Isobel Kuhn: The Scum of Your Nature

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[00:00:56] Martyrs and Missionaries is a production of Revive Studios.

[00:01:02] You're listening to Martyrs and Missionaries. I'm Elise and in every episode I'll bring you a new martyr and or missionary.

[00:01:07] The called and the brave. In this episode we're covering the life of Isabel Kuhn,

[00:01:11] missionary to the Lisu people living in the Yunnan province of southwest China and northern Thailand.

[00:01:36] I said in the last episode that I would get around to doing an episode of Isabel Kuhn because she's very highly requested.

[00:01:41] I have had several of you guys reach out to me and ask to do an episode on her.

[00:01:45] And the more I thought about it, the more I was like, you know what? I can just bump her up higher.

[00:01:48] It's my list. So here we are. We're doing an episode on Isabel Kuhn and I'm really excited about it.

[00:01:53] And it's actually going to be a two parter. So this is part one.

[00:01:57] And I think you will appreciate that it's two parts because I think it would be really hard to cram her life into just one part.

[00:02:05] But for the research for this episode, I read Nothing Daunted, the story of Isabel Kuhn.

[00:02:11] And also One Vision Only by Carolyn Canfield.

[00:02:14] Both of those you can find online for free and then I'll link them as I always do.

[00:02:18] And she actually has several written works herself, including By Searching.

[00:02:22] That's about her early life until she went to China.

[00:02:25] And then later she wrote a reflection of her life in China.

[00:02:28] And she also has a variety of books, which are basically biographies of her friends among the Lisu.

[00:02:33] And if there were time, I would totally have read all of those because she's a very engaging writer.

[00:02:38] And I'll link those as well for you to look at.

[00:02:42] Isabel was born Isabel Miller in Toronto in December 1901.

[00:02:45] And then later she moved to Vancouver with her family, which is where she really grew up.

[00:02:50] She had one older brother and her parents were Presbyterians.

[00:02:53] And her mother actually served as the president of the Women's Missionary Board in the Canadian Presbyterian Church for many years.

[00:02:59] A fact which is later going to be a bit ironic.

[00:03:02] And her father worked for the Victor Electric Company, which would later merge with General Electric, which isn't really important for this episode.

[00:03:08] But I looked it up anyway and it was interesting.

[00:03:10] So I figured I'd include it.

[00:03:11] He actually helped them design their first x-ray machine, but his specialty was electrical therapeutics, which I think is just shock therapy.

[00:03:18] But he traveled all over the US and Canada setting up offices for them to be used.

[00:03:23] So Isabel and her family traveled a fair bit.

[00:03:26] And her father was the son of Irish immigrants who didn't come from a lot of money.

[00:03:30] And so when he began to make money, he didn't know what to do with it all.

[00:03:35] So he spent what he had.

[00:03:37] And so when times were good, he just was very extravagant.

[00:03:41] And then when times were lean, they had nothing to fall back on.

[00:03:43] So they actually ended up being in quite a bit of debt.

[00:03:46] And while Isabel grew up in a Christian home, she never made a personal decision to become a Christian herself.

[00:03:51] And so on her first day in university, one of her professors asked if any of the students believed in the biblical account of the flood and creation.

[00:03:59] And she and one other student raised their hands.

[00:04:01] And then the professor proceeded to ridicule those accounts.

[00:04:04] So in response to that, on her walk home from school, she was humiliated.

[00:04:08] And she decided never again to believe anything that she couldn't prove.

[00:04:12] And she decided to become agnostic, which was also in vogue at the time.

[00:04:15] So I'm sure that influenced her decision somewhat.

[00:04:18] But she said she was ignorant of the end to which that attitude would lead me.

[00:04:22] I was only conscious of a sudden welcome freedom from old duties.

[00:04:26] Now, despite this, Isabel was very principled.

[00:04:29] And among her peers, she was still actually thought of as a Christian.

[00:04:33] In her second year of college, she meets this boy named Ben.

[00:04:36] He was several years older than her.

[00:04:38] So I guess a man, not a boy.

[00:04:39] But he was a handsome military veteran who had served in World War I.

[00:04:44] She said, we went together for nearly two years and my path was perceptively downgrade.

[00:04:48] They even got as far as to get engaged.

[00:04:51] And then her senior year, some of her friends came up to her and told her that everyone but her knew that her fiance was stepping out on her and he was seeing some other chick on the side.

[00:05:00] And so when she goes and confronts him, he says, Isabel, you don't suppose, do you, that after we're married, I'm not going to take other women out sometimes?

[00:05:08] Well, of course she didn't expect that.

[00:05:10] So she broke up with him and was very listless and miserable.

[00:05:14] And her father had been mostly silent.

[00:05:16] But one night as she tossed and turned in bed, he came to pray for her and she thanked him.

[00:05:21] But then she reminded him that in her mind, these prayers really didn't go beyond the ceiling.

[00:05:25] So thanks, but no thanks.

