Airport Church of Christ Aids Stranded Woman

When Robert Urbina picked up the phone at the  in April, he was the answer to Terri Weissinger's prayer.

Weissinger, a Sonoma native, was calling broke and desperate from San Francisco International Airport.

Having run into hard times, Weissinger had decided to try for a new start by moving to Idaho, KGO reports. She'd arrived at SFO with a plane ticket and $30 in her pocket, but she hadn't been prepared for the bane of the modern traveler's existence: baggage fees.

US Airways demanded $60 for Weissinger's two suitcases, and Weissinger had no way to pay. Neither could she abandon her baggage, as she suggested; it would be a security risk, the airline told her.

After missing her flight and racking up more expenses in ticket change fees, Weissinger got on the phone.

Urbina, 66, isn't sure how she found his church, but he figures that the combination of "airport" and "church" in the phone book listing might have caught her attention. Urbina is a member and lay preacher at Airport Church of Christ, a small, non-denominational church on Airport Boulevard that draws about 65 parishioners on Sundays.

"We assigned a couple of men to look into it like the Bible teaches us to do," Urbina said.

Neither able to go home nor complete her journey, Weissinger spent a total eight days sleeping at the airport, where she was treated for anxiety in the airport clinic and dodged police who threatened to charge her with vagrancy, KGO reports.

The generosity of Airport Church of Christ eventually freed Weissinger from her airport purgatory. The church donated a little over $200 from its benevolence fund to pay her fees and get her on her way, Urbina said.

"We go by what the Bible teaches, and the Bible teaches to do good to all men," Urbina said. "That’s what Jesus tells us to do, and when someone comes to us for help, we help them."