The Modern Nomads

Hey everyone!  This is Chris and I wanted to share a little story about how the Lord provided a blessing on our travels over to Mozambique.

When I was purchasing our tickets to go to Mozambique, I knew that we would have a very short “layover” in Johannesburg, South Africa.  According to our flight itinerary, our flight from Atlanta would land at 4:45pm and our flight to Maputo would depart at 7:10pm.  While normally a 2 hour and 25 minute layover would be plenty of time, I was a little nervous because our bags had not been checked all the way through to Maputo, and I knew that claiming our bags, going through passport control, security, and then checking back in at the L.A.M. (Mozambiquean airlines) desk and then going back through all the security and finding our gate would probably be more than the time would allow.  Well, on top of all that, our flight didn’t actually land until 5:05pm, and we didn’t get off the plane until 5:30pm.  YIKES!

We walked for about 10 minutes, and came to a “cross-roads” in the airport terminal….one arrow pointed to the left towards “Passport Control” and “Baggage Claim” while the arrow to the right pointed towards “Transit,” which is where we would normally go if our bags had been checked all the way through to Maputo….but remember, our bags were not.

Providentially, underneath this cross-road stood a uniformed airport official with a badge that read, “iHelp.”    Well, knowing that we couldn’t claim our baggage and still make it to check in on time, I humbly asked for help.  After showing him our baggage claim tickets, and also our e-tickets for our LAM flight to Maputo, he quickly looked at his watch and said, “Follow me.”  He led us toward the “Transit” line, got us through passport control and then on to the L.A.M. desk to check in.  What we didn’t know was that the L.A.M. desk closes at 6pm, and by this time it was 5:50pm.  Whew!!….we barely made it in time to get our boarding pass.

Our new airport helper friend, Hassan, told us that he needed to hurry off and find our 4 bags, and get them checked in with L.A.M.  He looked me in the eyes and said, “I will not disappoint you, my friend.  I will be back in 20 minutes.”  Wow….Amanda and I sat down and waited patiently….I have to admit, nervously knowing that the fate of our bags was in the hands of our new “friend.”

Sure enough, Hassan came back in about 20 minutes…..with the tags off our bags, and new baggage claim tickets from L.A.M.  YAY!!!  Well, he then told us that our bags were too heavy for the L.A.M. flight and that according to flight regulations we would owe over $1,000 in fees.  What?!?!  Well, come to find out, each airline places their own weight restrictions on bags, and while Delta allows 2 bags at 70 lbs each….L.A.M. only allows 30kg (66 lbs) per person!  Yikes!  Well, after talking with Hassan for a few minutes, he told us that he would talk to the baggage claim people and try to get them to allow our bags on for free…..well, as Hassan walked away from us, I said a little prayer, knowing that their conversation would have a large impact on our wallet!

A few minutes later, Hassan came back with a big smile on his face….saying, “Your bags are taken care of.  I owe the baggage lady a Coca-cola.”  WHAT?!?!  haha…..I laughed and told Hassan thanks!  He glanced down at his watch….6:20pm.  Our flight would soon be boarding, and we still had a long walk to get to our gate.  “Follow me”…..he said.  And he took off, weaving his way through the airport traffic, knowing when to take the elevator instead of the escalator, or when to cut through the corners of a restaurant instead of going around.  Hassan pointed us down the hallway towards our gate, and said he had to run off to personally get our bags on the plane.  He said that if they didn’t make the plane, they would be on the first flight tomorrow morning.

We arrived at our gate at around 6:45pm….immediately boarded a bus which took us out to the plane.  We sat down…buckled up….and the plane began taxiing down the runway.  WHEW!  We just made it…..

An hour later, we landed in Maputo, made it through passport control and nervously waited at the baggage claim belt…..and thankfully saw all 4 of our bags!  YAY!!  Hassan was true to his word.  Amanda and I said a quick prayer, thanking the Lord for providing a blessing for us on our travels.  I don’t know if we would have made it to Maputo on time with our new friend Hassan…..Thank you Lord!

Today we had our “orientation” at the school.  We found out that we would begin Monday morning, which is good for us.  But here are some of the things I learned about being a teacher in Africa.  Here’s the scenario…I came here thinking that I was going to teach Bible and then ESL.  But…things are always open for change!

