Namche Bazaar (11,385ft)
#Miles4Missions Itinerary
Day1 (May 12th)–Bixby to Kansas City to Newark
Day2 (May 13th)–Newark to Dubai to Kathmandu
Day3 (May 14th)–Kathmandu
Day4 (May 15th)—Kathmandu to Lukla to Phakding
Day5 (May 16th)–Phakding to Namche Bazaar
Day6 (May 17th)–Namche Bazaar
Day7 (May 18th)–Namche Bazaar to Dole
Day8 (May 19th)–Dole to Gokyo
Day9 (May 20th)–Gokyo
Day10 (May 21st)–Gokyo to Gokyo Ri to Dole
Day11 (May 22nd)—Dole to Namche Bazaar
Day12 (May 23rd)—Namche Bazaar
Day13 (May 24th)—Namche Bazaar to Tengboche
Day14 (May 25th)—Tengboche to Dingboche
Day15 (May 26th)—Dingboche to Lobuche
Day16 (May 27th)—Lobuche to Everest Base Camp
Day17 (May 28th)—Everest Base Camp
Day18 (May 29th)—***RACE DAY***Everest Base Camp to Namche Bazaar
Day19 (May 30th)—Namche Bazaar
Day20 (May 31st)—Namche Bazaar to Lukla
Day21 (June 1st)—Lukla to Kathmandu
Day22 (June 2nd)—Kathmandu to Dubai to Newark
Day23 (June 3rd)—Newark to Kansas City to Bixby
“The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”
-1 Samuel 17:37
Over the last 12 days, we have picked up a lot of new people on the #miles4missions journey. Maybe you are an old friend reconnecting or maybe we have never met. Perhaps we have a mutual friend who told you about a crazy guy running the Everest Marathon to raise money for missionaries or maybe you googled the words “discipleship” and “trekking,” and found us. Don’t laugh—that absolutely happened. However you found your way here, I just want to say, “Welcome to the adventure!” It has been pretty cool from where I sit to see the many people who have joined the journey and invested in our project (if you haven’t yet setup your one-time or monthly tax-deductible #miles4missions donation, you can do that via our giving portal at projectdoxa.kindful.com). Since so many of you are new to the team, and since I am enjoying a rest day today, it occurred to me that I might need to take a minute to retell a little bit of my story to catch you up.
Let’s rewind back to December, 2018. I was in Japan on the back end of a ministry trip to India. I had stopped over in Japan to help a brother from Mississippi make a few ministry connections in Tokyo. While in Japan, we took a couple of day side trip to see my roommate from college who is living and working in Japan. Paul is an absolute stud, and he had just run a marathon literally the day before we visited him. When we arrived he said, “Hey, I need to get out and stretch my legs a bit to recover from yesterday. You guys want to join me for a short hike?” I thought to myself, “how hard could it be?” So I agreed. It wasn’t even a difficult hike at all, but Paul almost killed me.
At dinner that night, I will never forget the way he looked at me. He didn’t shame me. He didn’t say a word about how out of shape I was. But he looked at me with curious eyes and I could see the question in them. Of course all of this could’ve been in my head—but in his eyes I saw the question, “Is my friend still in there somewhere? Is there still a spark of the athlete I knew back in college hidden inside of this guy or is that dude dead?”
The flight home across the Pacific felt 100 times longer than usual, and it is already a crazy long flight. From the moment we took off, I wrestled with the Lord. I knew I was out of shape, but it was more than that. My physical condition was just a symptom of the brokenness on the inside. I had been living on my resume with nothing in front of me. My passions were fading and I had basically given up on so many of the white hot dreams that had driven me through my earlier years. I found the courage to ask the Lord, “What’s really going on here?” The Lord’s response to me was sharp and immediate. It was not an audible voice, but it might as well have been. “You are just playing it safe.”
I was wrecked. I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t. I knew it was true. I had been in slow drift for nearly a decade and God was calling me out. The Lord’s words stirred in me over and over again, and by the time I landed in the States I had a plan. I didn’t know if it would work, but I had a plan.
