Christine Stone

Christine is not certain what the future holds for her. She had considered a move to Mugu in the far north-west of Nepal but then felt that this was not the right path for her to take. It was not an easy decision to take but she knew it was the right one. Recently, the Maoists attacked, destroying government offices, though sparing the UMN office, and the small UMN team is now back in Kathmandu for a while. While Christine is sure that this event is not the reason why God shut the Mugu door for her, I know that you will join with me in thanking God that he spared her from this sad happening. In a year Christine will be too old to be a "normal" mission partner and can no longer belong to UMN. However, she hopes to return to Nepal and a challenging job helping ten schools in the south-east is already opening up.

In her last newsletter Christine wrote about the work she does in Nepal, training teachers, helping to write textbooks and sometimes teaching. She says:

Life is not without danger in Nepal. Even in Kathmandu buildings have been bombed by the Maoists and individuals targeted. Christine writes of people in the villages killed by the Maoists or by the army, of children abducted to join the Maoist militia, of schools closed, of vast numbers of Nepali villagers flocking to the cities or to India or the Gulf, leaving only old people and little children in much of the land. At the same time Christine sees Save the Children workers helping to re-open schools and helping children traumatized by shootings. There are signs of hope, not least of which is the work Christine herself does.

Christine closes her letter by asking us to pray for Nepal, for an end to the conflict, and by thanking us for our continuing interest and encouragement. I know you will join me in praying that Christine will continue to be blessed by God in all she does, now and in the future.

Please do collect a copy of the letter from the World Mission noticeboard. You will find it not only extremely interesting but also incredibly inspiring.

Chris Shanks