Yesterday was a sad day for the teachers and students at CAM in that one of the teachers lost her daughter.  She taught the high school literature and the 4-5th grade history.  So today, I (Amanda) went from a Bible teacher to a literature teacher and maybe a history teacher.  Right now Chris will take over the history classes, and I might end up taking one of the classes later in the semester.  Monday morning I have to be ready to administer the Silas Marner test for the 9-10th grade, and then Tuesday I begin Macbeth with the 11-12th graders.  You may ask, when was the last time I studied these? Well…I was 15 and 18…so that was 16 and 13 years ago.

This should be quite the interesting year as I adjust to the ever changing life of teaching overseas.  Needless to say…I DID have a moment where I became overwhelmed, but my precious husband calmed me and reminded me of the great theory: “You only have to stay one day ahead of them!” 🙂 🙂  I love that man and the encouragement he gives.  So…please be in prayer for us as we begin this new adventure of teaching.  You never know what will happen…

Well…we have finally made it to Maputo, Mozambique, our home for the next nine months.  We left Tuesday at 12:00 and arrived here on Thursday at 8:30 p.m.  So…needless to say, it was a LONG day. We are actually up and moving about, but I don’t know how long we will make it.  My prayer is that only a short nap will help keep the eyes open.  Crazy thing about jet lag is that if you don’t stay up then you don’t sleep at night.  So please pray for us AND our worn out bodies. Pray that we adjust fast, and we will be ready to serve by Monday.  I promise to post pics soon…when we actually get off the couch long enough to take some 🙂  🙂

Well…the Modern Nomads have some huge changes ahead, but we are completely excited about it!! Wait for it… 🙂  Chris and I will be moving to Maputo, Mozambique at the end of this month!!  We are so excited about this new adventure and opportunity God has given us.  Chris graduated from seminary in May, and since that time, we have been seeking Him about what He had for us.  It has been a long few months of prayer, different possible opportunities coming up, and then realizing it wasn’t what He wanted for us.  As most of you know, Chris and I have a heart and a passion to take the gospel to the nations.  We always knew that serving internationally was going to be part of our life, but we had no idea just how fast God would move us in this direction.

Chris served in Maputo before we were married, so for him, it feels like he is returning home. I’ve never been to Africa, so this will be a new adventure for me.  We will be teaching at an international school and working alongside some of our friends in the more rural church plants.  We couldn’t have engineered a “job” like the one God has for us. We ask that you guys please pray for us as we make this transition.  We will have internet, so we will keep up using our blog and facebook to keep up with everyone.  We have two more weeks left in America before we leave, so we ask that you pray we get everything done that needs to get done.  We have a few things in our home that needs to be boxed up, AND I (Amanda) have to make the Wal-mart run (which will probably take several trips).  🙂 🙂

God has been so good to give us direction as we seek Him. So…more stories to come from the Modern Nomads 🙂

Well…we are back on the road! It seems like the only place I blog is when we are in the car driving somewhere.  This weekend we are headed to Little Rock to spend time with Chris’ siblings and our cute nephew.  We will stay with Craig (Chris’ brother) and Nicole and then see Cara Beth (Chris’ sister) and Brent tomorrow. We are excited about a weekend away from “regular” life.  It’s always nice to change your scenery a little and slow down a little.  We will head back Saturday and go straight to the LA TECH vs. Grambling game.  It should be quite the football game with TECH beating Grambling in the football game, but Grambling dominating in the battle of the bands. 🙂 🙂  At least it should prove to be quite entertaining. Hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!!

Hey guys, this is Chris….and I am finally contributing to our blog!  I thought it might be interesting to post some our beautiful pics we took while on our honeymoon at Maui, Hawaii, in January 2010.  I know this is from a few months ago, but we hope you enjoy….

Quick stop while driving on the Highway to Hana.

looking down the 300ft cliff in our backyard!

This is the view from our back porch

the grocery store we shopped at while staying just outside Paia

We went searching for “JAWS”…the famous surf on the Northshore of Maui.  We think we found it!

One of many beautiful waterfalls we spotted while on the Highway to Hana.

While driving in the “Upcountry,” looking down at Wailea-Makena & Kihei.

Dinner at Mama’s Fish House….Yummy!

Amanda wrote our names in the sand while waiting for the “Feast at Lele” to start.

Enjoying the picture perfect sunset at the Feast of Lele.

Whale watching with this great organization.

We saw at least 5 whales and got some great video, but this was the only picture that came out decent….a “pec slap.”

On our whale watching expedition!

The entrance gate to where we stayed on Maui!

This flower was near our front door….big, bright, and beautiful!

This week I have embarked on a new adventure…ZUMBA.  In case you don’t know what Zumba is…it is a combination between aerobics and salsa dancing. Since I’ve never been good at either of those, I decided I would jump in (or dance in) feet first and see how it went.

