Inside Story: Bewildered Shaman: Part 1

Inside Story for Friday 5th of July 2024

By Andrew McChesney

Father was the most prominent person in his small town in Nepal. Everyone sought his help. Townspeople believed that his animal sacrifices could cure any disease. Father came from a long line of shamans, and he became the shaman after the death of his father, who also was a shaman.

Image © Pacific Press

Father believed that his rituals wielded great power in the spirit world, so he was puzzled when he couldn’t help the person whom he loved most— his wife. He couldn’t cure her or even diagnose her illness. He sacrificed a chicken, but her pain remained. He gave money to another shaman, but she lost weight. He took her to a physician, but she grew weaker.

Father’s bewilderment grew when his adult daughter, Divya, returned home to help her mother. He came home one day and couldn’t find Mother or Divya. Searching the house, he finally found them in an upstairs room, kneeling on the floor and talking to someone he couldn’t see.

Father was astonished. He suspected something was terribly wrong. But he quietly slipped out of the room so as to not disturb them. He wondered whether his daughter had secretly become a shaman like him.

When he saw Divya later, he asked what she and Mother had been doing.

“We were praying to my God to heal Mother,” Divya said.

“Which God?” Father asked. He worshiped many gods.

“To my God, Jesus,” she said. “I have left our family religion. I have found a new God in Jesus.” She explained that her God created the heavens and the earth. “If I pray, He will hear and heal Mother,” she said.

Father didn’t believe it. He didn’t see how this God could be any more powerful than any of the family gods.

When Divya needed to return to her home in another town, she asked to take Mother with her. “She is sick, and you don’t have time to take care of her because you are working,” she said. “I’ll take her with me.”

Father, who worked both as a shaman and a construction worker, agreed. He was unable to help Mother, and he doubted that she would last long.

“She is your mother,” he said. “If she dies, let me know.”

Six months passed before Father saw Mother again. He traveled to Divya’s house and was surprised to find Mother healthy. He was full of questions.

“Why is Mother well?” he asked. “What medicine did you give her?”

Divya replied that she had only prayed to God. “God heard my request,” she said. “Now Mother is well and happy and goes to church with me.”

Father didn’t believe it. He laughed. He had never heard of such a God who healed without an animal sacrifice or another ritual.

This mission story illustrates Mission Objective No. 2 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s “I Will Go” strategic plan, “To strengthen and diversify Adventist outreach . . . among unreached and under-reached people groups.” For more information, go to the website: IWillGo2020.org.