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Greetings in the wonderful name of our personal Lord and Savoir Jesus Christ.  Before I begin, I want to thank you in advance for reading this.  The only way to convey Blessings and ask for Blessings in return is to explain why "Walk The Cross" exists...

My name is Al DeLeo.   I am a Christian Pastor doing mission work in the United States and Country of Romania.

Walk The Cross Ministry is located in the Greater Fort Lauderdale area of Florida, with a small Mission House in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.  Our mission serves and supports the poor, orphans, elderly and the physically and mentally challenged and those who have had and currently have contact with the criminal justice system in United States and serves and supports the poor, orphans, elderly and the physically and mentally challenged in Romania.

We attend to medical needs and supply medicines and medical equipment, food, clothing, and educational materials and programs and job skills training to the less-fortunate of society.  In addition, when funds are available to our mission, we pay for local tuition for special programs and counseling, and provide transportation for those in need on an emergency basis, as well as do other things to improve or bring a quality of life to these less-fortunate people.

The Beginnings...

I was not always a “Christian”.   I knew the Book not the Author.  Though baptized in the Roman Catholic religion as a baby, I was re-baptized as an adult in 1981, and then rededicated my life as a Christian again on 1984, in a Christian Church.  Between 1975 through to 1984 I attended non-residential college and university programs and seminary in Theology and Law, and led a very private and different life on the fringes of society that my family and friends were never aware of.  I actually led three different lives, while having the appearance of living a troubled life.

I have been through many trials and tribulations with my life.  I used to think that I was a "Christian", but I was never sure, and kept on backsliding in my life.   I had several professional vocations that I purposefully destroyed because.. well... probably sheer anger, arrogance, ego and stupidity (how else can I say this - it's the truth!).

During my journey as a young man I encountered legal problems and divorces, went to prison, and faced tragedy. Let's face reality here... How many of you really believe in humanity? How many of you will stand-up for what you believe in, give a voice and muscle to those who can't speak-up and defend themselves, then go to prison as as retaliation for fighting for the underdog.  Then, come home, contibue fighting for the underdog and given them a voice and go back to prison again after you lost your favorite uncle, your father and four other people you loved between Thanksgiving and New Years day (over a six week period). The most difficult of all, you lose your Dad on Christmas Day in the middle of all of this wreckage you considered your life.

On top of this all, you then lose your business and professional licenses - and you have not done a thing wrong.  This is what happened to me.

Having a big mouth advocating for the less fortunate or the politically incorrect things were not kind to me.

As you can probably read in between the lines above, in the beginning I was born a troubled child and turned-into a troubled, young man.  Interestingly enough, I never drank, smoked marijuana or cigarettes, and never took drugs - I never liked any of those things.  But, I made up for them in other areas of my life.

Because of the past that I was dealt with in life, there is no doubt in anyone's mind who knows me that I should be an angry man at the world right now, looking to take my anger out on people.  I am not.  On the contrary...

God has filled me with the Joy of Hope, Love and Charity through the saving Grace and shed blood of Jesus Christ.  I am now destined for Heaven.  The Salvation of Jesus Christ took me out of the pit of Hell and a bad place in my life and bought me back to become a humble worker and servant for God.

Mind you, I have always been an advocate and voice for the downtrodden, the underdog, the less-fortunate . And... I have come up against those in powerful positions and held my ground.  Some battles I lost and paid dearly for the fight, and other battles I won which changed lives.

I am not complaining.  For Paul explained to the Philipians in 4:11 "If I can't be content with a little, I wont be content with a lot." (paraphrased).  So, the battles might not have been well-chosen by me, but, none-the-less, they were chosen when the less-fortunate could not fight for themselves and did not have a voice, and I fought for them.  This is how God made me!

I have no regrets of my past and what I was dealt with in life.  With my walk with Jesus Christ, I have come to realize that God carried me all of the way and has NEVER let me down yet!

As a 59 year old man (at the date of this writing), and a Christian, I look back on the life I led.   I was accused, convicted and went to prison for things I did not do, and never caught for things I did do.  But, I have come to realize with my walk with God that Jesus forgives unconditionally and it all balances out at the end.

The sequence of events in my life led me to have a stronger, deeper love for God and His Son Jesus Christ...

