{"id":16026,"date":"2021-05-19T01:48:18","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T01:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=16026"},"modified":"2021-05-20T00:57:09","modified_gmt":"2021-05-20T00:57:09","slug":"bearing-crosses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/19\/bearing-crosses\/","title":{"rendered":"Bearing Crosses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local war vet, country rocker <\/i><\/span>launches 1st annual Cross Walk<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Robbie Walden, and his wife Yvonne. Photo credit: Robbie Walden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the film \u201cGladiator,\u201d Russell Crowe\u2019s character\u2014a general in the Roman army\u2014is asked by Emperor Marcus Aurelius this question: \u201cWhat is Rome?\u201d The loyal officer responds: \u201cI\u2019ve seen much of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark. Rome is the light.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Robbie Walden, the harsher world is his personal past, and the light is his focused vocation to share his truth as a member of Life Church in Hailey and beyond, specifically through his nonprofit organization, It Takes A Village Ministries.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cI\u2019ve tried everything under the sun \u2026 but only one thing changed anything or fixed anything, my faith in Jesus Christ,\u201d explains Walden, the Iraqi war veteran and Purple Heart recipient who had battled PTSD and other conditions for years.<\/p>\n

It is with that level of earnestness and excitement that Walden and his wife Yvonne are launching what they plan to be an annual weekend of worship here called Cross Walk. The three-day affair takes place June 11 to 13 with a 33-mile cross-bearing hike on that Saturday, June 12, up two mountains: Quigley and Carbonate.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Two maps indicate the route of the Saturday Cross Walk event (l) and the Friday music\/prayer event atop Quigley Mountain (r). Images credit: Robbie Walden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Friday event is called \u201cMusic on the Mountain\u201d where Walden, a one-time Nashville singer-songwriter with Curb Records, will perform atop Quigley Mountain and hold a prayer service.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be praying for our graduates, our country, our Valley. Everybody\u2019s welcome,\u201d Walden said.<\/p>\n

The 33-mile excursion on Saturday will be new for the Valley, but not for Walden. He\u2019s taken part in a 100-mile version of the event in Louisiana where he literally carried the cross up the local mountain there. The event, Walden said, has also been taking place for about a decade now, in Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. While participants should be dressed in athletic wear and hiking or running shoes, Walden said the pace won\u2019t be grueling for the average person. In addition, there will be a shuttle service at seven different locations from Bellevue to Ketchum where people can tap out or tap in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe van is going to have everything we\u2019ll need\u2014snacks, water, sunblock, basic first-aid,\u201d Walden said.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the event settles in at Life Church at 931 North River Street in Hailey, where Walden is a member, for a more traditional sermon. Details on meeting times and locations can be found on Walden\u2019s nonprofit ministry website ItTakesAVillageMinistries.org.<\/p>\n

The Backstory<\/b><\/p>\n

Walden\u2019s last five years have been spent here in the Valley. But it\u2019s his years prior that led him to his life\u2019s calling. In his youth, Walden was adopted by a family after suffering what he called \u201csevere child abuse\u201d and \u201csomething you battle as a kid and as an adult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the rough start in life, Walden excelled at both athletics and music. He was offered a full-ride scholarship to wrestle for the University of Oregon, but turned it down. The Army had an even better offer: to wrestle for the All-Army Wrestling Team, a sort of feeder program for the Team USA Olympic wrestling. Walden burned out on wrestling rather quickly, but not from life in the military. He earned the rank of sergeant and was a part of special operations unit.<\/p>\n

In 2001, during the events of 9\/11, Walden was stationed at a base in New York. He was part of the rescue crews who discovered the remains of the victims there. By 2004, he was serving in Iraq when his team got ambushed. Walden survived it but not before taking a bullet to the heart-side of his chest near his shoulder, an injury that produced a Purple Heart Award and three surgeries that has left him with \u201ca system of\u00a0 <\/span>eight pulleys\u201d in his shoulder so his upper-body muscles operate properly.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, I\u2019m blessed,\u201d observed Walden, who said more than 10 of his military buddies are no longer alive, not due to war, but to its aftermath\u2014suicide.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s little wonder that many of the people who now worship with Walden and take part in the Cross Walks around the nation are military veterans.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeek and you shall find,\u201d Walden says, quoting scripture. \u201cI really see myself as an evangelist. I want to share my story everywhere I can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local war vet, country rocker launches 1st annual Cross Walk By Eric Valentine In the film \u201cGladiator,\u201d Russell Crowe\u2019s character\u2014a general in the Roman army\u2014is asked by Emperor Marcus Aurelius this question: \u201cWhat is Rome?\u201d The loyal officer responds: \u201cI\u2019ve seen much of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark. Rome is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,6,18,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community","8":"category-event","9":"category-news","10":"category-religion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16026"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16096,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16026\/revisions\/16096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}