Info from Gene

Greetings to all who are reading of our adventure. We’re here, in Apodaca, a suburb of Monterrey. It’s HOT! I just read an Andrea’s post and I don’t intend to repeat everything she said, but I must comment, these kids, our kids, have been great! If these kids are who we intend to pass our future to we’ll be in good hands.

I wanted to send a post to better explain our encounter with the Apodaca police this morning. No doubt news of this will travel fast with parents and kids back home. Lots of police cars, officers carrying A-15 carbine rifles, long day, strange city. This sounds more like a movie than a church mission trip. I thought I would give you a vantage point from a police officer’s perspective.

At about 3:30 a.m. a green sedan (Pastor Enrique) with Mexican license plates, is being followed closely by four brand new white vans with Texas license plates and dark tinted windows. This suspicious caravan passes an Apodaca police officer. The caravan is going slower than normal for the area. The officer probably thinks, “Hmmm, this looks awfully suspicious at this time in the morning. I better check this out.” Due to the number of vehicles, time of night and potential for things to go bad really fast for him in this type of situation, he radios for assistance. The officer initiates the stop and other squads immediately converge upon the caravan (us).

Just like American police every Apodaca officer has a sidearm as part of their uniform. Just like every Fargo Police officer the Apodaca officers carry A-15 carbine rifles in their squad cars. And…. Just like in any city in the United States, including Fargo, officers are trained to deploy with their rifles in potentially dangerous situations.

I paid close attention to the tactics and mannerisms of the officers during this stop. Like everyone, I was a little nervous after spending several hours in Mexican customs and only being able to understand about ten words in Spanish. I began to become more comfortable with the situation as I observed the officers. They were professional, polite and used good tactics. They did not draw their pistols or shoulder their A-15 rifles and point any weapon at anyone in our caravan. They just had the tools of their trade ready incase they needed them.

The officers checked our passports and realized their suspicions were unwarranted and let us go. I found it somewhat surreal in that there have been times when I have dealt with new Americans or foreign visitors in my official capacity and experienced a language barrier. The Apodaca officers this morning experienced the same barrier with us. Fortunately Enrique was there to communicate with the polica (one of my 10 words in Spanish) for us. We were on our way in a very reasonable time considering there were over thirty passports to check. (The cops are much more efficient than the Customs agentsJ)

Hope this explanation comforts your fears and concerns. Your kids are in good hands. Andrea and Derek are doing a GREAT job! Your kids are in God’s hands.

Gene