On August 5, 2010, the San José mine in northern Chile gave way. Roughly 700,000 tons of rock collapsed inside the mountain, sealing 33 men nearly 2,300 feet underground. The only way out was gone. They crowded into a small emergency shelter with food meant to last a few days.

Among them was José Henríquez, a veteran miner and devoted believer the others called “El Pastor.” In the heat and the dark, he gathered the men to pray every day. Believers and doubters alike joined in. They prayed for rescue and for the families waiting above. The hunger grew. The silence stretched on. And every day, they prayed again.

Up above, families camped outside the mine at a place that came to be called Camp Hope. Drill after drill bored into the mountain searching for any sign of life. On August 22, the seventeenth day, one finally broke into a tunnel near the shelter. The miners fastened notes to the bit. When it came back to the surface, one message in red ink read, “Estamos bien en el refugio los 33.” We are well in the refuge, the 33 of us.

Their wait wasn’t over. For 52 more days, food, water and letters from home came down through narrow boreholes while rescuers drilled a shaft wide enough to carry a man. Then on October 13, a slim capsule began lifting them out one at a time. After 69 days in the dark, all 33 came home.

“I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.” — Psalm 40:1-2 (NKJV)

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

Those men prayed long before there was any sign that help was coming. That’s what trust looks like. For seventeen days, the only answer from above seemed to be silence, yet God heard every prayer spoken in that shelter. And while they waited, He gave them each other. Like David (the author of Psalm 40), they cried out from the pit, and the Lord heard. Our prayers from the darkest places are never lost. God hears them, and He often sends hope through the people beside us long before the rescue comes. So keep praying, and keep praying together.

MY PRAYER

Heavenly Father, thank You for hearing every prayer, even the ones prayed in the deepest darkness. Thank You for bringing all 33 of those men back into the light. Help me trust You while I wait, even when I can’t see what You’re doing. Make me someone who helps others hold onto hope. Set my feet on the Rock and establish my steps, I pray. In Jesus’ name, Amen.