New Book Chronicles Miracles in Chilean Mine

For several suspenseful hours on Oct. 13, 2010, the attention of the entire world lay centered on a solitary spot in the Chilean desert.

At that site, 33 trapped miners emerged to fresh air and freedom and the eager embrace of jubilant family and friends. The miners had spent 10 weeks entombed one-half mile underground. Their deliverance went down in history as the greatest mine rescue of all time.

God was in the mix, and the memory of the event has become a spiritual heritage for many who will never forget the miracle in the mine. It was a reminder that God hears the cries of His children—and answers them.

“I have been with God and I’ve been with the devil. I fought between the two. I seized the hand of God, it was the best hand. I always knew God would get us out of there” Mario Sepulveda, the second miner to be pulled from the mine, said, according to Channel 4 News in Belfast.

Now, a new book is offering a record of the personal journey and spiritual involvement of a local, unassuming minister with the miners and their families. Hope Underground: The 34 Chilean Miners—A Story of Faith and Miracles is the story of the people who came together at Camp Hope, a makeshift tent community not far from the site of the mine collapse. The campers were there asking God to do a mighty work on behalf of the miners.

The book tells the story of pastor Carlos Parra Diaz, who rose to prominence as he became the influential chaplain of Camp Hope. Parra describes not only his own involvement with the families at Camp Hope but also introduces the reader to those miners, family members and officials who extracted nuggets of hope from the situation and then used them to instill faith in others.

Readers are introduced to women like Maria Segovia, the “mayor” of Camp Hope, whose quiet strength and steadfast faith daily encouraged others. We meet the miner whose wife gave birth to their first child during the 10-week ordeal—a daughter they named Esperanza (which means Hope). The book also highlights the youngest miner who boldly insisted there were 34 in the mine instead of 33 because, as he explained, “God never abandoned us.”