I lost my dad on Christmas Day many years ago, and just before that I lost four other people between Thanksgiving week and Christmas Day, and another one By the time New Year's Day came.  I loved all of them very dearly  Then, an interesting thing happened... I went to prison for the second time.  In prison, God got my attention....

The first half of my life...well, up until I was about 37 years old, was a complete wreck.  Though, I never used alcohol, drugs, pot or smoked cigarettes, none-the-less, I was self-destructive to myself and others in my life.

There had to be a better way.  My older sister who is a devoted Christian, never gave up on me.  And, two cousins and two sets of family friends (one Christian Family and one Jewish family), never gave up on me.  These people I credit with who I am today as a Child of God.  They instilled the love of God in me.

Prior to my change of heart, I was a part-time Pastor in an Independent Catholic Church which I am still involved with, but, at the time prior to prison, I was just to selfish, ignorant, and living in my own, fast-paced world to take the time to stop and smell God's Roses of Life!.  Then...

In 1992, at the age of 37 I was serving a prison sentence of twelve years.  One morning in my cell when I was about to start shaving I heard a voice speaking directly to me... I looked around my cell, then looked in the mirror, wondering who was talking to me.  This voice was as plain as you and I holding a conversation face-to-face.

I thought it was a Correction Officer talking through the crack in my door.  I looked out the door and no one was there.  My cell was at the end of a second floor walkway, and no one came come from the left side of the door because there were two showers and it was a dead-end. So, the only logical place to come from was coming from the right side of my cell door... no one was there.  I went back to shaving.

The voice talking to me started again while I was shaving.  I just shrugged my shoulders and continued to shave, thinking it was my imagination.

However, in the back of my mind I listened to the voice which said for me to look in the mirror at myself, and that cages were meant for animals, and the voice asked if I looked like an animal.  So, I complied.

I looked in the mirror and said... "no, I do not look like an animal."  Then I asked myself "what am I doing here?"  It was as if blinders were lifted off of me.

You see, I was so filled with myself and fighting the world, that I never stopped to look at the person God made me to be.  I did not care if I went to jail or prison... I will show them who is right, tougher and prove my point!  Stupid, stupid, VERY STUPID, ignorant and selfish thinking on my part.  I was an idiot!  I abandoned my family to prove I was right... by going to prison!

But, now, well, it was different!  Why am I in a cage like an animal?

Then the voice said to me "I allowed you to be here so I can get your attention!"

I was a little startled at that.  Nothing else went on that day.  The day ended up uneventful.  But what happened in my cell that morning kept playing in my mind over and over again, all day long and all night long.

That night, while reading my Bible, I fell asleep.  I had a dream....

I was in the desert running from Satan.  The land was hot, arid and desolate, and the sun was beating on me and I felt I was in a furnace.

Then, all of a sudden, dark, dismal clouds were starting to cover the sky like it was going to rain.

Then... Satan appears with thousands of his demons behind me and starts chasing me.  I started running from him.

As I ran from Satan I could feel him gaining on me, getting closer and closer.  It was as if he was a blowtorch and his flames were at my heels.

As I was running, I was looking for an escape.  I ran through desert valleys, I ran over mesas and summits.  I keep on trying to get away, but Satan was on my heels.  I could not shake him.  I kept looking behind me and there was Satan and his demons still gaining on me.  I was getting exhausted and running out of energy to keep going.

As I was running, I came to the top of a mesa and then down into a narrow gully with walls rising high to the left and right of me, and deep abyss valley in front of me with a plateau on the other side of the abyss.  I was at the edge.  Nowhere to go.  stopped dead in my tracks.  I could not go any further. I was tired, I was hungry and my soul was exhausted of all of its strength to keep going.

Before me was the end of the gully at the edge of the abyss, a deep valley, an abyss not two feet in front of me where the cliff fell to nowhere below but dark, black space.   There was no where to turn.  Satan behind me and gully, cliff walls on each side of me, with an abyss directly in front of me.   To the left, right and rear of me was blocked.  If I stepped forward I would fall hundreds and hundreds of feet into darkness.  Behind me were Satan and his Demons, and they were catching up to me pretty fast.  The high walls on each side of me.  I was stuck and at the end.  All I could see across the abyss were green fields on a plateau.  No way to get there for escape and survival.

I was at the dead-end of my life, and I finally realized this.  So, I cried out and asked God to help me and forgive me of my sins.  I earnestly and sincerely.. and very humbly... asked Jesus into my life to become my personal Lord and Savoir.  I asked God to take the wreckage of my life and make something positive out of it.

