24 years old.
Husband for 8 years.
Father of two boys, 5 and 3.
Pastor of a Chepang church.
Singer.
Song writer.
Gracious.
Humble.
Kind.
Quiet.
Servant.
Christ like.
For me Sham was a man that faded into the background for the first few days. I was too wrapped up in the difficulty of the hikes and feeling disgusting to fully notice all the men that were leading us, oh and carrying our packs, through the mountains. However when I got to know him he stood out like a bright shining light.
Sham selflessly carried a pack every day of the trek, while we huffed and puffed our way straight up the mountains. He climbed trees to get us fruit. He served us dinner. He brought us water, tea and treats. He helped us over slippery rocks. He was always there to give a hand when we needed it. This man left his family for 7 days to serve a ragtag team of smelly Americas.
Sham showed us Christ in every single thing he did this last week. He continually made himself lower and served us in every way possible. My favorite passage in the Bible is Philippians 2:3-13, which talks about Christ humbling himself and being obedient. I saw Sham living this passage out. The Spirit is alive and active in Sham. He loves Jesus so much and you can’t help but see that while interacting with him even if you don’t speak the same language.
On Sunday evening we sat with some of the villagers as worshipped together. In English and Nepali. Sham sang a song that he had written and played the drum. Such an amazing experience and so cool that we didn’t need to know what they were saying specifically to be able to worship along side of them.
On Monday our two teams decided we wanted to serve him in a special way. We wanted to surprise him with a gift that he could really use. We talked to Sameer (our interpreter, who also deserves a blog) who suggested we buy him a pair of shoes. We took him to a shop but he didn’t seem to excited about the shoes. He spoke up and said he wanted a bag instead! We were all so excited he expressed what he really wanted and got something that he really needed. It was awesome getting to serve him in that way, he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face the rest of the day!
That evening he showed us pictures of his wife and kids, parents, church and church family. He told us his church had been destroyed in a storm two months ago and they were trying to rebuild. My heart broke. This amazing Godly man doesn’t have a church anymore but you would never know. He didn’t act like “woe is me” or “feel bad for my situation”. If any of you want to help in any way contact me and I can put you in contact with Sham or Pastor Mithun.
Please be praying over the Chepang villages and people. They are very poor but have HUGE hearts. They bent over backwards to feed us what we would want to eat and gave us a roof over our head every night. There are a ton of orphans in the villages that many pastors have taken in to house, feed, and try to educate. Education is the biggest need in the Chepang culture. They have no representation in the government so they live completely self sustained. There is little to no medical care and many of the children we met were sick with anything from pneumonia to mouth sores.
There is a lot of need in all of these villages and I left a piece of my heart there. I fell in love with the people and the culture. If I ever get to go back I hope I can bless them the way they have blessed me.
Photo credit: Jackelyn Mead