Back in my college years, I used to tell anyone who would listen about how someday I would climb Mount Kilimanjaro. I don’t really know where the passion for this particular mountain came from, but I knew normal people could climb it and in my mind it was just a matter of time until I did it. However, 16 years removed from my college years, I was convinced my window had already closed. Somehow on that flight across the Pacific, God revived my dream to stand on the summit of Africa’s tallest peak.
My poor wife has endured quite a lot of my crazy dreams over the years—some have worked out incredibly, others not so much. I won’t rehash them all here—but never once has she discouraged me from chasing a dream I felt the Lord has given me. She is a saint.
Still, I knew I had a hard conversation coming. In the wake of a church plant we had to close, and a PhD program I didn’t finish, and a move across the country from which we had just returned; I was now about to tell her, I feel like God is calling me to climb a mountain. Discipletrek is a thriving business now on a crazy growth trajectory, and it is easy from this vantage point to miss just how insane this moment was.
Our conversation went something like this—Me: “Babe, I know it seems crazy, but I feel like God revived in me a dream to climb Kilimanjaro.” Beth: “Are you sure you can even climb Kilimanjaro? Isn’t that crazy hard?” Me: “I have a plan. I will sign up for a half marathon for 6 months from now. If I finish it, I will do a full marathon, and if I finish that, I will go to the mountain. Worst case scenario we are out the money for the half marathon. But if I finish the half, I am doing the full marathon. If I finish the full marathon, I am going to the mountain, and I cannot promise what is coming after that.” Beth: “OK, sounds good.” Beth has been my biggest cheerleader—always.
I suppose now is a good time to say that to this point, I had not run a single mile since the last required field test in college (our school required students to complete a 3 mile run every semester for a timed grade. Now the students only have to do 2 miles. All of us old people think they have gone soft, but this is a story for a different day). In fact, not only had I not run at all, but I actively made fun of runners. So much in fact that Beth got me one of those oval stickers for my car that said “0.0 I don’t run.”
Still, on January 10th, 2019, I began my running journey. I set out from the house in my newly acquired running shoes with a goal of running 1 mile. 1 single mile. I made it less than .25 miles. I came home broken and discouraged, and headed straight for google. I found a website that talked about run/walking that sounded way more realistic. So on January 11th, I rotated walking 9 minutes then jogging 1 minute for a total of 30 minutes. I did that 3 times that week. Then I moved to 7 minute walks before 1 minute jogs; then I bumped it up from 30 minutes to 40 minutes; then I went to 5 minute walks then 2 minute walks; then went from 3 days per week to 4 and then 5 days per week. By mid-April, I had clawed my way into being kind of a runner, so I drove myself to Oklahoma City to attempt my first half marathon.
I was terrified when I pinned on the bib for the first time and headed to the start line. Would I finish? Would I maybe die? I set out with a plan of jog 2.5 minutes then walk 1.5 minutes on rotation. I was doing great till mile 9, when I began to suffer. I thought I was having an asthma attack so I used my inhaler, but still nothing. I realized was at the end of myself and I was going to have to find a way to the finish line. One of the unique things about the OKC Memorial Marathon is they have these banners every so often on the course with the names and faces of the 168 people who died in the bombing back in 1995. I began to read each name, pray for their family, and grind my way to the next banner. By the time I saw the finish line, I was fully in tears. I will absolutely never forget the way it felt when the nice old volunteer lady hung that medal around my neck. That very first finish line began to rewrite my story.
By November, I had completed my first marathon, and in January of 2020, I made my way to Kilimanjaro. After 7 grueling days on the mountain, I stood atop the snow covered crater at 19,341ft on the summit of the highest mountain in Africa. While descending, I sensed God giving me the vision for what would become Discipletrek, and I have never looked back.