[00:05:27] And she continued to feel miserable and overworked because she had just thrown herself into as many things as she could so she wouldn't have to think about it and be alone with the pain.

[00:05:37] But one night she felt that she could bury it no more.

[00:05:40] And so she goes into the bathroom to grab something essentially to overdose with.

[00:05:44] And she had this bottle in her hand and then she heard her father in the next room kind of make a noise in his sleep.

[00:05:50] And she was mortified when she thought about how her death would just destroy her father.

[00:05:54] So she walked back to her bed and there sank into despair, experiencing what she later called the darkest moment in her life.

[00:06:01] I didn't want to live and I couldn't die.

[00:06:04] And then finally, with hands uplifted, she whispered into the shadows, God, if there even be a God, if you will prove to me that you are and give me peace, I will give you my whole life.

[00:06:13] Do anything you ask.

[00:06:14] Go anywhere you send me.

[00:06:16] And then she climbed into bed and then pulled the blankets over her head.

[00:06:20] The following morning, she decided to pick up her Bible where it had just been laying for the last few years ever since she graduated high school.

[00:06:26] She studied Christ, the New Testament, and then began to pray for trivial kind of genie-ish things.

[00:06:31] But God answered them.

[00:06:32] And three months went by and she still hadn't told her parents and never went to church, but they could still tell that there was a change in her.

[00:06:38] So her mother invited her to go to a Bible study class at the Vancouver Bible School.

[00:06:43] She found the teacher, Professor Ellis, a remarkable combination of conservative scholarship and Christian kindliness.

[00:06:50] I watched the radiance of his face and I instinctively knew that he had personal dealings with God.

[00:06:55] And I decided that this was the preacher for me.

[00:06:57] I was willing to learn from such a man as Professor Ellis.

[00:07:01] After one of these studies, an older gentleman came up to her and he was her father's friend who told her that these past seven years he'd been praying for her.

[00:07:08] And so he was so happy to see her there and even praying for her essentially the entire time that she had decided to walk away from her Christian upbringing, which I'm sure was an extra special blessing to hear.

[00:07:19] And then in May of 1922, about a year or so later, when she turned 21, she graduated from university and she had this dream to be a dean of women and an English teacher in a college setting.

[00:07:29] But because of her age and then inexperience, this made her ineligible to actually even attempt to do that in the city.

[00:07:36] And there were opportunities in the country, but her mother refused to let her move away.

[00:07:40] So instead, she became a third grade teacher, which was a job she really didn't enjoy.

[00:07:45] She was bothered with discipline problems and bored with teaching elementary subjects.

[00:07:49] And she began to fear failure.

[00:07:51] This was to be my life's work, but now I hated teaching.

[00:07:54] So needing help, I signed up for a teacher's convention in Seattle during some holidays.

[00:07:59] And while she was there, she stayed with friends of her father's, the Whipples.

[00:08:02] And she poured her heart out to Miss Julia Whipple about how she could know God's will for her life because she was just so absolutely miserable.

[00:08:10] Miss Whipple said,

[00:08:11] Isabel, it's like this. God has a plan for every life.

[00:08:14] The Bible says that he has created us to do good works and is foreordained that we should walk in them.

[00:08:20] That means he has planned a useful life for you and he does so for each of us.

[00:08:24] The point as I see it is to find out God's will for your life and to follow it.

[00:08:28] This was revolutionary to Isabel because for some reason she had no memory of ever hearing this before.

[00:08:34] She'd only thought of God as a kind and fatherly being somewhere off in the sky.

[00:08:38] But she said that just knowing that he was minutely interested in me, had planned a career for me, just moved me deeply, hardly able to control my voice.

[00:08:46] I asked, well, how are we to find his plan for us?

[00:08:49] Miss Whipple reached for her Bible and opening it before the kneeling girl.

[00:08:52] She said, Isabel, I've always found his will through his word.

[00:08:56] And Isabel took these words to heart and began to implement a searching of God's will for her through his word for the rest of her life, especially later on when she had these challenging days in the mission field.

[00:09:07] Mr. and Mrs. Whipple had been deeply affected by Hudson Taylor's book, The Growth of a Soul.

[00:09:12] And because of his book, they were deeply persuaded to use their lives and personal possessions to grow the kingdom.

[00:09:17] And there was a group of like-minded believers that agreed to meet together at a summer camp named the Furs about two hours north of Seattle.

[00:09:24] They went the first year and then the following year they paid for Isabel to attend in 1923.

[00:09:30] Because Miss Whipple realized that Isabel was quick, she was impulsive and impressionable, and she needed that Christian fellowship and grounding in God's word, lest the enemy sow tears in her life.

[00:09:41] The missionary speaker that year was Edna Gish, who had been widowed in China after the tragic death of her husband.

[00:09:46] And Isabel recalled,

[00:09:47] At the end of the week when Edna pleaded with us to respond to Jesus' last request,

[00:09:52] Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel, I raised my hands with the others.

[00:09:56] I had told Edna my story and this offer to be a missionary was just a public expression of my covenant with God.

[00:10:02] My life was his.

[00:10:04] At the end of the conference, Miss Whipple gave Isabel Taylor's book and after reading it she said,

[00:10:09] Light regarding my life work was beginning to dawn, yet how unfit I was for it!

[00:10:13] I still danced, played cards, and loved the theater.

[00:10:16] I knew my father's religion frowned on such things, but I wasn't going to give them up just because of his attitude.

[00:10:22] But after some further attempts at compromise, Isabel let these amusements go one by one,

[00:10:27] aptly she likened their attraction to candlelight, no longer desired when the dawn brings the brightness of the sun.

[00:10:32] She felt that worldly society, indifferent or even hostile to Christ, was not for her any longer.

[00:10:38] She found that she could not truly love Christ and the world at the same time,

[00:10:42] and as she loved him more, she loved the world less,

[00:10:45] and as she loosened her hold on the world, she grew closer to him.

[00:10:49] Back in Vancouver, she was living in a boarding house because her parents had left their home in Vancouver

[00:10:54] to be closer to their son Murray who needed help readjusting from World War I.

[00:10:58] And as you can imagine, a boarding house is very noisy, lots of people coming and going,

[00:11:02] and she decided to wake up very early in the morning, about 2 o'clock actually,

[00:11:06] and dedicate one hour to prayer and Bible study.

[00:11:09] And so by the time that next summer rolled around, she was just busting at the seams ready to get back to the camp.

[00:11:14] And the speaker that year was J.O. Frazier, who had served in Lisu land among the Lisu people in the Yunnan province of southwestern China.

[00:11:22] And he had been ministering there since 1910 and had developed an alphabet to be used for Bible translation into their language,

[00:11:29] which was a Tibetan, is a Tibetan, Burmese kind of dialect.

[00:11:32] And he also organized and structured churches so that they wouldn't be dependent on foreign missionaries,

[00:11:38] and so they would be more self-sufficient, which is something that would serve them very well,

[00:11:42] especially during the communist takeover and the later cultural revolution.

[00:11:47] Mr. Frazier was there at the camp to spread the word about the needs among the Lisu,

[00:11:51] and he was also looking to recruit young men to the work.

[00:11:54] And during this conference, Isabel just had this life-changing moment, just something clicked.

[00:11:59] And she said she could not forget those days.

[00:12:01] Down in my seat on the side aisle, I prayed,

[00:12:04] Lord, I be willing to go, only I'm not a man.

[00:12:06] Never did the vision of the Lisu tribe leave me.

[00:12:09] I dared not name this experience a call, but I believe that time has proved that it was.

[00:12:15] J.O. Frazier was a missionary with the China Inland Mission,

[00:12:17] and Isabel knew that in order to even be considered a candidate for the mission work,

[00:12:21] she had to have at least two years in at a Bible college,

[00:12:24] and she had no money for that because she had been using her teaching salary to pay off her student loans,

[00:12:29] and her father couldn't help because at this point they were really deeply in debt.

[00:12:34] But a friend heard of her plight and told her that she had planned to go to Moody Bible College

[00:12:38] and had saved up tuition for the first year,

[00:12:41] but now she wouldn't be able to go because of her health,

[00:12:44] and offered to give the money to Isabel.

[00:12:46] And while Isabel was very sad about her friend not being able to go,

[00:12:49] she was overjoyed of this answer to prayer that God had so clearly given to her.

[00:12:53] But when she told her mother about her plans to go to China as a single woman missionary,

[00:12:58] her mother was appalled.

[00:13:00] Except money from a friend? Why, that was charity.

[00:13:03] Her daughter lived on charity as a foreign missionary?

[00:13:05] Only those who could not find employment at home or were disappointed in love went to the foreign field.

[00:13:10] Then dramatically Mrs. Miller shot out another flinty arrow.

[00:13:13] If you go to China, it'll be over my dead body. I will never consent.

[00:13:18] Isabel sat staring at her mother aghast.

[00:13:20] She said,

[00:13:21] My dear mother, you first taught me to love the Lord Jesus.

[00:13:24] You've been the president of the Women's Missionary Society

[00:13:26] in the Canadian Presbyterian Church for as long as I can remember.

[00:13:29] You've opened your home to the CIM prayer meetings.

[00:13:32] Why are you now bitter because I feel called of God to be a missionary?

[00:13:36] And there were some extenuating circumstances going on that kind of intensified her mother's reaction.

[00:13:42] Because two of her father's mining investments had just gone belly up.

[00:13:46] And then he had a lawsuit that was pending that could go against him.

[00:13:49] And if that were to happen, then Isabel would be the only breadwinner in the family.

[00:13:54] Because her brother was still having a difficult time out of the military and was unemployed.

[00:13:59] So to Isabel's mother, she was an ungrateful, conscious-less child to go off and desert her mother at such a family crisis.

[00:14:05] And she said that every single day to the point that her father even just forbid her from talking about China at all so that she would not upset her mother.

