Nepal Earthquake - Church News Story

What an experience we've had this last week! After the April 25th earthquake in Nepal, Jim and Chris Valentine were evacuated. They were the only missionaries serving in Nepal, and were there to do humanitarian work. They were first evacuated to Thailand, but eventually came to Hong Kong where they now occupy the cubicle next to ours.

As part of our duties in Public Affairs, we are to make the public and church members aware of events related to the church. So, we decided to interview the Valentines. We were so touched by their story, Laraine and I couldn't keep the tears from flowing. When Elder Valentine told of being separated from his wife during the earthquake (she was home preparing a special dinner for members and he was at the church meetinghouse showing recordings of general conference), he ran quickly home to see about his wife. They lived on the 7th floor of an apartment building. As he rounded a corner, he thought he would either see a massive tangle of debris where their apartment building was, or that it would still be standing. It was still standing. Sister Valentine had been banged up, but miraculously made it out of the building. They had other stories to tell, but that will probably be another blog entry.

When Elder Randy D. Funk of the Asia Area Presidency returned from his trip to Nepal, I wrote an article which included  some of the Valentines' story. It got picked up for the Church News and was printed on the second page (haven't seen it yet). Here's the link to the article:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865629161/Asia-Area-leaders-visit-Nepal-devastation.html

Here is the Mormon Newsroom link:

http://www.mormonnewsroom.hk/eng/article/asia-area-leaders-visit-nepal-devastation

Here are some pictures from the article: