A Tremor Lula-bye
Never in my life have I experienced something quite like the earthquake that hit on may 12, 2015 in Kathmandu, Nepal. It was life changing, thought altering, lifeline throwing and beautiful all at once. Being completely shaken to the core, having everything you once knew be moved (literally) and then being able to find perfect peace in our Father through it all. Who would have ever thought that a disaster like this one could end up glorifying God in ways beyond imagine
For the month of April, my WR route was originally planned to spend in India, and then transfer over to Nepal at the end of the month. With tickets booked and all we were unpleasantly surprised with news that the first earthquake had hit Nepal putting a halt to our scheduled route. Originally we were told that for safety and resource reasons we were being rerouted to spend an additional month in India. At first it was extremely hard to accept this. I mean I love India and all but straight up, ITS HOT! But within a few days time, we were given news that one of our main contacts in Nepal was in desperate need of assistance and would gladly welcome our squad in with open arms. So before we knew it we were on a plane, Kathmandu or bust!
A couple weeks into ministry we were asked to assist a pastor in Sindupalchowk, a mountain village, where we would to help clear and rebuild a church that was sadly destroyed by the first earthquake in April. Into the mountains we go, Spirit lead us! With all our gear and supplies on our backs and a big blue jug of water on my shoulder (beast mode) we hiked down the sides of this mountain to get to this tiny little family who ran a tiny little church. If the faith of this family was not beautiful enough, the view was. With extreme gratefulness I was able to pitch my tent on the ledge of a mountain terrace where I overlooked the breathtaking valley of the Himalayan foothills. This is literally where the only way to describe it was picture perfect. I felt honoured to be here, it was a moment that you could not make up or replace.
The morning of the 12th we woke up bright and early, ready to get work done and make a dent in this pile of rubble, making an assembly line of racers to move the rubble pieces down one terrace to create a new stone wall. We had stopped for lunch to enjoy a potato curry with lentils and rice. After finishing my meal I grabbed my bible and quickly scurried off to a part of the mountain ledge where I was still within safe distance of the squad, yet was far enough to feel like I was semi-alone for once (WR life). Below me were trees and cliff and to my right was a gap that you had to jump over which separated me from the rest of my squad who I could still see finishing up lunch. I took off my shoes and placed them in front of me, in hopes of feeling a little more comfortable and relaxed as I dove into God’s word. It was a normal moment on a normal day, and then all of a sudden something extremely un-normal happened. The earth shook. It shook and shook and shook. Nothing could stop it, nothing could calm it. It shook with all of its might. I tried standing up to get off the mountain ledge but I was sucked back down to the ground as if the earth had a magnet on me and I was forced back down onto it. In my eyes the entire world felt like it was being supported by a wobbly table that swayed and moved no matter what you did.
The sounds, I will never forget the sounds that I heard within those 30 seconds of living through the earths hunger pains. There was a great rumble, so loud that you could barely hear the person next to you. Almost like a bowling alley, how there are pins crashing and balls rolling and smashing. I heard screams rise from every angle of that beautiful valley that I looked out unto. I heard avalanches and stone buildings collapse.
I saw rubble roll right beside my squad and completely crush a home a couple terraces down. As all of this was happening I was so lost and confused, so much was happening at once. Being all alone I looked over to my squad who was across the gap and I saw the shear tear that filled some faces.
It was only in that moment that fear rushed into me, realising that this was now real life. No more stories about earthquakes, I was now living in one. So strongly I felt I was supposed to simply sit and wait. Suddenly I was not scarred, I didn’t fear for my life and I purely knew that everyone would be okay. God’s peace was through and through me. It was beautiful. A wonderful squad mate Jason; saw me sitting all alone and adrenaline jumped the gap. He came and sat beside me putting his arm around me, assuring safety. We sat there on the rumbling ground, side by side as we watched dust clouds rise up like little pockets all throughout the valley as people’s homes collapsed.
Those 30 seconds felt like an eternity. Once the earth stopped shaking Jason and I jumped at the chance to get off of that cliff. When I looked down to put my shoes back on, there was only one there waiting there for me… The crazy cliff swallowed up my runner! I must have been in such trauma that instead of following the instructions like the rest of the team to evacuate the mountain, I decided that it was necessary that I find my other shoe! So here I am jumping from tree to tree along this cliff only seconds after a 7.4 earthquake hit! I was absolutely set on finding that thing! After a couple minutes of searching I saw it as a lost cause and joined the rest of my squad in packing up the gear. So as people were shaking in fear, crying, and absolutely traumatized as orders were sternly expressed to get us off that mountainside, here I am walking around with one shoe like a goof.