I won’t bore you with all of the details, but I have now covered the half marathon distance every single month since that first race 61 months ago in April, 2019. I have completed a half marathon or further in 32 states. I have completed 6 full marathons, 5 half Ironman triathlons, and 1 full Ironman.
One of the most famous stories in the Bible is that of David the shepherd boy taking down the mighty giant Goliath. On its face it is an almost unbelievable encounter, but that is mostly because we don’t often remember all of David’s story. We tell it as if he just showed up one day and decided to take on the most ridiculous warrior Israel had ever faced. When David comes to Saul to beg for the opportunity to face Goliath, he shares a bit of his story, which includes killing a lion and killing a bear with his bare hands. David might be an unconventional warrior, but he is not untested. Goliath is simply the next in a series of challenges David is to overcome as God writes the beautiful story of his life.
I didn’t come to Nepal untested. The Everest Marathon is not my first marathon nor my first time at significant elevation. As I make my way up the mountain for the next four days to the start line, I will spend each day thinking about the lions and bears that got me here. I will think about the time I ran the Oak Island Marathon in 35 degree rain and wind. I will think about the time I hit the trail at 2:00AM and returned at 6:15PM after a 22 mile round trip to the highest point in the lower 48 states on the summit of Mount Whitney. I will think about fighting my way on my tri-bike to the top of the Blue Ridge parkway in 95 degree heat in my Virginia half Ironman. I will think about my 3 summit days on Mount Kilimanjaro and the time I was literally the highest person in the world on my summit bid on Aconcagua. I will think about stubbornly limping to the finish line of half marathons Oregon and Tulsa last summer with a calf strain to keep my monthly half marathon streak alive. And I will think about that the words “Jimmy Shaw, you are an Ironman!”, that I earned 3 years ago today after 15 hours on the triathlon course on a rainy day in Tulsa.
All of these experiences have helped me cultivate resilience and bank courage for future challenges. What kind of person takes on the World’s Highest Marathon? The kind of person that makes a habit of trusting the Lord and doing difficult things.
I hope you will not read this post as a boast, which is certainly not my intent; but rather as a record of the faithfulness of God in the life of someone who had no business ever finding his first finish line. The shock in the David story is not really that a young man who had slain lions and bears might some day also slay a giant. It is that before any of that, God saw something in the shepherd boy that even his own father couldn’t see. He saw a champion where everyone else saw an afterthought.
It is my prayer that as you read this today you are able to see yourself, even for just a moment, through the eyes of the Lord. You are not “just a shepherd boy.” None of us are—not in the hands of the Lord.
I enjoyed my rest day in Namche today and now I am beginning my 4 day journey up to Everest Base Camp tomorrow. I am going to take it extra slow and I am skipping a lot of side trips that I would like to do to conserve as much energy as possible for marathon day. It has been cloudy up here every day for a week. I have resigned myself to the fact that the monsoon is coming in a bit early this season and I may not get any views for the next week. That’s fine with me. I will be grateful for any views that I get along the way. Anyway, I am coming back to Everest Base Camp with a team next year (shameless plug) and hopefully we will see it all better then. For now, I am shifting my mindset from tourist to athlete that needs to lock in. Next stop Tengboche.
I hope you are enjoying following along with our #miles4missions journey. If you are, would you do 3 things for me:
First, would you tell your friends about our project. We have an awesome video summarizing what #miles4missions is all about on the #miles4missions page. Check it out if you haven’t yet seen it and share it and all of our #miles4missions posts in your circles.
Second, if you haven’t yet signed up for our newsletter, we would love it if you took 30 seconds and did that now. We won’t spam you. We just want to keep you in the loop with all things Project Doxa and Discipletrek.
Finally, if you haven’t yet personally invested in our #miles4missions project, would you consider making setting up a one-time or monthly donation now via our giving portal at projectdoxa.kindful.com. We have a lot of really awesome people doing really awesome work that are counting on us make a significant investment in their ministries via #miles4missions.
Oh what a story! May courage and strength continue to fill each breath and each step you take. We are praying for you and cheering you on.
Thanks!