[00:14:17] Even with these difficulties, she still decided to move forward in faith.

[00:14:21] And so she purchased a train ticket and packed her bags.

[00:14:23] She was waiting to hear the outcome of her father's lawsuit, which would happen only a few hours before she was set to leave.

[00:14:30] And when she got the phone call that he had been acquitted, she praised the Lord.

[00:14:34] And as she boarded the boat for Seattle, her mother's weeping face became the most prominent thing that she saw and the last memory that she ever had of her mother.

[00:14:41] Because as she wrote later,

[00:14:43] Little did I know that I was never to see my mother on earth again.

[00:14:46] Before 1924 was ended, she was in heaven.

[00:14:49] And all her tears wiped away forever.

[00:14:51] She died following an operation.

[00:14:53] And of course, her words recurred to me and overwhelmed me with grief for a time.

[00:14:57] Later, the Lord moved an old friend of mother's to write me a long letter.

[00:15:01] This was the gist of it.

[00:15:02] The evening before your mother's operation, she wrote to me saying that she was facing the morrow's serious surgery.

[00:15:07] And in reviewing her life, she had come to the conclusion that all her busy work with missions in the women's society had been nothing but wood, hay, and stubble.

[00:15:16] I feel that my little girl has chosen the better part in wishing to devote all of her life to the Lord.

[00:15:21] And from this clear token, God showed Isabel that he had answered her prayers.

[00:15:25] And that in due time, she might proceed towards China, having her mother's full consent and blessing.

[00:15:30] When she arrived in Chicago, she was greeted by her godfather, Isaac Page.

[00:15:34] The last time she had seen him was nine years before when she was seeing him and his wife off to China.

[00:15:39] And he yelled to her that he was going to be praying her out onto the mission field.

[00:15:43] At the time, she yelled back to him, why, what a mean and cruel thing to say.

[00:15:47] But as she told him all the ways the Lord had provided for her over an ice cream soda, she brought him to tears.

[00:15:53] And for the first few months at Moody, she had these little gifts that sustained her.

[00:15:57] Her parents refused to help at all.

[00:15:59] But then she found out that first-year students were not allowed to work at Moody.

[00:16:04] And this is how she was planning on basically providing for herself.

[00:16:07] She was woefully unprepared for a Chicago winter.

[00:16:09] She had no jacket to speak of.

[00:16:11] But one day, Mr. Page asked to see her and went around the corner and deposited $100 into a bank account that he had opened for her.

[00:16:18] And she was able to buy warmer clothes.

[00:16:21] And Isabel thanked him, but she kept wondering how a poor CIM missionary was able to just find $100 and give it away all of a sudden.

[00:16:29] And some 20 years later, when she was on furlough, she met him and she asked him, was it a legacy?

[00:16:34] Like, where did you get this money from?

[00:16:36] And he just threw back his head and he laughed till he cried.

[00:16:39] He said, no, Isabel, we just emptied our bank account.

[00:16:42] That was all.

[00:16:42] We figured that we were old timers in the life of faith and you were just a beginner.

[00:16:46] It would be far easier for us than for you to trust the Lord.

[00:16:50] Later on, one of her fellow students was asked of her impression of Isabel during their time together at Moody.

[00:16:55] And this lady recalled that Isabel was a junior when she had entered and she was greatly admired, but she was not perfect and she was young.

[00:17:03] On one occasion, when no one failed to heed the call to foreign missions during a meeting, Isabel stood up and basically began an epic guilt trip of her new audience.

[00:17:11] One girl who had no call or business even going into missions stood up out of shame and heeding Isabel's call, not God's, and then was shortly put back on a better path for her person.

[00:17:21] She goes on to say that on another occasion, she had laid hold of a fellow student who had volunteered for foreign missionary service and sought to compel her to attend a Saturday afternoon student volunteer meeting just about to begin.

[00:17:33] The girl hesitated and Isabel charged her with indecision in her own call and with fear of letting her true colors be known, whereas there were two factors in the situation which Isabel was completely ignorant.

[00:17:43] The first of which was that the girl had a high temperature and was on her way to the infirmary.

[00:17:48] And the other was the fact that in the girl's home church, a discerning pastor had warned his inner circle of young people against the modernism at the time creeping into the leadership of this movement.

[00:17:58] Of course, the Moody Institute branch was sound. I know this because I was the girl in the case.

[00:18:02] The incident, though I remember, never affected my love for Isabel and our fellowship. Years later, when she was a mellow, mature and very wise teacher of young women, I asked her if she remembered thus nailing me. She did not, of course, and was horrified of the thought.

[00:18:26] Wünschst du dir jemanden, der dich versteht wie kein anderer? Jemand, der deine Wünsche wahr werden lässt und mit dir das schönste Abenteuer deines Lebens erleben möchte? Die Commerce-Plattform Shopify revolutioniert Millionen von Unternehmen weltweit. Mit Shopify richtest du im Nu deinen Online-Shop ein. Ganz ohne Programmier- oder Design-Kenntnisse. Dank der effizienten Einrichtung und intuitiven Social-Media- und Online-Marketplace-Integration kannst du über Instagram, eBay und Co.

