PAIN IS REAL BUT SO IS HOPE

April 25, 2015 (Baishak 12, 2072) was the date when Nepal was hit by the 7.8 Magnitude earthquake in broad daylight—11:55 AM (Nepal Standard Time). This earthquake has totally destroyed the capital city Kathmandu and other villages in Gorkha, Lamjung, and Chitwan. The tremors (aftershocks) were felt approximately 40-50 times in following 3 days (April 25 to 28). Aftershocks were so strong that people feared they were main hits. Many people had lost their hope of survival. Those people who did survive abandoned their houses to live outdoors, under open sky. Many people around the world came to Nepal for volunteering and helping in financial and emotional ways. Similarly, I also found an opportunity to volunteer with my Facebook Newar community. Eventually that Newar community was filled with young people. They were helping in different ways through sanitation to proving basic needs for those people who were affected. During the course of that time we met a 14-year-old teen girl in Kathmandu Medical College hospital who had lost her right leg in that earthquake. Due to her amputated leg, she had lost hope that she ever has the opportunity to study. Even her own parents denied her to take back to their home. In their opinion, because of the loss of her leg she no longer had worth in their family. They too had lost hope she could do something for the family. While Kathamandu Medical College Hospital had told them to plan on discharge very soon, she wasn’t healed completely. This further led to lost hope. But when she and her family saw our group, hope was renewed—they thought we might be able to help provide for their needs. Her father asked us to help find assistance from the NGOs/INGOs. We asked Anandhaban Hospital to provide her medical treatments as she is from financially weak background. By the God’s grace, Anandhaban Hospital gave her treatments and still they are giving her medical help  It is a short story: a girl and her father who were hoping to get better living after that cruel natural disaster. My hope is that though she has lost her leg, she would receive God’s love, His mercy in her life.  God’s hope is that none would perish, but that they would find eternal life.  I believe “Hope keeps us alive”.  Proverbs 13:12 says,” Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life”. Even Roman 5:2-7 says, “Through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.”