She was very popular at the University of British Columbia: effervescent, attractive, and intelligent. Yet Isobel (Belle) Miller found herself standing at the medicine cabinet in her parents’ home, ready to swallow poison.
Life had become meaningless, her spirit restless. To make matters worse, her fiancé was seeing another girl. Belle didn’t turn to God, having brushed aside her Christian upbringing when a professor insisted Christianity was for the superstitious.
She heard her father’s snuffling snore from the next room. If he found her dead, Belle knew it would break his heart. She returned to her room.
Suddenly, a line from Dante came to mind: “In His will is our peace.”
Belle prayed, “God, if you prove to me that you are, and if you will give me peace, I will give you my whole life”[1]. She began a passionate search for God, truth, and purpose.
Following graduation in 1922, Belle taught school. During this time she heard J. O. Fraser speak about his ministry in China and the need for more missionaries. Belle wondered, Is this what you want me to do, God?
Fraser was staying with Belle’s family. She asked questions about missionary life and the China Inland Mission he represented. Belle learned they required two years of Bible school and Fraser recommended Moody Bible Institute. With funds from a friend, she enrolled.
While at Moody, Belle met John Kuhn who also felt called to serve in China. Friendship developed into romance, but Belle wasn’t sure God wanted her to marry him. John sailed for China in 1926.
After graduation, Belle attended the China Inland Mission training school in Toronto. She and John corresponded frequently. In one of his letters he proposed and Belle said yes. They prayed to be assigned in the Yunnan province, hoping to work under Fraser. God answered their prayer affirmatively.
After Belle completed a year of language study, she and John finally married in 1929. Belle moved to Cheng Chiang where he lived.
Yunnan Province in southwest corner
The first time she hosted a few women in their home, a baby soiled the Kuhn’s new rug. Worse yet, Belle found more “guests” after the humans left: bed bugs, fleas, and lice.
“Lord, make these souls more important to me than anything else,” she prayed. And soon genuine love superseded concerns about vermin or stains.
Over the next twenty years, the Kuhns served in five locations. For the most part, John preached in the villages and Belle taught women’s Bible classes. Their first child Kathryn arrived in 1931.
A terrible flood occurred in 1933, during Belle’s second pregnancy. John was away preaching, so she dragged belongings upstairs, some very heavy. Belle miscarried the baby.
There was little time to grieve as a new directive arrived from Fraser the next day: You’re needed in the Salween Valley to work with the Lisu people.
In 1936 Communist soldiers threatened the valley and missionaries were instructed to evacuate. For eight days they trekked northward, but so did the enemy.
“It seemed as if the Communists were after us,” she wrote, “but in real fact, our pursuers were those faithful watch dogs of Jehovah . . . ‘Goodness and Mercy followed us all our days ‘”[2].
In 1937, as the war with Japan escalated, they were told Kathryn needed to attend a far-distant CIM school out of harm’s way, causing a heartbreaking separation.
Belle fought her distress with a new form of ministry to train church leaders: Rainy Season Bible School, taking advantage of the free time inclement weather provided. Many men attended.
In 1938 their dear friend Fraser died. John’s ministry broadened to include travel throughout Lisu territory. At home, Belle continued to teach, but she also found time to write, completing four books during those twenty years of ministry.
Several times the Kuhns had to escape the Communists and then the Japanese. Each time the Kuhns returned when the danger had passed.
Yangtze River, Yunnan Province
Daniel Kuhn was born in 1942. When he was six, Belle and her son had to evacuate again. This time they traveled to America where Kathryn was attending college. John followed a short time later. They were never allowed to return to China.
Did the Kuhns wonder if the Lisu Christians would lose heart and give up their faith?
Author Wright Doyle wrote: “Of the 18,000 Lisu who lived in Fugong, Yunnan in 1950, 3,400 professed faith in Christ. As of 2007, it is estimated that 80-90% of the 70,000 population make the same profession. In Yunnan, it is estimated that there are between 100,00-200,000 Lisu Christians”[3].
A church in Fugong today
For three years the Kuhns worked in Thailand, but then Belle was diagnosed with cancer. She died in 1957 at age fifty-five. Yet even while battling disease, Belle completed five more books.
To this day, the legacy of Isobel Miller Kuhn lives on, among her beloved Lisu people and through her writing.
[1] https://bdcconline.net/en/stories/kuhn-isobel-miller
[2] https://fromthevault.wheaton.edu/2021/03/01/letters-from-lisuland-the-ministry-of-isobel-kuhn/
[3] https://g1.fieldpartner.org/isobelkuhn/
Other sources:
https://www.evangelical-times.org/isobel-kuhn
https://www.thetravelingteam.org/articles/isobel-kuhn
Photo credits: http://www.dailyverses.net; http://www.picryl.com; http://www.flickr.com; http://www.dailyverses.net; http://www.flickr.com; http://www.enwikipedia.org.
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From the Inside Out 