The first night my friend and I laughed the entire time. We found it to be quite entertaining, and though I was sweating like nothing else, I was having fun. I don’t think my hips have ever tried to move that fast.  It was all this hip, feet, and arm motion AND it was hilarious.  Sooo…we decided to go back.  Tonight was round two…and for some reason it wasn’t as fun.  There was still hip action and feet action, but I couldn’t keep a beat to save my life. I kept thinking: “I’m about to either twist my knee on this non-slick gym floor, or I’m going to throw a hip or shoulder out.” 🙂 🙂  So, after our two tries at Zumba, my friend and I have decided that walking, basic and boring as it is, might be more our style.

So for all of you Zumba lovers out there…Amanda Walker DID try. AND she realized that she is a Baptist, white, non-rhythmic, gal who just isn’t cool enough for Latin aerobics 🙂 🙂  Glad I figured it out before I threw that hip…

Well…we are off on another adventure this weekend.  As I type, Chris and I are in the car headed to Dallas for a Walker family getaway! (Only one missing will be Cara Beth and Brent…we will miss them!!)  Craig, Chris’ brother, turned 30 this week, and this was supposed to be a surprise for him…all the family meeting in Dallas. But he, like all the Walker men, is quite intelligent and figured it out.  The guys (minus Landon…the 6 week old) are going to play golf Saturday, and the gals are going to go shopping.  I’m not a big shopper, so I hope my job is making sure Landon is having fun 🙂  I can do the baby watching thing 🙂 🙂  But ya never know…I may just do a little shopping…

One great thing about Dallas is the incredible restaurants. Louisiana has some amazing food, but it has horrible Mexican food. I’m just excited to eat some good ‘ol Mexican food…yummm!!!  So…we’re on the road again!!

This has been one whirlwind of a week, but most of our weeks are like that. Amanda is in her second year of doctorate work, so this week was the infamous week in Ft. Worth, Texas for classes. The fun part was that Chris got to come along and keep me company when class was over. He has several friends in the Metroplex, so he stayed pretty busy during the day…visiting friends, moving furniture in 106 degree weather, and then waiting for me to get out of class. Since our vacation was technically the first two weeks in January for our Honeymoon to Hawaii, we considered this a sort of vacation week…minus the classes, schoolwork in the evenings, and the mental brain exhaustion at the end of the day.  (Side Note: Hawaii was beautiful, but be careful NOT to spend all your vacation time the first month of the year! Makes for a very long year 🙂 )  Anyways…it was good to be around friends this week, and have the challenge that comes along with classes.

We also had a wedding in family. Cari Ritchie (Chris’ cousin) was married this evening to a great guy named Jake.  We had a blast hanging out with the Walker/Ritchie bunch and it was just good to be together. It’s crazy that we live only 45 minutes down the road, and we still do not get to see them. His family is a pretty big family, and they are quite precious.

Blessings to Cari and Jake as they begin new life together…you are in for the ride of your life! Enjoy every moment!!!

Enjoy some pics from the week…

Today has been one of the craziest days I have experienced in a while. It started with a call from my mom around 8:15 this morning telling me that my sister was experiencing some cramping, and she was taking her to the hospital.  Cherry was a month from her due date, so we were all quite scared. I ran to Cherry’s house to take care of her other daughter, Taylor, until someone got there. In the meantime we called Jeremy, her husband, and told him he needed to get to the hospital ASAP.

At this point we didn’t know if she was in “normal” labor or if the baby was in distress. (She had a scheduled C-section with Taylor, so she never experienced labor pains.)  I got to the hospital around 9:40, and was greeted with a swarm of nurses and doctors running around like crazy.  Cherry was definitely in labor, and she got to the hospital in just enough time. (For those who care to know…she was already 10 centimeters dilated and Emmalane was already “crowning.”)  Jeremy showed up about 15 minutes later, and all was set to have this little girl.  At 10:05 a.m. Emmalane Grace Shaw made her grand appearance, weighing in at 5lb and 9 oz.

Yes…you read that correctly, from the time she entered the hospital to the time she had Emma was a whopping 30 minutes!! There was no time for pain meds or anything…just time for Emma to not be born on I-20.  (I’m tired just re-telling that! 🙂 )

She is absolutely precious, and she has already stolen all of our hearts! God is so good, and He reminds us that HIS timing in always perfect.  Mommy and baby are doing great, and God has added to our family a blessing beyond blessings!

Enjoy some pics from the day…