It is currently April 15, approximately a week and a half since we, P Squad, have arrived in Nepal.
The moment I laid eyes on Nepal, I fell in love. Yep, Love at first sight. The colorful houses, the green terraces, & the mountains quickly stole my heart. I was so excited that God had entrusted us to go to Nepal only a couple days after the quake.
Our squad arrived with such anticipation. We knew God was going to do something big.
Flashback to 2 days before Nepal.
Kaylaynn: “It’s not over.”
TeamTime: “He’s going to show us something more… it’s going to be hard, but it’ll be good.”
Leaders meeting: “Such is a time as this”
Me (thought process): “Why is everyone saying its going to be hard? We have already endured so much… what in the world can cause it to be harder? God’s going to use us. We are going to share the hope that we have. It’ll be good!”
We knew that God was going to shake us up, but what we didn’t expect was that He was going to literally shake our world.
The first couple of days were such a blessing. We were in Kathmandu, surrounded by coffee shops and restaurants filled with momo’s (dumplings), noodles, pizza, and all things carbs. We were doing prayer walks around the temples and visited areas that were hit hard. We talked to people on the streets and got to know their stories. We saw the devastation that the first earthquake had done and was able to feel the deep sorrow that this country was going through. With thousands of families displaced and living in fear, I felt so helpless. What can one missionary do? How can I offer help? Am I really useful in this country at this moment? I felt overwhelmed. BUT I was reminded once again that I wasn’t expected to change the country but to serve one person at a time. Helping one person or one family is in fact helping the country of Nepal. God was in control, not I. Through that I trusted God and did what I could. We mostly walked around and handed out water and biscuits. Our host challenged us to give something away if God was calling us to.
Then our squad was sent to the mountains of Nepal. To a village that was severely damaged because of the first earthquake. We were told we would clean the rubble and rebuild the church of one of our contacts. I was so excited.
As we arrived, the rice fields and the terraces blew all of us away. Feeling like we were close to Hobit land, the hills were overflowing with luscious greenery. With our food and our packs we hiked down a steep and rocky road to get to the church. As we were walking around… we saw how bad this place actually had been hit. Houses were crumbled to the ground, tents were being pitched up, and people were sitting out in open places. House were abandoned but everyday life was still happening around us. People were working on their crops, eating, and showering in the water founts. We finally arrived at a pile of wood and stones, in which they once called church.
We quickly found our places to pitch up our tents and looked out into the never ending hills in front of us.
The first night was absolutely beautiful. I can pretty much say it was BY FAR my favorite day of the race. My team and I decided to worship on top of the rubble of the church looking out into the mountains. With lightening filling the sky and giving light to the mountains, my joy was overflowing. God was so real & I felt more than blessed to be on the mountainside praising Jesus in the midst of all that was going on in the world.
The next morning we started off the day with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and began to move all the stones and planks from what was left from the church. Exhausted, I (per usual) decided to take a nap. Thats when the earth began to shake. Wow I thought to myself… this is a pretty big aftershock… but quickly realized that it was in fact an earthquake. I gathered myself and just sat on the floor. As I looked across the hills, I saw dust storms everywhere. houses were literally… falling off the terraces.
I heard screams
People were crying… down in the mountains.
The whole building… it just fell off the hill.
Those were the words that I heard from my other teammates. As a couple of people ran down to see if they could assist people in the lower villages, we were told to pack our stuff and go up the mountain. I was frustrated and upset that this was how we were responding. I wanted to stay there and show the locals that we were confident that God would protect us. I wanted to give them a sense of safety knowing that we were trusting in the Lord. I wanted to just sit there and talk to them. As we we were packing, I looked at their faces. My heart broke. We were creating more chaos and anxiousness to these people as they watched us frantic. THEY were the ones that lost their houses. THEY are the ones that had no where else to go. THEY were the ones that called us to help them find another place to worship.
But of course, all decisions are made so that we would be protected. As much as that frustrated me, God was still teaching me to be still. To remember that HE is God, and that HE is their rock.
With a heavy heart and bag, we hiked up the road only to see more damage than before.
