The window panes start to rattle. Dogs begin barking. I hear screams and frantic footsteps on the street.
The city of Kathmandu is immediately in an uproar.
This is the reality of a city and country devastated by an earthquake, even small aftershocks causing fear and chaos. I want to give you all a small glimpse into our time in that beautiful country.
On one of our first days in Kathmandu, our ministry contact gave us a vision for our time there; he said that our goal, first and foremost, was to be “friends of the Nepali people.” We weren’t there to provide major relief efforts, but to offer smiles, bottles of water, oil and rice, and a helping hand. Our work for those three weeks was person to person and door-to-door.
That is why during our second week in Nepal, we headed to a village in the Himalayan foothills to help rebuild a small church that had been devastated in the first earthquake.
Heading to Melchour on a five-hour bus ride, the rain pelted the bus window I looked out. The countryside was beautiful with terraced farm land and rolling hills that gradually got bigger and bigger. About three hours into our trip, I began noticing more damage in the towns we drove through. One of these small towns looked completely leveled as if a tornado had swept through it. Every single building was now ruble.
When we arrived in Melchour, we unloaded the bus, hiked for an hour down the hillside, and set up our tents on a farmed terrace. It was absolutely beautiful. Stunning really. We were camping in the foothills of the Himalayans.
We were next to the church property and planned to help remove the ruble and construct a temporary church structure afterwords. We started work the next day, but that is when the second earthquake struck.
The ground swayed under my feet and I could see multiple things happening at once: the trees around me looked like grace blowing in the wind, criss-crossing each other and going up and down all at once, the terraced farm land wasn’t land anymore, but looked more like the eaves of the ocean, unpredictable. Almost immediately I crouched close to the ground and began praying that the Lord would protect us. I heard houses near me crumble and noticed the hillside to my left give way. It was a small landslide that took already damaged houses with it. A few seconds later the ground stopped moving, and I looked out over the valley. Dust was rising from newly collapsed brick houses and screams reached my ears.
The whole experience was surreal and the only thing I could do was pray. I looked around at my squad mates and many of them seemed to be praying to.
It turned out that the people in the houses below us had all been outside and were not injured, but other people in neighboring towns weren’t so lucky.
When some squad mates went a town over later that day, they discovered an entire hotel had collapsed instantly killing everyone inside. When they returned that night, they said nobody was searching through the ruble when they arrived. Nothing was being done to look for survivors at the site. Something they couldn’t comprehend and neither could I.
I stayed close to the World Food Program tent we lived and slept in for the next two nights and talked with lots of the local kids.
I sat under a canopy of pine trees with about a dozen of the kids from Melchour the next day and that is when my heart broke. One of the little girls kept handing me bracelets that she made: little vines and flowers carefully woven together into intricate jewelry. Another asked me to teach her a song. The only one that came to mind was “Jesus Loves Me” and so I began with that. I started with the clapping beat I had learned a few months before and began singing the words. Slowly, her face got brighter and brighter until she finally picked up some of the English words and sang along.
Singing “Jesus Loves Me” with this precious little girl, looking out over houses turned to ruble, my heart felt like it shattered.
I couldn’t help but think about what this young girl’s life would look like from now on and about the pain she is forced to grow up in. Again, I turned to the Lord and simply prayed over her.
The people of Nepal need prayer. They are hurting and in need of help. Many of them have lost hope. They’ve lost family members, houses, a sense of security, and their livelihoods. They are in need of the love and care of Jesus.
I want to leave you with one request. When you finish reading this, please take 20 or 30 seconds to lift up the people of Nepal. Pray that they would turn to the living and true God during this chaotic time. Pray for the pastors and Christians that are suffering there. Pray for the children. Pray that God would protect them and be near to them. Pray for revival throughout all of Nepal. Pray for that the Lord would restore the broken hearted.
