Sometimes in life it’s the little things that we need to recognize are so much bigger than we are and ever will be.
So, let me share a story… there are a million shops in Kathmandu, Nepal that sell clothes, particularly clothes for trekking in the mountains. Big, puffy coats, jackets, wind resistant pants, water resistant clothes, gloves, hats, sweatshirts, Under Armor shirts and leggings, and so on. These shops are a dime a dozen.
THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!
Walking through it’s almost overwhelming…
How do I choose which one to go to?
How do I know if I’m getting the best deal (because it’s all a bartering system)?
How do I know if the clothing is of the highest quality?
So many possibilities and questions and no possible way to get any answers. Well, I was in this dilemma. I needed warm, winter clothes to battle the cold weather in Nepal and didn’t know how to choose. As I was walking around I remembered a store that a friend had gone to that had what I was looking for at a decent cost, maybe not the cheapest, but when I was there with my friend the workers were friendly and gave him a good deal. So I return there hoping to strike my own good deals, because the assumption is that I’m probably getting overcharged cause I’m white. While I’m looking around at what they have and bartering with them I get to chatting with them about why I’m in Nepal, how I’m here as a volunteer, to serve the least of these, working with orphans, widows, the poor, going to villages, and so on. As I’m sharing these things the guy tells me that he has a bunch of clothes that he can’t sell and he would love to give them to me for free to give to the poor people I’m working with in the villages and throughout Nepal.
Wait… what??
I didn’t ask for donations, I didn’t do anything…
I simply struck up conversation and shared what I was doing and this man wants to donate clothes. How cool?!
But the story gets better… I couldn’t take the clothes then cause I was busy with some things but I said I would get them the next day. So I return and the guy takes me back to grab the clothes, now mind you I have no idea how many clothes he has to donate, it might be a handful or a bag full, who knows… well I get back there and the man has this giant potato sack stuffed with clothes, the bag is so big that I could fit at least 2 adults in it, maybe even 3 or 4. This bag is HUGE!! So we divide the clothes into 4 potato sacks that are a little more manageable to carry and I head out with a great donation of clothes from some random man.
Now, did I get the best deals? Probably not.
Did I get the best clothing? Hopefully, but who knows.
Did I spend more than I could’ve? Definitely… either by buying lower quality somewhere else or getting a better deal I KNOW I could’ve spent less.
BUT…
BUT…
In the end none of this mattered to me. The money, the deals, overspending… none of it mattered because I was able to build a simple relationship with the workers which led to somewhere in the realm of 50-100 pounds worth of clothing donations that will hopefully go to people who need them. And maybe that’s the most important part of the story that we as humans frequently struggle with…
I don’t know the end of this story and that’s ok…
I don’t know the end of this story and that’s ok…
I don’t know where the clothes went, who got them, if they were stewarded well, and so on. I gave them to people I trust who work with the least of these, but I myself do not know the end of the story and I don’t need to because the greatest storyteller in the world (hint: the greatest storyteller is Jesus) is in charge of this story just as He is in charge of every story and I trust Him to bring about the greatest ending to this story.
I simply get to be a part of it.
