Sky Cross

Who We Are

Sky Cross was founded in 1995 by Terry and Kathy Bliquez, a retired U.S. Air Force couple. They located this ministry to the poor in San Antonio, Texas, after consulting with various religious and lay people. Kathy recommended the name “Sky Cross” since Terry was a general aviation pilot and hoped to fly supplies to the very poor.

The couple decided to take Spanish language classes at the Mexican American Cultural Center in San Antonio, and it was here where the ministry goal and objectives were developed. They discovered there was a huge need for non perishable food by people living in poverty, especially on the Mexican side of the border with Texas. Sky Cross was incorporated in Texas and received tax exempt status in the summer of 1995. A friend of a Sky Cross supporter sent a $5,000 donation shortly thereafter, and the Sky Cross ministry began serving the poor on the Texas-Mexico border.

Today, there are 11 Board of Directors guiding Sky Cross operations in over 40 locations, most in Mexico. Sky Cross serves some 30,000 materially poor people annually (mostly women and children) through many volunteers who donate money, time, and transportation.

"When you experience going across the border you can look into the eyes of a child, and you can feel that spirituality, you can feel that connectednesss with God. Blessed are the poor"

Chuck and Karen Mitchell
Melbourne, Florida

Sky Cross received an aircraft from a generous donor. A Cessna 205 aircraft was donated to Sky Cross in December, 1998 as well as expenses for it's operation. The aircraft supplements the ground transportation used to deliver supplies.

Sky Cross appeared in the San Antonio Express News in December, 2010. The article appeared as follows:
Border charities supplied by air

Group founded by Christian couple flies food, clothes, meds to poor. By John MacCormack
jmaccormack@express-news.net

Published: 10:36 p.m., Friday, December 3, 2010

Sky Cross co-founder Terry Bliquez (left), with the help of David Young, the Sky Cross board vice president, prepares to fly supplies to the Texas-Mexico border from Stinson Municipal Airport.
Photo: LISA KRANTZ/lkrantz@express-news.net / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
What began as one Christian couple's effort to feed and clothe the poor has grown into a complex mission that involves more than 80 volunteers and serves more than 30,000 people annually.
“Right now we're delivering about 13.5 tons of food a month to 43 locations, 41 of them in Mexico,” said Terry Bliquez, 68, a retired Air Force colonel who, with wife Kathy, founded Sky Cross in the mid-1990s.
Besides food, Sky Cross delivers medicine and clothing to orphanages, Mexican neighborhoods, homeless shelters and migrant shelters, working with missionaries of various denominations along the Texas-Mexico border.
“You can't evangelize people who are hungry. So if we provide the food, the missionaries can educate the kids, and that pulls them out of their terrible poverty,” he said.
The San Antonio Express-News is featuring area nonprofit groups in its annual Grace of Giving series, which runs daily through Christmas.
While Bliquez said Sky Cross would not refuse donations of medical supplies or bulk food, what it needs most is cash. He said every penny of the $120,000 raised this year went to benefit the poor, with all the overhead absorbed by volunteers.
“Because we have such a large group of people who volunteer their time and vehicles, we can devote 100 percent of our contributions to our mission,” said David Young, 57, who is the vice president of the Sky Cross board.
Bliquez and Young met years ago in the Civil Air Patrol while flying surveillance along the Texas border for various federal law enforcement agencies. Together, the two loaded a white and blue Cessna last week, bound for Laredo, with used clothing and a box of medical supplies. Once in Laredo, Bliquez planned to rent a van and buy a large amount of bulk food there to be handed off on the U.S. side to a Mexican missionary. The missionary would then take it across the border to be distributed at two orphanages and a migrant center in Nuevo Laredo.
Between them, Bliquez and Young make about 36 flights a year to the border. Volunteers also drive bulk deliveries of food and clothing from San Antonio to various border cities.
“God has richly blessed me over the years, and I feel I have a Christian responsibility to give back to the community,” Young said.
How to help Sky Cross, Inc.
7302 Putter Lane, San Antonio, TX, 78244
(210) 661-6808
http://www. skycross.org/
Agency needs money, volunteers, medical supplies, bulk food items.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/Border-charities-supplied-by-air-859353.php#ixzz1Cr8QAfF5