The flood swept away houses and bridges, but one turquoise house remained standing. For one family, it became a place of refuge in the midst of the disaster—and a striking illustration of the parable Jesus told about the house built on the rock. By Alberto Rosenthal

Reading time: 2 minutes

When the flood struck, hardly anything in the Nepalese village of Trishuli was left untouched. Within just 30 minutes, the river rose by up to nine meters. Houses were destroyed, bridges were swept away, and mud and debris covered the valley.

Yet one turquoise-colored house on the riverbank remained standing. A family of five survived inside. According to a civil engineer, the secret lay primarily in the foundation: The house was built on rock and reinforced with concrete and rebar. In addition, a small promontory shielded the building from the worst of the flood’s force.

One can hardly help but think of the story with which Jesus concluded his Sermon on the Mount: “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24)

Jesus did not promise protection from the storms of life. Rain falls, water rises, winds rage. But the foundation determines whether a house will stand.

The family in Nepal didn’t know whether their house would withstand the water either. They watched as the flood shook their home. They couldn’t run away and had to hold their ground. “We thought: If we survive, then we’ll all survive. If we die, then we all die,” said the mother. Her husband, Prakash Pyakurel, thought, “This is the end.” The family decided to stay together in what they believed were their final moments and to “call upon the name of God.”

In the end, they were rescued. Later, they returned to their home—to a landscape that had become a field of mud. The mother spoke of how her family felt “reborn.”

The disaster on August 26 was even more severe than initially thought. A massive flood wave, triggered by a rock and glacial ice avalanche in the Himalayas, raced through the Trishuli Valley, leaving a wide trail of devastation in its wake. It is now estimated that more than 1,300 people were killed and over 5,000 are missing in Nepal and Tibet. Numerous houses, roads, and hydroelectric power plants were destroyed. Rescue workers continued to search for the missing for a long time—and were even able to rescue individual people alive from the rubble ten days after the disaster.

But the turquoise house in Nepal has become a powerful symbol: What matters is not whether the storm comes—but what we have built upon.