On May 12th another large earthquake rocked Nepal. Myself with the majority of P-squad were on the side of a mountain in the sindupalchok region. We had set up camp on terraces overlooking a beautiful valley. The first night came and went without incident. The first full day started and we began to clear the rubble of a church which had fallen during the first earthquake in order to make room to rebuild. We cleared rubble from 8:30 in the morning until around noon then broke for lunch. The Nepali people we were working with were gracious enough to cook a traditional Nepali meal for us. We ate and fellowshiped for around an hour until our peace was shaken by the 7.4 magnitude earthquake. Immediately a Nepali woman grabbed my hand and the arm of one of my squad-mates, pulling us both to the ground as it shook and rumbled. The sound was as if we were in a movie theatre with the base turned up. The ground felt like a roller-coaster winding down the tracks. But there was another sound. A sound of praise. It was the woman who had grabbed us. The only thing she kept saying as she trembled in fear was “thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus” and of the million thoughts going on in my head I remember those words more clearly than anything. This is what it looks like to kneel before The Lord in a moment of absolute helplessness and need. She didn’t look for debris coming down the mountain or out at the valley as houses which had bin damaged by the first earthquake crumbled and collapsed. She simply knelt and thanked God for her life. How humbling it is to have been able to witness such faith of which I’m not sure I could say I have the same.
