Nepal Earthquake Update

If you haven’t heard by now, on Saturday 25th April 2015 we experienced a huge 7.8 earthquake, which was followed by a 6.6 a few hours later, then another 6.8 the following day, and many smaller aftershocks after that (still continuing).

We are in awe at the protection that God showed to us, the Salvation Worship Ministry, and Bible College staff and students.

Despite all the stress and multiple times of Tonielle falling during and after the earthquake, baby Sarkar is still healthy and growing. Tonielle’s next check up is May 19th. We are excited to see our baby and get an updated report on how the pregnancy is going.

We are both safe and returned back to our house on May 1st after camping in a field for 6-days after the quake, due to the stronger aftershocks. We are extremely blessed that our house and our ministry buildings only sustained minor damage. Unfortunately, many of our students and staff come from villages outside of the city and their homes and churches were completely destroyed.

We currently have a team of pastors from Southern California led by Pastor Brent Kaser (CC WestGrove) that are staying at the Bible College campus. A majority of them go home Saturday, May 9th, but a few will be staying a week or two longer to help with what is needed. Their main focus is to encourage and minister to us, the staff, students, and the many Nepali’s who have lost everything.

We are also going to different villages inside and outside of the Kathmandu Valley and assessing the needs for future teams to come and help with whatever is needed.

There is only a short, 4-6 week window of time before monsoon season begins and there are thousands of people who are still without shelter. Please continue to pray for us as there is much to be done in the days, weeks and months ahead.

If you would like to make a donation to a reliable organization to help with the relief work in Nepal, please visit www.promisechild.org. They are sending 100% of all the funds raised directly to us. When we receive it, here in Nepal, we use it to purchase the supplies needed to help those who were affected by the quake.

Thank you to each of you who emailed, texted, and called during the last two weeks. We are blessed to have so many people praying for / with us. I apologize if we were not able to respond to you yet. We have been very busy trying to get “back to normal” and assess the needs that are before us. We will be making every effort to respond to each of you, personally, within the next week.

In Him,
Tonielle & Pankaj Sarkar