[00:18:56] Werben und Verkaufen. Neue Zielgruppen zu erreichen war noch nie so einfach. Shopify bietet auf einer einzigen sicheren Plattform alle Tools, um dein Online-Business aufzubauen. Kostenlos testen und dein Business der Welt präsentieren. Shopify.de-try besuchen. Einfach Shopify.de-try eingeben und loslegen. Made for Germany. Powered by Shopify.

[00:19:33] Isabel was happily studying and ministering, preparing for a hard life of service among the Lisu, and out of nowhere, God brought a handsome man into her life. And I'll read here in her own words.

[00:19:43] We met in the kitchen of the Moody Bible Institute at Chicago in the year 1924.

[00:19:48] We were both students having to work our way part or whole way through school.

[00:19:52] He had the job of running the dishwashing machine, I at that important moment in the line of waitresses waiting for the hot food to carry to tables.

[00:19:59] It wanted but one minute for the bell to ring which would set us all into motion.

[00:20:02] I was a new student, burning with impatience to get through my training so that I might be God's messenger to the Lisu tribe of the China-Burma border.

[00:20:10] So as I waited, I thought, two more years of this before I can get there.

[00:20:14] Quite unknown to me, the dishwasher had also gone into a daydream waiting for that bell to ring.

[00:20:19] He had one foot up on a chair with his chin in his hand, and he was dreaming out into space,

[00:20:24] unconscious that it was in the direction at the line of the waitresses.

[00:20:27] As I turned quickly, I suddenly found myself falling down and into the well of two blue-blue eyes.

[00:20:33] Down, down I went until soul met soul, and the shock brought us both back to ourselves.

[00:20:38] Quickly, each turned away and tried to get busy with something else, but it had happened.

[00:20:42] We had met, although I did not even know his name, and it was three months before we were formally introduced,

[00:20:47] yet every day I had to pass him in order to put away certain dishes.

[00:20:51] We never looked at one another nor spoke,

[00:20:53] yet somehow I was perfectly sure that blue-eyes had investigated me and that he knew my name and all about me.

[00:20:59] And I was correct.

[00:21:01] But not all was smooth sailing for our lovebirds, because though John had been dedicated to China,

[00:21:05] he was not bound for the Lisu and would graduate a year before her.

[00:21:09] So they decided to pump the brakes, exchange letters, but pray for the Lord's will.

[00:21:15] Isabel graduated in December 1926 at the age of 25,

[00:21:18] and she was officially a candidate for the China Inland Mission,

[00:21:21] but was forced to wait until China reopened because of anti-foreign sentiments

[00:21:25] that had ignited riots and they were not sending any more missionaries until it had settled.

[00:21:30] But in the meantime, the board had received Isabel's references,

[00:21:33] and one of them, out of six, had absolutely ripped her and called her proud, disobedient, and resentful.

[00:21:39] And because of this, the board accepted her conditionally, pending character growth,

[00:21:43] and she was absolutely furious, which of course she would be.

[00:21:47] You have five great references and one tanks you,

[00:21:49] and that's all it takes to just kind of put you on this probationary basis.

[00:21:53] And she wanted to find out who would do such a thing,

[00:21:56] but upon venting to a friend, she calmed down and decided to use her time well,

[00:22:00] and she moved back to Vancouver to keep house for her father and brother

[00:22:03] while working with a Christian club of the working women there in Vancouver.

[00:22:07] And they would travel around the city singing songs to other young women

[00:22:10] and doing different things throughout the city.

[00:22:13] And while she's there, she inadvertently finds out who had written this letter about her.

[00:22:17] Turns out it was one of her professors who had asked her to spy on her fellow students,

[00:22:21] and this letter was revenge for turning them down.

[00:22:24] And so she wrestled, I think as all of us would wrestle,

[00:22:27] with this idea of like, do I tell the board?

[00:22:30] Like, how do I deal with this?

[00:22:32] How do I get vindication?

[00:22:33] But after prayer, she decided to leave it to God.

[00:22:37] And two years after being put on probationary status,

[00:22:39] she was given unanimous approval to go to China as a full-fledged missionary.

[00:22:44] And her destination was to be the Yunnan province of southwest China,

[00:22:47] the same province as the Lisu.

[00:22:50] Now, she and John had been writing letters back and forth,

[00:22:53] and contrary to their intentions, they only fell more and more in love.

[00:22:57] She said it was no fault of her own that she was an excellent writer

[00:23:00] and he an excellent responder.

[00:23:01] They had been praying that he would be transferred to Yunnan.

[00:23:04] And then one day, Isabel received a telegram from John

[00:23:07] which said that he would be transferred there

[00:23:09] and asked her to be his wife.

[00:23:11] She was to respond light for yes and dark for no,

[00:23:14] and she hurriedly and excitedly sent back light.

