I wanted to take a timeout this week from the Pennsylvania series I started last week, and point focus to a place that has captured my imagination for some time now; Nepal. As I'm sure you've heard by now, Nepal and some of the surrounding Countries were ravaged by a huge earthquake a little over a day ago. At first hundreds, and now thousands are presumed / confirmed dead (in a place like Kathmandu, it will be hard to know an exact number for some time, if ever) and those that are left have been displaced by a literal crumbling infrastructure. The area is extremely impoverished already, so you can imagine an event like this will be hard to bounce back from.
As you've been watching the news, you've likely seen images of people climbing on top of red-ish brown debris as they are in the middle of trying to rescue people. This is a picture of what that area looked like before the earthquakes. The second temple in on the left of this picture was nicknamed the "hippie temple", and is now just a giant pile of rubble. The news I've seen has been stating that these buildings were built in the 1800's, and while that is true (the buildings were actually re-constructed then from when they were destroyed by invaders during the 14th century), the area has great significance to the Nepali people dating back to the 5th century.
I have said many times that I love travel because it opens your eyes to different parts of the world, and makes you care about people and places that you might otherwise be indifferent to… or at least greatly separated from; and that is certainly the case here. I hope you'll join us in praying for the people in Nepal, and those that are rushing there to help. Now would also be a wonderful time to give to organizations that are trying to help. One such organization that Holly and I have been supporting for a while is Samaritan's Purse, and if you're so inclined, you can give directly to their Nepal relief efforts here.
–Dan Thompson