There I was eating Oreos next to some of my teamates looking at the mountains of Nepal when it started to happen. The 7.3 earthquake started and went on for about 30 seconds. We were in Melchour a village in the area of Sindhupalchok. My squad left May 11th to go help a village start rebuilding their church from the ground up. That morning we had removed small rocks, big rocks, and all that had come down from the first earthquake. We were taking a break for lunch from removing stones from the church that had collapsed. I have never seen the ground shake the way that it did that day. I have also never seen dust come up from the village down below from collapsing houses and screams coming from bellow. I will never forget those screams. When I talk about that day I can still hear the cries of the people In the village. After that we all packed up our stuff and headed out of the village to a place that was of higher ground. Along the way we felt aftershocks and throughout that day and the next couple of days we felt aftershocks. There are still some but they are small I don’t usually feel them but others in my squad do.
The next day I talked to two boys who are cousins and went through the first earthquake in a village near where we were. This was the first conversation that hit me. I was reading my bible where we are staying up a path near these big white tents where one is working. One is 22 and the other is 17. One of the boys said that after the quake there was no work for anyone. Both of their houses had collapsed to the ground. Everyone was safe though. One came to work putting up tents where we were staying after the first quake hit that was 7.8. Th other boy was a science teacher and school was taking a break for now. They said that they were staying in tents after the first earthquake for 2 days. there was not much sleep those couple of days because of all of the big aftershocks. There is not much food or water coming in either because of their location. Who knows how or when they will be able to rebuild their houses. I felt helpless and felt like I had been backed into a corner and there was nowhere to go. There was nothing I could do to help physically. I didn’t have enough money to rebuild their entire village or even their country. However I did have the hope of Jesus in my life. Before I had this conversation with them I was admiring the mountains as I read psalm after psalm. What really stuck out was Psalms 46, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. (Psalm 46:1-11 NIV)
I then told them about who my God is. The God who created the mountains, and all of creation. The God who never changes even when our circumstances do. I told them about how it was God who created us so very different. Not one of us is the same. Only God knows what there hearts were thinking because we then departed. The next day before we left to head back for Kathmandu I saw both of them and I said goodbye.
The days that were spent on the hill under a white tent like refuges in our tents will forever be remembered. These are times that God was providing and protecting us. During those days we heard helicopters circling and one actually tried to land but then it took off. One of the village boys kept telling me I was saying helicopter wrong. The two mornings after the earthquake I saw the sunrise come up over the mountains around 530am and take its place in the sky. It was a beautiful reminder of who God is and how he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. (Ecclesiastes1:5 NIV)
Please continue to pray for the Nepali people as there is a lot rebuilding and restoring that I believe God can do all over this country. I told my teammate how frustrated at God I was and how I didn’t know what to say to those who have lost everything. She reminded me of how all great stories all have tragedies in them or something that the people have to conqueror over. A great example is in Lord of the Rings Frodo has to destroy the ring but he has to conqueror over so many thing including the ring itself.
One of my favorite passages of scripture is Romans 8:37-39 which says,
“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
