Christi, a girl who left her cozy life to help some people.

A Singhalese translation of Christi, written by Catherine Marshall is the most reason book that I read. The translation has been published in parts, and I got to read only the first part yet. But I couldn’t wait till I read the whole book.

This story has been inspired from the author’s mother’s own true experience as a teacher in a missionary in Cutter Gap, North Carolina, back in 1912.

Christi is nineteen, good looking, and has everything her heart desires, there is nothing to complain. But one day, a speech she hears at a religious program, a speech by a Christian priest who was a former doctor, a speech about some people living in extreme poverty in a highland called Cutter Gap, and lady missionary named Allis Henderson who is devoted herself to help them, to educate them, to bring some quality to their lives.

So, Christi decides to go there to work as a teacher, standing her ground firmly at her parents’ protests.

What awaits Christy Cutter Gap couldn’t be more different than what she expected. It’s a very harsh environment with almost no infrastructure facilities, but tougher than the environment are the folks who she has to come to terms with. They are very conservative, stubborn, proud and don’t let strangers step in to their personal spaces easily. Worse of all is their sense of cleanliness which is unbelievable for Christi.

She comes to the verge of giving up and turning back. But Allis Henderson puts the matters in to a different light before Christi, and David, her fellow teacher and a priest, as well as Dr. Neil McNeil, a person with remarkable intelligence and an incomparable caring towards his own folks, is very helpful. But above all, it’s her students’ interest in learning, and there exceptional talents that holds her back

This is the only book that has done justice to Christianity [other than the Bible, of course] that I have ever read. No other book that I have read expresses what God is, what God expects from us humans better than Christi. This book has deeply moved me, though I only read a part of it. I hope at least to some extent I have prompted you to read it. As for me, I can’t wait to get my hands on the other parts of the translation.