A sign for all nations
Mantels, ministry team install over 700 crosses worldwide
By Ben Sonnek
STAFF WRITER
Bill and Carol Mantel have taken up their cross — and left its footprint around the world.
For the past 17 years, the Cambridge couple and their Christian Cross Ministries team have installed hundreds of crosses, from the Mantel’s home state of Minnesota to the other side of the globe.
“It’s a joy to get another one up,” Carol said. “It’s like, ‘Wow, God, who would dream that, at our age, you’d ask us to put up crosses?’”
Today, there are over 700 CCM crosses worldwide, including in Africa, Asia, Israel, South America, Slovakia, the Philippines and, of course, the United States. They stand at homes, businesses, mountains and all kinds of locations.
“The stories are amazing of how God has used (the crosses) and is still using them,” Carol said. “I could go on and on and on about different testimonies. … Some break your heart, some are joyous, some are in church, some aren’t. They’re all extreme.”
The crosses are made of wood, steel or aluminum, depending on the request and what is locally available. Crosses in the Philippines, for instance, are made of stainless steel to prevent salt corrosion. In Minnesota, a friend of the Mantels, John Bones, has welded hundreds of aluminum crosses for CCM and is continuing to do so.
CCM planted 75 crosses in 2024, one of them going to Jodi Niblett in Nelson. After her friend, Connie Spanswick, got one for her yard, Niblett had a CCM cross placed behind the barn at her home in memory of her husband, Edward “Ed”, who passed away in 2020. The cross stands 25 feet tall and overlooks the Niblett family farm.
“He went to heaven,” Niblett said. “The cross itself is a reminder we lost somebody very special. It’s (also) a reminder every day to be a good Christian, … and we should try hard to be better people.”
Niblett eventually wants to put lighting on the cross, and she will soon be adding a flower garden and a bench there.
“I think (the Mantels) have an incredibly good mission,” Niblett said. “They were so nice to work with (and) were a blessing to me.”
The crosses would not likely be where they are today were it not for a car crash in 1994.
That day, Bill was stopped at a red light in Cleveland, Ohio. He was in the area to make a sales call, but, at the time, was headed to dinner with an aunt and uncle he had not seen in a decade.
His plans — all of them — changed when a truck rear-ended his vehicle, breaking his neck.
Bill was rushed to the hospital and had to be resuscitated when his heart stopped. He had a successful surgery about a week later, preventing him from being paralyzed. However, his brain was affected by its time without oxygen, resulting in short-term memory loss, dyslexia and impaired mathematical ability.
Perhaps the worst side effect, though, was the chronic, excruciating pain in Bill’s neck and back, and he became addicted to painkilling medication. The Mantels had just bought the original 1888 Ordway mansion in St. Paul, planning to fix it up days before the accident, but Bill lost his job and fell into depression.
Then, 12-and-a-half years later, Bill’s friend, Glen Huff, told him God wanted them to go to South Africa. Bill had been there several times before, and although he was in poor traveling condition, Huff offered to take care of everything, including the baggage and driving.
While there, they met with author and evangelist Angus Buchan. The day was Jan. 18, 2006, and as Buchan prayed over Bill, it began to rain outside like he had never seen before.
“I felt a release, … (and Buchan) said, ‘There’s your sign,’” Bill said.
That day, Bill threw away all his pills. Carol could not believe it until he returned home and did not have any medication on him. The doctor who examined Bill was more astonished by the lack of addiction than he was about Bill’s cured chronic pain.
“(The doctor) said to me, … ‘You don’t get off (painkillers) in a day after that long; you have all kinds of withdrawals, and nothing happened to the guy,’” Carol said. “That was a confirmation, and we’ll always be grateful.”
Bill wanted to do something in gratitude for his healing, so, in September 2008, with the help of family and friends, he put up a 24-foot-tall wood cross at the intersection of Highway 65 and County Road 2, five miles south of Mora, near the home where he and Carol had raised their four children. He also started writing daily devotions online, and, when his readership started growing to the 6,300-plus people it has today, he got a group together and had the idea to found CCM and put up more crosses to declare the glory of God.
Last fall, the Mantels had to go buy concrete on a Sunday for an installation because it had been forgotten. They did not want to be shopping on the Lord’s Day, but, when they reached the store, they met a man whose wife had died the previous year, leaving him with a 3-month-old baby and four other children under 10 years old. He noticed the crosses on the trailer and, when he learned about CCM, had his own cross installed the next day.
“I cried the whole day,” Carol said. “It was a divine appointment on a Sunday in a parking lot.”
CCM has a goal of planting a cross in every state in the U.S. As of now, the East Coast, West Coast and Hawaii do not have crosses.
Another blessing for the Mantels is the cross planted at the Cambridge Christian School in Cambridge. When CCM facilitated its installation, the Mantels thought it would be closer to the school’s main sign. Instead, when Carol sits in front of her TV, she can see the illuminated cross through the narrow front window.
“That gave me great joy,” Carol said. “This is probably our last house. … God blessed me by making me able to see it.”
The crosses are planted for free, and the Mantels encourage anyone who wants a cross to contact them through christiancrossministries.org. They also accept donations in support of the CCM mission.
As more crosses go up around the world, the Mantels are eager to see the enthusiasm of their team and the lives touched by these simple reminders of God’s love.
“One thing I’ve learned at my age is that, if it’s God’s idea, it happens,” Carol said. “It gets me excited to see how God moves on a ministry.”
