Hope in the Darkness
It was getting late and darkness falls quickly in the Himalayan mountains. We had just finished a medical clinic in a remote Nepali village. Darkness is acute in Nepal both spiritually and naturally. Nepal is the high holy center of demonic worship. The trip had been fruitful for the Kingdom, but we also had been attacked with sickness and real confrontations.
This was the last trip out before heading to Katmandu to catch the plane home. Our team bus was to pick us up at 4:00 pm so we would be able to make it down the mountain before total darkness settled in. Five o clock came and no one showed up. Finally the bus supervisor called down to ask where the bus was. It turned out that our bus had broken down on the way up. Not just any one can drive a bus on the mountain roads of Nepal. It takes special training because the roads are barely big enough for one car to pass and hairpin turns are everywhere. The mechanic was the only qualified driver so he put a driver-in training in a bus an headed up the road. It was 7:00 pm, dark and still no bus arrived. The supervisor made another frantic call and we all built a fire to keep warm as we waited.
About 7:30 we saw headlights and heard our bus coming up the road. It turns out that the mechanic had stopped by the broken down bus and began to fix it instead of picking us up. Finally, we were on the bus headed down to the base site-almost. The driver/mechanic stopped where the original bus had broken down and finished his repair.
There we were in the dark; in the land of darkness on a road barely big enough for two cars to pass with drop off several thousand feet on one side. Strangely, I had this incredible peace. We sat there for almost two hours and then began our journey to base camp. The trip back seem shorter even though we would swing back and forth around the curves. I had to say that I did feel relieved when we reached the base camp around midnight.
My wife had to stay at the base camp because she wasn't fully recovered from a bout with sickness. She began to worry when we were about an hour over due. It is not uncommon for buses to go off the cliff making turns, especially at night. She made contact with one of our prayer warriors in the US and they had been praying of our protection. I know the peace I felt in the middle of that darkness came from the covering launched by their prayers.
Christmas is the celebration of when the creator of the universe loved us so much that he took on flesh to pay the price that would free the people of the world from darkness. Literally, hope for the hopeless in a world filled with evil darkness where nothing man could do to free himself. Trust the Lord, he loves you and has already made a way where there seems no way. Those who receive him have the power to become children of God saved from the darkness for eternity.
I close with two passages of scripture to bring you comfort when darkness seems to be all around you.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it. John 1:1-4 -NASB
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence? f I say, “Surely the darkness will [g]overwhelm me,
12 Even darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You. Ps 139 vs7,11,12-NASB
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