A few weeks ago, Tek Bahadur was woken up in the middle of the night by the voice of God. Tek heard God tell him while he was sleeping that he needed to get up, leave his house, and go someplace safe. Tek woke up to the sound of heavy rain beating on his roof. He was skeptical at first, trying to remember the voice he had heard in his sleep, but when he walked out side he saw that the monsoon rains had begun to flood his courtyard, and there was a danger that his entire village would soon be flooded.

Tek roused his wife and six children. He woke his neighbors, telling them that something disastrous was about to happen and they all needed to leave to escape the danger of flooding. In the black of night, the people of the village began to evacuate. Tek led his family across a small river and onto higher ground. Not long after, Tek heard the colossal sound of water rushing down from the slopes of the nearby mountain. He and his family spent the whole night on the other side of the river, waiting for morning to see what had happened in their village.

When Tek returned to the site of his home early in the morning he found that there was nothing left; the house had been totally demolished by a landslide. Sand, dirt, and rocks (some larger than his house) slid down the mountain into his village, leaving no crops or livestock standing. God had delivered his family and neighbors from being swept away while they slept.

Believers in nearby villages have begun caring for families displaced by the landslide in Tek’s village while they wait for assistance from the government. All eight families who lost their homes are being housed in the church of ServLife Pastor Deviram. Pastor Nanda in eastern Nepal is also housing five more families of believers who lost their homes to landslides. So far, with the help of donations and the generosity of Nepali believers, ServLife staff in Nepal has provided food and supplies for the displaced families. They are now are making plans to aid long-term recovery.

These men and women are truly living into the promise God made in Isaiah 58:

“If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday… You will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”
Isaiah 58: 10,12