Just Trying to Go to Church, Sir!

Steve, Kent and I were on our way to church on Sunday. We crossed the border into Mexico and promptly received a "red-light" which means we have to pull into an inspection station. The border patrol agent looked into our vehicle for a few seconds, and then said we could go on. We went on about 200 feet, and encountered a military unit, which waved us over and told us to stop. A soldier leaned in Steve's window and let loose with a barrage of Spanish, which in essence meant, "Get out of the car, we're searching you for drugs, bombs and weapons!" In light of the fact that we were in their country, (and they appeared to be armed and dangerous, as it were), we exited the vehicle and let them have at it! :-) 3 of them searched in every nook and cranny, every drink holder and storage area, and under the seats and dashboard. The rest of them stood faithfully beside us, with their machine guns and AK-47s, lest we make a break! Our dearly beloved family and coworkers, the Sankeys, were traveling in their van behind us, and simply ignored us in our plight, pretended they didn't know us, and drove ahead. :-) But, not wanting this great event to go undocumented, Melodie took this picture. It was taken through the van window, so it is not the best quality, but I think you get the idea. The soldiers, upon finding nothing of interest, except our Bibles, kindly released us and we made it to the church on time!
:-)

Faith Mission Church

Before we moved to Texas we attended Faith Mission Church in Bedford, Indiana. FMC has been my home church since we returned from Central America in 1975. My dad became Pastor in 1979. Steve became Associate Pastor in 1989. The new church was built in 2004. It is a beautiful church, filled with wonderful people and it was a great place to raise our children.

San Antonio

We took a day trip to San Antonio while Maria was home for Christmas. We went to the Riverwalk.

We made a quick stop at the Alamo, too.

The last few days of December

We live in the US, about 15 miles from the Mexico border. But sometimes I wonder which side of the border I'm really on. Here's a sign on the US side. This is at a checkpoint heading north out of the Rio Grande Valley. It is in the US and they stop every car and check for drugs and illegal aliens.

These are Marc's boys at our house.

Here are Kent, Maria, Josh and Jeremy Velazquez playing Rook at our house.