In Nepal, church keeps singing

After their Lord’s Supper implements were destroyed in an April 25 earthquake, church attenders in Nepal used a dinner plate for bread and a bowl and spoon for the grape juice. IMB photo by Chris Carter

Kathmandu | When journalist Susie Rain (name changed) visited a small Nepali congregation after a catastrophic earthquake, they were singing the same song as one week before, when the walls in their meeting room began to shake. Rain, a writer for the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, described the worship service:

Twenty-five voices gain momentum, clapping hands, dancing and raising their faces to heaven in song, “Still I will love You and spread Your love to the people.” Spontaneously, the congregation breaks into prayer. This is the exact spot the song was interrupted a week ago, on April 25, by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake.

In the days after the quake, the death toll continued to rise, eventually topping 7,000. Thousands more were injured. Baptist Global Response, a ministry partner of the IMB, has begun assessing the damage and delivering supplies.

In Kathmandu, the church Rain visited celebrated the Lord’s Supper, even during an aftershock. Their dishes had been destroyed the week before. “They improvised with a bowl and spoon,” Rain posted on social media. “Wish you could have been there with me. You would have had tears in your eyes, too.”

International Mission Board President David Platt has written about how Christians can respond to the crisis in Nepal. Read his column here.