The fallen idols and the miracle baby

02/07/2008
BMS mission worker Sarah Pryor is a teacher at the Surkhet Primary Study Centre, working with the International Nepal Fellowship (INF). Here she tells us about the amazing work that God has been doing in the life of her neighbour, a lady called Esoda:

Esoda’s history is that she is one of eight children – four sisters and three brothers and her father was a farmer.

Esoda only went to school until class 4 because it was so far away from her village. She would leave the house at 7.00am to reach the school by 10.00am. School finished at 4.00pm and it would take her another three hours to get back home again.

Esoda had an arranged marriage when she was 17 years old. She never talked with her husband before they got married – their first words were on the wedding day.

After Esoda got married she went to India where her husband worked as a policeman in the Indian army. Their first child was born – a son! Sadly he died aged one month.

Two years later Basanti was born and another two years later Prabina. Both of the girls were healthy and well.

Four years later another son arrived. He was well at first but when he was four years old, he suddenly became very ill with a high fever. Esoda walked with the little boy down from the hills to bring him to the hospital in Surkhet. Sadly, the little boy died in her arms on the long journey.

Back row: Esoda holding Basanti's daughter, Prabina, Sharda, Basanti.
Front row: Esoda's mother and Anjit.

A year later Sardha – a healthy girl, was born. Another four years passed before Esoda became pregnant and gave birth to another little boy. Sadly he too, was very ill, had jaundice and started to vomit blood. He died when he was about ten days old.

After that Esoda got very ill herself. She felt depressed, slept a lot and found it very hard to work.

The following three to four years Esoda and her husband and family visited a lot of holy men – Jankris (witch doctors) and many other doctors, but no cure for her disease was found.

The strange thing was, that Esoda felt fine in India, but as soon as she got to Nepal she became ill again.

Esoda’s husband was a very strict Hindu and couldn’t stand Christians. He had a lot of idols and worshipped them.

After a while her husband met some Christians who told him that if he believed and went to God, his wife would get well again. At a similar time a Christian neighbour spoke to Esoda and told her to believe and to pray to God.

Esoda couldn’t believe that she would get well and wanted to talk with her husband about it. They decided to go to the first local church in Surkhet and talk and pray with the pastor.

Esoda’s husband sat there quietly whilst the pastor and his wife prayed and shared the gospel. He said that he would believe if his wife was healed.

The pastor and his wife advised them to get rid of all the idols. Esoda found that quite hard and put them outside in a corner. She didn’t get well. The pastor asked again if they had thrown the idols away and Esoda said that she had found it hard to do so.

One day, a Brahmin with a buffalo walked past their house and asked what all the idols were in the garden. Esoda told him that she had thrown them out, so the Brahmin took them all – finally they were gone.

Esoda gradually got better over the next six to seven months. Slowly she learned more about God and learned to trust him. She is now a shining example of the way God transforms lives.

Two years later a healthy son was born – Angit – a son for which Esoda didn’t dare hope for! He is now five years old and very healthy and happy.

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