooden crosses used during the event. 

“You know it takes a normal person 20 minutes to walk a mile,” he said. “30 minutes with the cross.”

With local churches getting involved, Gonzales thinks that it’ll be a very special year to remember for the Walking to the Cross event, but said that the real important thing to him was Jesus. 

“It’s not really about me, it’s just about Jesus,” he said. “Bringing people to Christ.”

To get involved and for more information, interested individuals can go to the Facebook page for the Walking to the Cross! group