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In 1999 Gladys Staines became a widow and a single parent after Hindu radicals torched the jeep in which her missionary husband and sons were sleeping. Four years later, she is becoming one of India's most celebrated peacemakers.

In an exclusive interview with Christianity Today, Staines, 50, said strife-torn India urgently needs communal harmony. Theodore Williams, former chairman of World Evangelical Fellowship and now a pastor at large at the Richmond Town Methodist Church, Bangalore, endorsed her call. He said Staines's campaign for tolerance and religious harmony is "more relevant now than ever." The western Indian state of Gujarat, for example, has been reeling under severe religious tension since February 2002. About 1,800 people have died in the continuing conflict between Hindus and Muslims.

Four years ago, the Staines family's tragedy appeared on the front pages of newspapers worldwide. Graham Staines, 57, and the couple's two sons, Philip, 10, and Timothy, 8, were burned to death January 23, 1999, in a remote village in the eastern Indian Orissa state, outside a small, makeshift church in the village of Manoharpur, about 600 miles southeast of the Indian capital, New Delhi. The eldest Staines child, Esther, now 16, and Gladys Staines were at home on the night of the fire.

The news media in India prominently featured Staines as she publicly forgave the killers. "I have forgiven the killers, but the law must take its own course," she said.

Months later, officials arrested Dara Singh, a charismatic Hindu radical, and 10 supporters. Their murder trial in the Orissa state capital of Bhubaneswar has had many delays. Singh protested his arrest by engaging in two hunger strikes in his Orissa jail cell, causing the trial to be postponed. Other court cases against Singh have also contributed to delays in the prosecution testimony, which began in January 2002. There is extensive popular support for Singh, who is also an animal rights extremist, and Hindu nationalist supporters proclaim his innocence on a website dedicated to him.

As the criminal trial has stagnated, Staines and her daughter have reclaimed their lives. Esther is an arts student at the Hebron Academy boarding school in the south Indian hill station of Ooty, about a seven-hour drive from Bangalore. Staines said her emotions still run strong. "I do feel sad sometimes. I am a woman. But I draw inspiration from God's Word and console myself, often identifying with women like me who have also lost their children, maybe in accidents, natural calamities."

She draws encouragement from American Annie Johnson Flint's hymn, "He Giveth More Grace."

"That has been a great source of inspiration and strength for me to cope with the day to day work, the fact that his grace is always there for us," Staines said. Flint's teaching career was cut short by crippling arthritis. She spent the rest of her life writing 6,000 hymns and gospel songs and died in 1932. Staines said Flint's faith was strongly evident in these words:

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase,
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.

After the murders, Staines went back to her native Australia for a lengthy furlough. But she returned to Orissa to run the leper clinic that her husband managed in Baripada. Indians nationwide see her as an example of compassionate Christianity. Sam Dorairaj Reuben , chairman of Far East Broadcasting Associates, said, "She may be an ordinary woman, but I believe God has used her as an extraordinary tool to spread his word mightily."

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February 2003, Vol. 47, No. 2