[00:23:18] Later, John wrote a letter to his godmother figure about his future bride.

[00:23:21] I constantly in my thoughts and prayers kept her on the altar.

[00:23:25] There was none other with whom I could have more perfect Christian fellowship.

[00:23:28] Yet unless the Lord himself was kept supreme in the matter,

[00:23:31] I should not have felt that I had received his guidance and followed out his will.

[00:23:35] Thank God we were both led in the same way,

[00:23:37] and God has given wonderful joy and peace in our decision.

[00:23:40] Her experience in the school of suffering far surpasses any little that I have had.

[00:23:44] I admire this so much in her.

[00:23:46] Then her natural gifts are so rich.

[00:23:48] As a public speaker, she is intense and holds attention,

[00:23:51] using a different style from most women.

[00:23:52] She plays the piano very nicely and sings, and also plays the guitar.

[00:23:57] Her attainments include an arts degree from the University of British Columbia Normal School,

[00:24:01] besides a year or so of teaching, and then two or more years at Moody.

[00:24:04] There are indeed no qualities lacking.

[00:24:06] Yet if she had not been exceptional in her life and service for God,

[00:24:10] all of these gifts and graces put together would not have drawn me.

[00:24:13] You may rejoice with me in that she knows Calvary and its victories,

[00:24:16] and her only desire is Christ and him alone.

[00:24:20] Isabel left from Vancouver to China in October 1928, just shy of her 27th birthday,

[00:24:26] and the girls group she had worked with saw her off at the port,

[00:24:29] and they even gifted her a small piano to take along with her,

[00:24:31] which she used for many years after that.

[00:24:34] And she and the other CIM ladies she sailed with

[00:24:36] were accompanied by a veteran missionary named Ruth Paxson.

[00:24:40] And she warned the girls that on the mission field,

[00:24:42] the scum of their nature would rise to the top.

[00:24:45] And that is a very true statement,

[00:24:46] and I feel like anybody who's ever been on the mission field would 100% agree with this as well,

[00:24:51] because you think you're a good person.

[00:24:53] Like, I'm doing pretty well.

[00:24:54] And then you get on the field, and just something happens.

[00:24:57] And then you're like, ugh, no, there's the scum.

[00:24:59] But Isabel didn't feel like she had any scum to rise,

[00:25:02] and so she filed away this comment for future reference,

[00:25:04] and didn't take it too seriously.

[00:25:07] She would learn.

[00:25:09] When she arrived to the city of Kunming, which is the capital of Yunnan,

[00:25:12] she began her language studies in earnest while she waited for the year to fly by,

[00:25:16] so that she and John could marry and begin their lives.

[00:25:19] CIM had always had a two-year strict guideline,

[00:25:22] where you couldn't get married before that time,

[00:25:24] because you needed to learn your language and all that stuff of settling in.

[00:25:27] But they decided to lower it to one year temporarily,

[00:25:31] just to see how it would do.

[00:25:32] And they decided to take advantage of this while it was there,

[00:25:36] which, why wouldn't you?

[00:25:37] Because in Isabel's mind, it was just that one last thing they needed to do,

[00:25:40] so they could actually start their lives together and begin ministering together.

[00:25:45] But apparently, J.O. Frazier was very disappointed in them,

[00:25:48] because he said later,

[00:25:50] well, I figured you would do the two years anyway,

[00:25:52] even if you didn't have to,

[00:25:54] because now Isabel's never going to learn the language,

[00:25:56] and this is just going to be awful.

[00:25:58] And so they actually raised it back up to two years after they got married,

[00:26:02] but in spite of that,

[00:26:04] actually Isabel passed her language examinations ahead of schedule,

[00:26:07] and everything was fine,

[00:26:08] but they were really strict on that

[00:26:10] and had very strong feelings about getting married on the mission field.

[00:26:13] But regardless of Mr. Frazier's feelings,

[00:26:15] they still set the date for November 14th, 1929,

[00:26:19] but they had to change it rather unexpectedly,

[00:26:21] because the American consulate had to travel to another city on that date,

[00:26:25] and so they couldn't be present to legitimize their wedding.

[00:26:28] And John was stationed in Changjiang,

[00:26:30] which is about 40 kilometers or 25 miles from Kunming,

[00:26:34] and Isabel wrote to him asking if he could hurry and make the date earlier,

[00:26:37] and he responded by arriving in person,

[00:26:40] but he had forgotten the wedding ring,

[00:26:41] and they figured it's no big deal.

[00:26:43] They could just borrow one, and they'll get it later.

[00:26:46] But even this was resolved,

[00:26:47] because John's cook came hurrying back from Changjiang with the ring.

[00:26:52] Now, I know at this point you're just wondering

[00:26:54] who on earth is in charge of planning a wedding

[00:26:56] in a foreign city for these missionaries,

[00:26:59] and so I'm going to tell you,

[00:27:00] it's these two ladies who ran the CIM guest house.

[00:27:03] Now, these two women could not have been more different.

