P Squad arrived in Nepal about a week and a half after the April 25th earthquake. We did ministry and training, and every day we would feel mild aftershocks. Monday afternoon, we took a three hour bus ride to Sindhupalchok District which is several small villages spread over a mountain outside of Kathmandu. We hiked down the mountain with our packs, tents, food and water to last us 4 days. We hiked almost two miles down, passing houses that were half destroyed and collapsed from the 7.9 earthquake from two weeks ago. We passed families washing clothes and bathing in the natural spring water pouring out of a spout in the mountain. We passed goats and cows eating hay and playing together. We passed a very narrow pathway surrounded by rock half-walls on each side. We were exhausted by the time we reached the pile of rubble that used to be a church that we would rebuild.
We all set up our tents, ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on banana bread and sat in our tents, on the side of the mountain, gazing at the stars and singing “It is well with my soul.” It was a beautiful sound to go to sleep and I started drifting off as it began to rain. Nepali people go to bed at about 8pm with the sun and rise with the sun at 5am. After hearing the locals outside my tent talking for an hour and a half, I finally got out of my bed at 6:30am to find that they had made a stove in the ground and made all of us hot tea. Myself and five girls decided to go on a hike back up the mountain for some exercise. We walked up that mountain again and found a spot through the main/only street in town that overlooked the breathtaking Himalayan mountains and stared, in awe of how gorgeous the view was.
Our ministry for the week was going to be rebuilding a church. We made an assembly line to remove the rocks from the pile of debris to form another pile of rocks one level down on the mountain. We worked for about four hours and then took a break for lunch. Because the people there don’t work in the heat of the day, we planned to go into the village and evangelize, meet people and play with children. The sweet church family made us dal for lunch and we all sat as a squad on the edge of our terrace eating and resting.
As I was standing outside of a tent, we heard a strange noise and then felt the ground begin to shake. I felt like someone was shaking a trampoline underneath my feet. We all fell to our knees and tried to comprehend what was happening. This was not the tiny tremor or aftershocks that we barely felt for the past week. This was the real deal. One of our teammates, Jason, shouted “Landslide! There’s a landslide!” Once we realized it had stopped, the guys ran down to make sure those families were ok. We looked up across the valley and saw where houses used to be, there were now puffs of dust. In an instant, our squad leaders prayed and felt like we needed to leave the side of the mountain for the safety of the squad.
We packed up our tents and belongings as fast as we could and hiked up the mountain to find a safe spot. We had no clue where we were going to make camp because there was 50 of us with our tents and the town basically consists of one street with buildings lining it on the edge of drop offs. We all arrived at the top, through a couple of after shocks (which feel like a rumble underneath your feet) and lo and behold, there was a huge white tent set up in a flat, clearing of the forest. It was going to be a storage area for food and supplies for the village but the owners said we could make camp a coupe of nights since it was a safe location. We settled in and some of us wanted to immediately go help the other village that was severely effected. We heard that an entire hotel collapsed and slid down the mountain. At this point, my brain cannot even comprehend how this happens. I wanted to go hug injured people and pray for this town.
We prayed about it and as the Lord told us to, about 30 of us walked through the one street town into the next village. This was a 45 minute hike and the entire time, I felt so heavy. I felt like I was literally walking into a battle. I prayed the armor of God over us. Lord, cover me in your armor. I’m putting on the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit. Guide us. Direct us. Let us be your hands and feet. In the sovereignty of God, me and about five others got separated from the large group and instead of going to the destroyed village (which God protected us from seeing because it was rough) we found a family who needed help setting up a tent since it was not safe to stay in their home. The grandma of the family came up to us, grabbing our faces, kissing us and crying. I felt so much pain and gratitude in her tears. Pain for the destruction and gratitude to be alive. There were no men with this family at the time, so Kaylaynn and I literally went bamboo hunting and chopped down bamboo for the tent, while the others played and laughed with the children and dug holes for the tent poles.
Is it possible that God sent us to that family to help them build a tent and sent that family to us to love on and show us that purely life itself is a reason to be grateful and joyful? I believe so. It’s crazy how you can learn so much in one hour. God floods us with the Holy Spirit and revelation even when we don’t expect it.
The next day, I wanted to love on the people of our village where we were staying. I didn’t even have to go far! Right outside of our tent was a group of children with two of my teammates doing face painting and painting fingernails. They were laughing and so happy. I joined them and throughout the next eight hours, we braided hair, made bracelets out of pine needles, sang American and Nepali songs for each other, talked about Jesus, talked about their families, looked at pictures, hugged each other, went “sledding” on pine needles and learned Nepali phrases. That day was the sweetest experience. In spite of what those kid’s families had gone through and all they had lost, they were so giving and so joyful. I am so honored to have met them. Through aftershocks and so much uncertainty, all I can do is go back to the fact God is constant.
“Be thou to me a rock of habitation to which I may continually come.
Be thou to me the strength of my salvation, the rock that I stand on will never fall.
For Lord you are God, and I am unworthy.
Thank you for loving me in spite of my sin.
For Your love is life. Without it, I am nothing.
Help me to stand on Your firm foundation.”
Rock of Habitation, by Ellie Holcomb
*For more photos, visit Eva Cranford’s Smugmug site.
