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!