[00:27:06] Like, if I was planning a comedy,

[00:27:07] and the situation happened to be around a guest house in a foreign city,

[00:27:11] this would be what I would do.

[00:27:13] There's Mrs. A.

[00:27:14] She is a culture conformist.

[00:27:15] She is like everything.

[00:27:16] China is the best,

[00:27:17] and these missionaries should always blend into everything.

[00:27:20] China, and they should become basically Chinese.

[00:27:23] They should never have any Western comforts

[00:27:25] or Western consolidations at all.

[00:27:27] Okay?

[00:27:28] Now, Mrs. B. was a believer in little luxuries.

[00:27:31] She wanted to make the guest house nice.

[00:27:33] Like, you know, she felt that when these missionaries

[00:27:36] who were serving on these hard fields

[00:27:37] would come back into the city for medical appointments

[00:27:40] or, you know, whatever,

[00:27:41] they should have these little luxuries.

[00:27:43] They should feel like it's nicer than where they had come from.

[00:27:46] And these are the two ladies in charge of planning weddings.

[00:27:49] Now, weddings in the city were a very public affair.

[00:27:52] Isabel and John did not know that.

[00:27:54] They were just planning a very simple,

[00:27:56] very quiet get-together.

[00:27:59] But word gets out.

[00:28:00] And so as they were kind of going around the city getting things,

[00:28:03] they'd run into people,

[00:28:04] and they're like,

[00:28:05] oh, you know what?

[00:28:05] I heard you were having a wedding.

[00:28:07] I just, you know what?

[00:28:08] I love weddings.

[00:28:09] I'd love to just, you know, sit in the back.

[00:28:11] I don't want to have any food or anything like that.

[00:28:12] I just want to sit in the back and, you know, enjoy it.

[00:28:15] And so an invitation would be sent out to this person.

[00:28:18] And then they'd run into somebody else.

[00:28:20] They'd say the same thing.

[00:28:21] I just want to sit in the back and enjoy it.

[00:28:22] I just love weddings.

[00:28:24] And before long,

[00:28:25] they began to send out a multitude of invitations.

[00:28:28] But Mrs. B came to her and she said,

[00:28:30] you know,

[00:28:31] you can't really invite this person without inviting this person

[00:28:34] because you just have to make sure that we're not hurting anybody's feelings.

[00:28:37] And Isabel was quickly overwhelmed because she realized that

[00:28:40] instead of this tiny wedding they had been planning,

[00:28:43] the entire city of Kunming would come out to see it,

[00:28:46] at least the foreigner population.

[00:28:47] And they did.

[00:28:49] But it was important to maintain these bonds to Mrs. A and Mrs. B.

[00:28:53] So she was like,

[00:28:53] okay, let's invite the entire city of foreigners.

[00:28:57] And that was settled that way.

[00:28:58] But they also had this honeymoon issue

[00:29:01] because Mrs. A had gone ahead and scheduled them to be at the Pang Gardens,

[00:29:05] which was very much among the people.

[00:29:07] It was not secluded.

[00:29:09] So everyone's going to know your business.

[00:29:10] And then their cook and his wife would be there as well to cook them meals.

[00:29:15] And then Mrs. B was like,

[00:29:16] no, I already set up this perfect thing for you.

[00:29:18] You're going to go across the lake to a cottage.

[00:29:20] You're going to have all your meals sent across.

[00:29:22] Why on earth would you ever go to Pang Gardens?

[00:29:24] Everyone's going to be up in your business.

[00:29:27] No, don't do that.

[00:29:28] And so what were they going to do?

[00:29:29] Because they knew that if they chose one option or the other,

[00:29:32] they'd offend the other woman.

[00:29:34] So what were they going to do?

[00:29:35] They had to be some third option

[00:29:37] because they couldn't make one lady upset

[00:29:39] and the other one happy and vice versa.

[00:29:41] So what ended up happening was they got a check from John's father

[00:29:45] for a luxurious stay at a French hotel in town

[00:29:48] that mostly catered to business people, businessmen.

[00:29:53] And that was sure to make both of these ladies angry

[00:29:56] because it was frivolous spending.

[00:29:58] But that was what they decided to do.

[00:30:00] And you know what?

[00:30:01] Actually, this probably was the first time

[00:30:03] those ladies ever agreed on anything

[00:30:04] was when they came together to tsk, tsk, John and Isabel.

[00:30:08] But regardless of these issues,

[00:30:10] it was a beautiful wedding in a beautiful Chinese church

[00:30:12] and it was giant.

[00:30:14] Everybody was there.

[00:30:15] And after the honeymoon,

[00:30:16] they made their journey to Changjiang

[00:30:17] where Isabel saw their house for the first time.

[00:30:20] In her own words,

[00:30:21] two rooms over a little chapel

[00:30:23] and right on the market street.

[00:30:24] There were no windows at all,

[00:30:26] but the front and back walls were folding doors

[00:30:28] which could be rolled back in the daytime.

