Free Lunch and The Birth of MC's Religiosity

Almost thirty years ago Frank and I, as young marrieds, grudgingly attended the Trail Lake congregation on occasional Sundays. We had both been brought up (just as babies) at West Berry Church of Christ on University Drive, and then at Trail Lake Church of Christ (we were age 5 when our families moved here). West Berry and Trail Lake were the poster children of the old-time 3 songs, a prayer, 1 song, communion, 1 hour sermon, invitation, song, alter call, finish song with no center aisle. Trail lake built our Altamesa congregation in 1976.

We often came late from our apartment in Arlington to Sunday services, just to get a free lunch from Frank's parents, who were the best in-laws anyone could ever have. Now, at this time we didn't have our own faith, but were attending out of a sense of guilt and a (well-enforced) fear of fire and brimstone creeping up on us. Our life style went on for several years, with little commitment from us.

Something changed though -- we had Stacey! Suddenly, we felt a need to bring her to Sunday School and introduce her to Jesus. It was also lots of fun to have all the church members tell us how cute and special she was. We became regular members and began searching for our own faith. (A free Sunday lunch was still a plus.)

Then along came Wade and Patty Weaver, and Ron Beasley, our Youth Minister. We became high school huddle leaders and suddenly realized that we needed to know more about the Bible. We had Bible studies so we could teach the high schoolers. We started to pray earnestly, and developed life-long friendships. Our family grew as Trey and Travis came along and we became a blessed family.

Needless to say, here we are. We've got three independent kids out in the world, a wonderful son-in-law, super-duper grand-daughters, and a baby grandson. Also during all these years the Altamesa congregation has done some incredible growing in wisdom and truth, which has been wonderful to experience. I have to say that we run very, very hot and sometimes a little cold as we seek the right balance with our love of Altamesa, but Jesus remains a constant at the center of our lives.