Last week we let you know that the children and staff at our shelter in Nepal were safe, even as a catastrophic flood tore through the country. We wanted to come back this week with more, because a great deal has happened since then, and because so many of you have been holding Nepal close in your thoughts and prayers.
The disaster began on August 26, when a glacier gave way high in the mountains and sent a wall of water and debris racing down the valleys of the Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts, near the border with China. It moved fast and it moved far, sweeping away homes, roads, and whole stretches of village life in a matter of hours. As of the latest word from our team on the ground, more than 900 people have died and close to 4,000 are still missing, and those numbers have kept climbing as rescuers reach places that were cut off. It is hard to take in, and we won’t pretend otherwise.
What we can tell you is that we are not watching this from a distance. One of our partners in Nepal has been sending updates from the middle of it. Right now more than 2,000 displaced people are sheltering in holding centers across the Nuwakot and Rasuwa districts, many of them hosted by local churches that opened their doors to Christians and non-Christians alike, to anyone who had nowhere else to go. Our partners are already at work in those centers, distributing what families need most in these first days: clothing for the children, clean water, hygiene supplies, bedding, and small solar lights so families in centers without power can find their way through the night.
The relief is being coordinated by a local District Christian Committee working alongside government authorities, which matters more than it might sound. Larger organizations often have to route their aid through official channels that, for all their scale, move slowly. Working through trusted people who are already on the ground lets help arrive while the need is most urgent, and lets us know it is reaching the families it was meant for.
This past weekend our church, Heart of Life, which many of you know as the home of Project Nic, committed to sending funds directly to this effort, and the first wave goes out this week. If you would like to be part of it, you can give online at heartoflife.org/donate by tapping “Give online by clicking here” text link and then selecting “Nepal Mission” from the designated fund menu.
A gift of $100 provides relief packages for four people, and a gift of any size adds to what our partners can carry into those centers. This first push is only the beginning. The need in Nepal will outlast this week by a long way, and gifts given now and in the weeks ahead will keep reaching families as our partners widen their reach.
We don’t have tidy words for a loss this size, and we won’t try to find them. What we have instead is a promise being kept in real time, by people who stayed and opened their churches to strangers, and who are handing dry clothes and clean water and a little light to families who lost nearly everything. That is what hope looks like in Nepal this week. Thank you for standing with them, and with us, as it continues.
