Mitch Nedrow, the lead drug detective for Harvey County, Kansas, spends his days working with drug offenders and gang members. Then, two evenings each week, he runs Warriors for Christ, an intense fitness training class at Grace Crossing Church in Moundridge, Kansas, that often includes people he has arrested on the job. Mitch has spent enough time with drug offenders to witness their brokenness and cycles of abuse. “I wanted to use the energy that drives them to find drugs and take drugs and turn it into something positive,” he reflects, and over time, Warriors for Christ was born.
Mitch wasn’t always as committed to helping people with broken lives as he is now. At one point, his own life was eroding. Though he grew up with Christian parents and developed an active faith, years of witnessing the worst of human nature through his work in domestic violence and drug enforcement became a wedge between him and his faith. Of that time in his life, Mitch recalls, “I was lost and pretty broken.” Then, in 2016, a friend invited him to visit Grace Crossing. There, he met people who embraced his family even though they were strangers. Right away, he began playing the drums for worship, and he hasn’t missed many Sundays since then.
At first, Mitch, a YMCA personal trainer, invited the people that he encountered through his work in drug enforcement to his class at the Y. As the class grew, he looked for a way to keep it free and open to anyone. That’s when a church friend who attended the class suggested that they move it to Grace Crossing. The men approached Pastor Jason Rains, and within two weeks, Mitch taught the first Warriors for Christ class. From the start, July 2017, the class has been free and open to anyone. Mitch notes that about half of the class attends the church, but the other half is comprised of people that he and others have invited. He describes the two-hour workout as “intense but fun.” Afterward, Mitch gathers the participants and asks them to share positive things in their lives that week. Then, he ends with prayer.
Of course, some people come to Warriors for Christ to improve their fitness level, but Mitch never loses sight of the goal. Ultimately, he desires to see people who he has put in prison and people who work in drug enforcement to see Jesus in the lives of the Christians who participate. He points to one young man that he encountered through his role as a drug enforcement detective. Mitch had put the young man’s father in jail and, eventually, he put the young man himself in jail. When Mitch reached out and invited him to Warriors for Christ, he came. Today, the young man is recovering, working full-time, and expecting his first child. Another woman who Mitch met on the job is recovering from addiction and attending Grace Crossing.
Through Warriors for Christ, Detective Mitch Nedrow is invading not only the territory of gangs and drug offenders, but he is also invading the darkness in Harvey County, Kansas, with the gospel of Jesus Christ. In that way, Mitch is a real-life Warrior for Christ.
