Leper prays as Nepal earthquake rumbles

by christiannewsjournal
Nepal

NEPAL — Miriam awoke from her Saturday nap on April 25 with a start. Since she was up, the elderly Nepali woman decided to begin her daily noontime prayer 15 minutes early.

She lifted her normal requests heavenward — asking God to give her husband health; watching over her adult son; tidbits from people requesting her intercession; and asking for her neighbors and her country of Nepal to know Jesus.

Eleven minutes into her conversation with God, a loud noise cracked throughout the mud-brick home.

“I thought it was a car,” Miriam said with a giggle one week after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake. “But then the house started shaking and everyone was screaming, ‘EARTHQUAKE! EARTHQUAKE!'”

Her husband came to get her out of the second-story bedroom but she refused to move and refused to stop praying.

Miriam knew that she, a leper with no fingers or legs, could do more good by praying to God for her country’s protection than going outside to safety. Her husband only argued once, then sat on the floor and joined her.

“I wasn’t scared. Even when people yelled for me to go downstairs, I told them I was staying,” Miriam said, emphatically thumping her well-worn Bible. “God knows what He is doing.”

Nepal

Just thinking about the countless thousands who have lost their homes in Nepal stirs Miriam to prayer because they have nowhere to go — and no “spiritual home” — after the April 25 earthquake. Photo by Susie Rain

And He wanted her to pray, so she shouted Scripture to the heavens above the loud rumbling of the earthquake and the aftershocks that shook the nation for hours.

Miriam opened her Bible and shuffled through the pages with her paddle-like hands. She stopped in Romans and pointed at chapter 8, verse 28: “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose” (HCSB).

The verse spurred Miriam on to pray over and over — not just during the quake, but since. It assured her that God had a plan for her, even in the crisis.

The elderly woman’s face crinkled up and she took a deep breath, wiping tears away as she explained, “I’m not scared. Other people do not have a house. They do not have food. I’m sad for them.”

Tears still flowing, Miriam said, “I knew that if I died, I would be with my Savior, but if they died, they would never have the chance to hear about Him. So, I prayed for the protection of the masses.

“People lost their house. Family members died. They have no peace,” she said, thumping her heart. “They have no eternal hope … so I pray.”

— by Susie Rain | BP

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