The end of our time in Washington DC was bittersweet as we needed to say goodbye to the two other couples we had worked with for two months. Two months was sufficient time to explore the city on our days off and see most of the sites that interested us.
From there we traveled to North Carolina to reconnect with the churches. It was good in that we got to see most everyone and had some great fellowship meals and time together over a long weekend.
Then we headed back to PA to spend a week with Ruth's Dad. He seems to be doing about the same and stays active with his bread making yet and keeping up with the news and family.
We spent a week traveling down to San Antonio, Texas, as we realized we hadn't had any "just couple" days since we retired Oct. 1st. So it was good to take plenty of time to relax at AirBnB places along the way and also spend some time exploring cities and having two restful days near Galveston beach.
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| At the rodeo (State Fair) in Houston. Texas living up to its name. |
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| Galveston beach. Relaxing, but still too cold to wade in the water. |
We arrived in San Antonio mid-afternoon of Wednesday, March 14. John Garland, the San Antonio Mennonite pastor, showed us around the house and gave us time to settle in. Then we joined his wife and two young girls and another family for dinner.
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| Casa de Maria y Marta...Mary and Martha House where we are staying. |
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| the historic San Antonio Mennonite Church building |
The upstairs of the house where we are staying is used by 3 women with Mennonite Voluntary Service. They are delightful. No one else is in the downstairs with us. Up until two years ago this house was a transfer point for women and children coming out of detention after having been picked up by ICE. The church helped them figure out how to get their airline or bus tickets to friends and family all over the U.S. Usually there would be 20-40 here on any given day. But around Christmas time 2016 some 400 got dropped off here by ICE in a few days. They put overflow in the church and many groups rallied to provide food, etc. ICE got really bad publicity for that. So from then on, ICE said they'd take them to the airport or bus terminal themselves.
However, those locations can be very intimidating for people who have never flown and don't speak English. So volunteers from various churches have been going to the airport and bus terminal every day to meet these women and children and help walk them through the process. Most days the volunteers are there at least five hours until all get on their flights. At times, when a flight gets canceled or delayed, the women and children will go home overnight with the volunteer.
This looks like it will be a large portion of our work the next two months. Already on Thursday and Friday of last week we helped more than 120 women and children. Our Spanish is getting a work out, as well as the soles of our feet as we have permission to accompany them through security and to their gate. The hugs and relief and "Dios les bendiga" (God bless you) are genuine and life giving in a situation that is often cold and impersonal. We think about how many carry ons and suitcases we travel with and are humbled to realize that what they have in a grocery tote or two is everything they brought with them on their journey which often has already taken a month or more.
Besides this work, we may also help with some community gardening and just relating to the church members and attending church functions. The second evening we attended a home gathering that met in our living room. We were so surprised when Harry and Celeste Miller walked in!
They had lived in the mobile home right next door to us when Jim was in Mission College back in Missouri from 1982-85! They came to San Antonio to pastor a new Spanish church after that. However, they left that work in 2000, and we hadn't known they continued to live here. What a joy to get reacquainted after 30 some years since last seeing each other!
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| along the River Walk downtown |
Pray for health and stamina and joy in our work. On a more touristy note, we already got to the river walk and explored it some. Each section is very pretty and diverse. We are just one and one-half miles from downtown and can connect to the river walk in two blocks. We also visited four of the very old missions started by the Spanish in the 1700's that are still being used for worship services today in their restored buildings.
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| Espada, the oldest of the missions |
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