MISSIONARY NEWS. World Magazine has an interesting article about young missionary Heather Swensen. You can read it at: http://www.worldmag.com/subscriber/displayarticle.cfm?id=10532. This fearless young woman is a dedicated missionary in Nepal, now an extremely dangerous area. She has been arrested previously and has also been removed from the country. She was later allowed to return.

Nepal is in the throws of a civil war. The King has declared marital law and dissolved parliament. Communist rebels are blowing things up, killing and kidnapping civilians, and doing all the bad things communist rebels do everywhere they do it.

In the midst of strife, God is working (see John 5:17). While the turmoil grows, the church is growing. Ms. Swensen said one reason is that, when the government and the communists are fighting each other, they are not fighting the church.

Nepal is a Hindu kingdom, Christianity was illegal until 1993. Christians could not even live in Nepal until 1960. It is still illegal to convert or to evangelize. Not surprisingly, Christians make up less than 2 percent of the population.

It sounds grim for the church in Nepal, does it not? Well, it is not. Get this: the church in Nepal is sending out missionaries! The first team will go to Tibet. The people of Nepal have contacts in Tibet because Tibetans fled to Nepal during the Chinese invasion. The second area of outreach is to be Pakistan. The church under fire is the church on fire.

Swensen was smuggled out of Nepal in an ambulance during a miraculous escape. She plans to return to assist this fledgling missionary movement. She is a 23 year old single woman. She is also now on my list of heroes.