World missionaries accidentally shuts down airport
Going to the World Mission Conference at Abelene Christian University in the first week of October, professor of religion Dr. Dan Rodriguez, his wife Jeanette and University Church of Christ Campus Minister Scott Lambert never expected to shut down a terminal at the Dallas-Forth Worth airport in Texas.
In the midst of the hustle and bustle of trying to catch their transportation vans, which were double-parked, Jeanette Rodriguez and Lambert accidentally left their bags at the curb. With heightened security, the police at DFW airport didn’t take any chance and soon put the bags under scrutiny. When no one claimed the bags, the police decided to shut down Terminal B, where the bag was left.
“We were in the middle of West Texas when I received a phone call from my wife (Kim),” Lambert said. “She told me that someone at the airport talked to our travel agency (Corniche) about bags that were left by us, and would soon be destroyed in 30 minutes if no one claimed them.
“I was laughing the whole entire time,” Lambert continued. “Because I thought it was just the Rodriguezes who left their bags. I didn’t know that I was a part of it too.”
Lambert immediately called Dan Rodriquez, who was in another van behind Lambert, and Rodriguez was able to save their bags minutes before they were to be destroyed.
“What’s so interesting is that we were going to a World Mission Conference and we’re used to traveling abroad,” Dan Rodriguez said. “The last people you’d expect to leave their bags and shut down an airport are experienced world missionaries.”
What started as a usual routine for the experienced travelers became an interesting adventure for the Rodriguezes and Lambert.
“It was a cross-country adventure,” Lambert said, chuckling. “With the FBI bomb squad, dogs, cell phones and everything.”
In spite of what might seem like a fiasco, “a good thing came out of it,” Dan Rodriguez said. “We got to go to Wal-Mart and buy new clothes.”
Lambert, who also went shopping at Wal-Mart for a new change of clothes, laughed as he recalled how he and Dan showed up with the same shirt one day.
“I guess we must’ve went to Wal-Mart two separate times and didn’t know that we both had bought the same kind of shirt,” Lambert said.
October 24, 2002