Pastor Fred Cardinal is no stranger to adversity.
A tragic car accident took the life of his parents and left him severely injured at the young, impressionable age of 13.
“I really had a difficult time,” Cardinal said. “I hated myself and I hated the Lord.”
The life-changing event sent the preacher down a dark path.
“I was an alcoholic and a substance abuser,” Cardinal said. “I was living a life that I knew was going to end me up in hell.”
About two decades after the accident that altered his life, the reverend had come to the end of his rope. If he couldn’t change his life drastically, he would end it.
He went into seclusion for six weeks in a remote cabin in northern B.C. and sobered up.
“I came out of there feeling like I was set free,” Cardinal said, “and I have never had a relapse. I never went back to drinking. I never went back to drugs. I never went back to violence.”
Nowadays, Cardinal runs a cowboy church in Vernon and Falkland on Sundays.
“It’s a place where you come and you can wear your boots and your jeans and your cowboy hat,” he said. “It’s for people who don’t feel comfortable in a normal church setting. But it is for everybody. Come as you are.”
Gisela Froese and her husband George moved into the area from Penticton over a year ago and were looking for a new church. They decided to give Pastor Cardinal’s service a try.
“At first we said ‘Wow, this guy is really real’. We weren’t quite used to that,” Froese said. “But we came back and we just love him because he’s just plain and simple and speaks the truth and relates his life stories into the messages. He has a hug for everyone who walks through the door.”
“They come and they stay,” said Bertha Tande, who also attends the sermons every Sunday. “It’s a place where you really feel like you’re walking into god’s love.”
Pastor Cardinal, along with his wife Christina, holds Sunday services at two separate locations.
For a morning service, all are welcome to visit Falkland Gospel Hour at St. John’s Parish at 9:30 a.m.
Sunday evening Cowboy Church is held at 6:30 p.m. at Head of the Lake Hall in Vernon on the Okanagan Reserve.