By Ben Sonnek
STAFF WRITER
Bill and Carol Mantel have taken up their cross — and left its footprint around the world.
For the past 17 years, the Cambridge couple and their Christian Cross Ministries team have installed hundreds of crosses, from the Mantel’s home state of Minnesota to the other side of the globe.
“It’s a joy to get another one up,” Carol said. “It’s like, ‘Wow, God, who would dream that, at our age, you’d ask us to put up crosses?’”
Today, there are over 700 CCM crosses worldwide, including in Africa, Asia, Israel, South America, Slovakia, the Philippines and, of course, the United States. They stand at homes, businesses, mountains and all kinds of locations.
“The stories are amazing of how God has used (the crosses) and is still using them,” Carol said. “I could go on and on and on about different testimonies. … Some break your heart, some are joyous, some are in church, some aren’t. They’re all extreme.”
The crosses are made of wood, steel or aluminum, depending on the request and what is locally available. Crosses in the Philippines, for instance, are made of stainless steel to prevent salt corrosion. In Minnesota, a friend of the Mantels, John Bones, has welded hundreds of aluminum crosses for CCM and is continuing to do so.
CCM planted 75 crosses in 2024, one of them going to Jodi Niblett in Nelson. After her friend, Connie Spanswick, got one for her yard, Niblett had a CCM cross placed behind the barn at her home in memory of her husband, Edward “Ed”, who passed away in 2020. The cross stands 25 feet tall and overlooks the Niblett family farm.
“He went to heaven,” Niblett said. “The cross itself is a reminder we lost somebody very special. It’s (also) a reminder every day to be a good Christian, … and we should try hard to be better people.”
Niblett eventually wants to put lighting on the cross, and she will soon be adding a flower garden and a bench there.
“I think (the Mantels) have an incredibly good mission,” Niblett said. “They were so nice to work with (and) were a blessing to me.”
The crosses would not likely be where they are today were it not for a car crash in 1994.
That day, Bill was stopped at a red light in Cleveland, Ohio. He was in the area to make a sales call, but, at the time, was headed to dinner with an aunt and uncle he had not seen in a decade.
His plans — all of them — changed when a truck rear-ended his vehicle, breaking his neck.
Bill was rushed to the hospital and had to be resuscitated when his heart stopped. He had a successful surgery about a week later, preventing him from being paralyzed. However, his brain was affected by its time without oxygen, resulting in short-term memory loss, dyslexia and impaired mathematical ability.
Perhaps the worst side effect, though, was the chronic, excruciating pain in Bill’s neck and back, and he became addicted to painkilling medication. The Mantels had just bought the original 1888 Ordway mansion in St. Paul, planning to fix it up days before the accident, but Bill lost his job and fell into depression.
Then, 12-and-a-half years later, Bill’s friend, Glen Huff, told him God wanted them to go to South Africa. Bill had been there several times before, and although he was in poor traveling condition, Huff offered to take care of everything, including the baggage and driving.
While there, they met with author and evangelist Angus Buchan. The day was Jan. 18, 2006, and as Buchan prayed over Bill, it began to rain outside like he had never seen before.
“I felt a release, … (and Buchan) said, ‘There’s your sign,’” Bill said.
That day, Bill threw away all his pills. Carol could not believe it until he returned home and did not have any medication on him. The doctor who examined Bill was more astonished by the lack of addiction than he was about Bill’s cured chronic pain.
“(The doctor) said to me, … ‘You don’t get off (painkillers) in a day after that long; you have all kinds of withdrawals, and nothing happened to the guy,’” Carol said. “That was a confirmation, and we’ll always be grateful.”
Bill wanted to do something in gratitude for his healing, so, in September 2008, with the help of family and friends, he put up a 24-foot-tall wood cross at the intersection of Highway 65 and County Road 2, five miles south of Mora, near the home where he and Carol had raised their four children. He also started writing daily devotions online, and, when his readership started growing to the 6,300-plus people it has today, he got a group together and had the idea to found CCM and put up more crosses to declare the glory of God.
Last fall, the Mantels had to go buy concrete on a Sunday for an installation because it had been forgotten. They did not want to be shopping on the Lord’s Day, but, when they reached the store, they met a man whose wife had died the previous year, leaving him with a 3-month-old baby and four other children under 10 years old. He noticed the crosses on the trailer and, when he learned about CCM, had his own cross installed the next day.
“I cried the whole day,” Carol said. “It was a divine appointment on a Sunday in a parking lot.”
CCM has a goal of planting a cross in every state in the U.S. As of now, the East Coast, West Coast and Hawaii do not have crosses.
Another blessing for the Mantels is the cross planted at the Cambridge Christian School in Cambridge. When CCM facilitated its installation, the Mantels thought it would be closer to the school’s main sign. Instead, when Carol sits in front of her TV, she can see the illuminated cross through the narrow front window.
“That gave me great joy,” Carol said. “This is probably our last house. … God blessed me by making me able to see it.”
The crosses are planted for free, and the Mantels encourage anyone who wants a cross to contact them through christiancrossministries.org. They also accept donations in support of the CCM mission.
As more crosses go up around the world, the Mantels are eager to see the enthusiasm of their team and the lives touched by these simple reminders of God’s love.
“One thing I’ve learned at my age is that, if it’s God’s idea, it happens,” Carol said. “It gets me excited to see how God moves on a ministry.”
