THE PULPIT: New Christian glad to pick up, carry his cross

New converts to Christianity often make a lot of pledges: They'll attend church each week, help the poor, and act with love and kindness toward others.

Carlos Sanchez, 38, who says he was saved eight months ago, has taken it a step further.

Beginning at 6 a.m. Saturday, the Colorado Springs resident planned to walk more than 17 miles on the Santa Fe Trail, from Palmer Lake to Woodmen Road, bearing a 13-foot cross on his shoulder. He estimated that the walk would take him five hours.

His reason for carrying the 42-pound wooden cross was to bring people to Christianity.

Skeptics might label Sanchez's walk a publicity stunt. But on the fliers he made about his excursion, his name is never mentioned. And when I asked him about his moving company, he said he didn't want its name in the story because he doesn't want the walk to generate customers for his business.

"The only one I want recognized is Jesus," he says.

Sanchez's story is that of the prodigal son. By age 16 he was a full-fledged drug addict, he says. From ages 19 to 25, he fathered five children with four women, and was married and divorced by age 27. He did four stints in rehab by the time he was 30.

"He was doing everything but the right thing," says his grandmother, Lupe Valdez, whom Sanchez has lived with off and on over the years.

Raised in Colorado Springs by a mother and stepdad who he felt never loved him, Sanchez says he carried an inner loneliness that abated only after he truly accepted Christ into his life last year. Since that time, he's remained clean and sober, he says. He's also volunteered at and donated money to two Colorado Springs churches. And he's helped out each weekend at the The Street Church, a downtown ministry that reaches out to the poor.

"I am finally part of something, and it feels great," says Sanchez, who became engaged in January to Lahela Teixeira, a 30-year-old Colorado Springs resident and devout Christian.

But will his Christian zeal prove to be just another high for a lifelong addict? Will he backslide once the novelty of his new faith wears off?

His fiancée isn't sure. "He could turn back to drugs," Teixeira says. "That is a possibility. But if he stays in the Word, God will keep him."

Sanchez isn't sure he can remain clean, either. "But I've walked so long on the dark side," he says, "I've reached the point where there is no looking back."

As Sanchez experiences his first spring as a Christian, he's enjoying himself. "This is the first time in my life that I have noticed the flowers beginning to bloom, and the green leaves appearing on the trees, and the sunshine on the mountains," he says.

As for his future, Sanchez says, "I'll be waiting on God to see what he brings."

To read an update on how Sanchez's Saturday walk turned out, go to my blog, The Pulpit.

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Call the writer at 636-0367.