Joan Haig-Ferguson, then Joan Short, was one of the ‘originals’ who trekked into Nepal in 1952 to establish International Nepal Fellowship, then known as the Nepal Evangelistic Band.
She was a qualified nurse/midwife and had spent two years at Redcliffe Missionary Training College in Chiswick. From the beginning she was the matron, first of the grass hut hospital at Ramghat and then of the Shining Hospital in Pokhara, heading up a staff of expatriate nurses and Nepalis.
The hospital had to be started from scratch with no running water, electricity, pathology lab or x-ray. The catchment area was enormous, with a very heavy patient load, but Joan was the ideal person for this demanding work. She was very single minded and only wanted God’s will. Everything done at the hospital was prayed over in detail.
