Great Bend resident Kenn Neyland walked up and down Main Street on Monday, carrying a large wooden cross. Now 86 years old, it’s something he’s done for the past 10 years.

Wearing his white bucket hat and a black coat, he paused for a photo and lifted a finger skyward in the “One Way” symbol for followers of Jesus. Neyland has carried that 35-pound cross (which does have a small wheel on its base) down the streets of nearly 200 Kansas towns and 24 U.S. states. He travels by van but only counts the treks on foot as “cross miles,” which he said have now reached about 5,500. The latest miles were logged on a mission to states in the Northwest in September.

He hands people he meets a bookmark that shows a cross with the words “He is risen,” and beneath that “The Crossman’s Prayer.” It includes a prayer he himself has prayed: “Lord, God, I don’t have to tell you I’m in trouble; I need a miracle. I can’t do this without you. Lord, God, I can’t do anything without you.”

In 2021, he told the Brunswick News (serving the Golden Isles area in Georgia) that if his life had ended at 74 years old, he might never be remembered as anything but a semipro ball player, bank robber, convict, screenwriter and author. “After a quick Google search back at the office, it adds up. Mostly,” the reporter concluded.

His books, self-published by Neyland Enterprises, include “Return to Yankee Stadium: A Tribute to Roger Maris,” and “Project Reclaim: Youth Corrections for the New Millennium.”