Open and shut

Nepal | A government-imposed lockdown has not stopped Nepal's tiny Christian minority from exporting hope and truth | Mindy Belz

Nepal is coming unglued and Heather Swensen can't wait to get back there.

The soon-to-be 23-year-old mission worker made a dramatic exit from the Himalayan fortress state after the government imposed martial law in February. Maoist rebels, who have been fighting the constitutional monarchy since 1996 in hopes of replacing it with a communist republic, have disrupted Nepal's economy in a conflict that has killed 11,000.

Government curfews and a sealed border have continued since Feb. 1, when King Gyandendra dismissed parliament and inaugurated martial law. The rebels responded by inciting worker strikes and violently enforcing a nationwide slowdown, or bandh. That left the Maoist insurgents and the Royal Nepalese Army attacking civilians from both sides. And that left Miss Swensen—who works in a highly contested area teaching English and health care, helping to install water projects, and assisting the country's tiny evangelical population—in grave danger.