I cried as I have never cried before.

As tears were rolling down my cheeks I was crying out to God.  I could feel Satan's heat.  His flames were starting to singe my shoes and clothes behind me.  Just then I looked across the deep abyss to the other side where the other piece of land was.

Standing right in front of me, on the other side of this dry, desolate, dusty, place and across this huge abyss, I could now see Jesus standing on that green, grassy plateau, in a green pasture with flowers and trees and running water and happy people.

Suddenly, a loud rumble and roar came from the sky.  The roar rumbled, the ground shook.  It startled me.  Out of reaction to find out where the noise came from, I instinctively looked up.

As I was staring up at the sky the clouds opened up and a huge Cross started to fall from the sky.  The bottom of the Cross fell right where I was standing, right in front of me, at the cliff's edge of the abyss, and fell over to the other side, making a bridge.

Just as the top of the Cross laid on the ground on the other side where Jesus was standing, I looked at Jesus.  He waved to me and motioned with his hands to come towards him, holding out-stretched arms.

As he did this, He said in a pure, beautiful voice that sounded like fresh air and springtime,... "Alfred, Walk The Cross.  Don't look down, just Walk The Cross and come to me."

I got up on the Cross and started walking, carefully placing one foot in front of the other.  But, when I looked back to see how far Satan was, and then I looked down to the abyss valley I started to wobble and was getting close to falling off of the Cross and and risked falling deep, down into the abyss.

Then, I heard Jesus say "Alfred, do not look down, do not look behind you.  Just look at me, just look at me and Walk The Cross."  Jesus said this every time I got the shakes and kept looking down and behind me.

It was this time that I realized that I knew the Book but not the Author and I lacked confidence in Jesus Christ, thinking I could go at life all alone as the big shot.  I realized just then that all I was was a little black spot in a huge world that did not matter and I needed Jesus... I was a nothing compared to God!

Finally, I got the courage to reach out and trust Him.

So, I pulled myself together, and ran toward Jesus, and ran right into His arms while tears streamed down my face.

When I reached Jesus, the huge Cross suddenly returned into the clouds.  Jesus and I watched the Cross return to the Heavens.

From that day forward, I have been a Child of God and His humble worker.  I am now serving Him as a non-Denominational Christian Pastor on one side, and a Catholic Priest on the other side.  I do not worry about Church doctrines.  I preach Jesus first.  Church doctrine comes later.

Is my life and struggles easier?   With Jesus there are still struggles in my life, but on the Name of Jesus Christ, they are much easier to deal with.  Jesus gives us a way out.  God will never give us more than we can handle if we just take the time to listen to Him.  And, as a Child of God, God will supply our needs, but may not always give us our "wants".

My walk with Jesus Christ has led me to my current work in the mission field in the United States and Romania.  God sent me to Romania to research the cultural problems to see if I can assist with spiritual needs there because I have family there and it was a starting point for our Church's world-missions program, even though we are a small mission Church.

When I arrived in Romania and saw first-hand the cultural problems, I was heartbroken.  I needed to do more to help the people of Romania.  Then, in the United States, I saw poverty first-hand, also.  Now, I am on a mission to make things right with God and His children.

I am now bringing my testimony and the Salvation of Jesus Christ, along with food, medicines and medical services, clothing, housing and educational services and materials to the poor, less-fortunate families, elderly, orphans and physically and mentally challenged of the United States and Romania, when I can get them.  But, our Ministry has several sides to it.

Besides assisting the less-fortunate, our Ministry also assists young people attending Colleges and Universities here with tuition and sustenance.  And yet, on still another side, we assist local communities with business development which will create jobs and provide adult and parenting living skills.

Are you faced with challenges and tragedies in life that you seem to not have the strength to carry on any longer?  Do you feel you are walking a Cross but are about to fall off it into the deep, abyss - that pit of hell?

Well, my friends, Jesus has laid that Cross before you and made a bridge to a new life from your desert to His green pastures, over that deep abyss.  I challenge each and every one of you to "Walk The Cross!"  Jesus is waiting with His arms stretched out, to hold you and love you like you have never been held and loved before.

If you would like to help us in our Ministry work, please visit Our Needs page by clicking here: OUR NEEDS.