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The locals latched onto us, begging and pleading for us not to leave. In these moments we seemed like their only hope and now we were deserting them, running away and not finishing our project like we had promised. The look of abandonment painted the faces of those that I had to turn my back to as I made my way back up the mountain. In groups of 5 we climbed as tremors continued to roar through the ground. Forcing us to stop, crouch down and wait. I watched houses and stonewall sway back and forth like limp celery. For the first time in my life, I had to think through every move that I made the entire way up. “Should I stop here? If another quake hits, what could roll down onto me? Will I get pinched in between anything? Is this part of the cliff stable or about to collapse?” All questions that still haunt me. We passed clusters of families huddled together, sitting, waiting. Waiting to watch their house collapse, waiting to see their livestock die, waiting in fear, being forced to live through a quaking ground that they can do absolutely nothing to escape.
As my team and I trekked up the mountain, I really had no idea where we were going. Did we have a bus waiting for us? Would we even be safe once we got to the top? All I knew was that we were supposed to go upward. I hoped and prayed that there would be something for us. God, if I ever needed you to provide for me in a moment, this was it. My emotions drew weak and my body was done, I needed a safe place, a haven. As I passed each mountain family they continued to point in the upward direction, I followed. Then, like a kiss down from the heavens, at the very top of the mountain we found ourselves in the presence of the International Food Program, accompanied with the United Nations. Big, white, earthquake safe tents were being set up for local victims. And it just so happened that they had completed their very first one, welcoming us in to stay until they were opened up to the public. We dropped our packs, following them down to the ground. Safe, at last.
As the rest of my squad trickled in, we were given the option to go back down to some affected homes to help with rescue aid. “Be prepared to see anything” is what my squad leader said as multiple racers jumped to their feet. Of course I was going to join, pulling dead bodies out of broken rubble sounded like the defining World Race moment. And come one, this is just an “Olivia” type thing to do. I watched racer after racer rush out of that big white tent eager to help. But as I sat there sitting on that pallet I could just feel in the deepest part of me that I was supposed to stay. “Lets rest”, God whispered to me. Rest? I don’t really know how to do that and with this once in a lifetime chance I would rather not. Cassady, my teammate came to me with bible in hand asking if I would find a quiet place with her to go read. In obedience I smiled and said “yes, let’s go rest.”
We slipped away to the beautiful, lush pine forest that consumes the mountain and found ourselves a quite place to rest with the Lord. I felt like I had so much to journal about! So many thoughts to get down on paper, I mean I felt bad enough for doing something as “selfish” as resting when I could be pulling dead bodies out of collapsed homes, so I eagerly began to write. Only a couple lines in, such fatigue poured over me and I heard the Lord so clearly say, “It’s okay to rest in me.” So as helicopters flew overhead, families cried out for rescue, and aftershocks rumbled beneath me, I grabbed my bible, placed it under my head, laid down on a bed of pine needles on the side of the mountain and fell asleep.
I would have never thought that such a destructive and terrifying thing would point me back towards God in so many ways. When the ground, the one and only thing that you know to always be sturdy, rumbles beneath you like a belly ache and you can no longer trust it, what else sturdy can you turn to? When you fear for every minute of your life because you are merely a speck living on something that has enough power to destroy entire cities within 2 minutes and 30 seconds, what else could be more powerful? When you are lulled to sleep by helicopters roaring and babies screaming, how are you ever supposed to find peace and comfort? Amongst all the terror and chaos, God continued to reveal himself to me time after time. He showed me how He really is THE only thing in the world (including the earth its self) that will never ever shake or be unstable. That even when the world beneath you is literally crumbling, He is there and He will never fail you. That God’s peace is supernatural. He will always take care of you, having His peace available no matter what life situation you are in. Weather it’s being stranded on a cliff, alone through a 7.4 earthquake or lulling you to sleep on a pine needle bed, using tremors as His strong arms to rock you back and forth. His peace is there.
“He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.”
Continue to read in Psalm 23 and 34 for further depth on scripture that relates to my earthquake experience so well.