[00:30:30] If you rolled them back,

[00:30:31] you got the light but no privacy.

[00:30:33] Anyone walking down the street

[00:30:34] could look up and see right in.

[00:30:36] If we wished privacy,

[00:30:37] we had to shut the doors

[00:30:38] and go into the semi-light of a closed wooden box.

[00:30:41] The Chinese could not understand

[00:30:42] the Westerners' desire for privacy.

[00:30:44] Dishonest and evil deeds

[00:30:45] need to be kept out of sight, of course,

[00:30:47] but why anything else?

[00:30:48] What did you contemplate to do

[00:30:50] that the public should not view it?

[00:30:51] An upper back veranda

[00:30:53] at the head of which a native stove had been built

[00:30:55] was the kitchen.

[00:30:56] In the side wing of the house

[00:30:57] were two small dark rooms

[00:30:58] where Yin Chong, the cook, and his bride lived.

[00:31:01] The house was owned by Chinese Muslims

[00:31:03] who were living in the back wing.

[00:31:04] To do our laundry,

[00:31:05] we had to take our zinc tubs and clothes

[00:31:07] and go through their home to the back garden

[00:31:09] where there was a well.

[00:31:10] After washing,

[00:31:11] our clothes had to be hung up

[00:31:12] on our own upper and side verandas

[00:31:14] and anything that was not securely fashions

[00:31:17] and which happened to blow down

[00:31:18] over the railing

[00:31:19] was seized by those below

[00:31:20] as their lawful prey.

[00:31:22] I saw them using a handkerchief

[00:31:23] or a towel of ours from time to time,

[00:31:25] so I was able to guess

[00:31:26] where the wind had carried

[00:31:27] our missing things.

[00:31:29] But I was not dismayed

[00:31:30] at our poor quarters.

[00:31:31] I knew the CIM sent their missionaries

[00:31:33] to live right among the people

[00:31:34] and I was prepared for anything.

[00:31:36] I did not mind living

[00:31:37] in a humble place for the Lord's sake,

[00:31:39] but saw no reason

[00:31:40] why I should not make it

[00:31:41] as attractive as possible.

[00:31:42] So I had come prepared

[00:31:43] with enamel paint and linens.

[00:31:46] In time,

[00:31:47] Isabelle had transformed

[00:31:47] their little house

[00:31:48] into a lovely if modest dwelling

[00:31:50] and she bought Rattan furniture,

[00:31:52] a lovely rug,

[00:31:53] some linens to cover her trunk,

[00:31:54] and even some artwork.

[00:31:56] Most prominently,

[00:31:57] in their living room,

[00:31:57] she had hung the phrase

[00:31:58] God first

[00:31:59] and after preparing their abode,

[00:32:01] she was ready to host.

[00:32:03] Her first guests

[00:32:04] were a group of Chinese ladies

[00:32:05] from our neighborhood

[00:32:05] and they trooped up the stairs

[00:32:07] and exclaimed

[00:32:08] how nice her house was.

[00:32:09] Using her limited Chinese,

[00:32:11] she chatted with the ladies

[00:32:12] and shared the gospel with them,

[00:32:13] which they seemed to understand.

[00:32:15] When out of the corner of her eye,

[00:32:17] she saw one of the ladies

[00:32:18] blow her nose into her hand

[00:32:20] and wipe it all over

[00:32:21] her new brown rug.

[00:32:23] And she collected herself

[00:32:24] just in time

[00:32:25] for another lady

[00:32:26] to start laughing,

[00:32:27] holding her baby out

[00:32:28] away from her

[00:32:28] and hurrying out the door,

[00:32:30] leaving a nasty wet streak

[00:32:31] behind her on the rug.

[00:32:33] And after these ladies left,

[00:32:35] Isabelle tried not to feel

[00:32:36] overwhelmed with the state

[00:32:37] of her rug

[00:32:37] and she glanced up

[00:32:38] and she saw her motto

[00:32:39] God first.

[00:32:40] So what was she going

[00:32:41] to prioritize?

[00:32:42] Was it going to be

[00:32:42] her nice living room

[00:32:43] or was it people?

[00:32:45] And so she prayed to the Lord

[00:32:46] to help her to love people

[00:32:48] more than she loved her things.

[00:32:49] And this was not

[00:32:50] an easily answered prayer

[00:32:51] because whenever

[00:32:52] she went visiting,

[00:32:53] it seemed that flies

[00:32:54] jumped out from the mud floors

[00:32:55] to greet her

[00:32:56] and lice crawled into her hair.

[00:32:58] Flies and mosquitoes

[00:32:58] buzzed around her face

[00:32:59] and arms and legs.

[00:33:01] Although they never bothered John,

[00:33:02] she really did want

[00:33:03] to reach these people

[00:33:04] for the Lord.

[00:33:05] But sometimes when she went

[00:33:06] to put an arm

[00:33:06] around a country woman,

[00:33:07] all she could think of

[00:33:08] was the bedbugs,

[00:33:09] the fleas,

[00:33:10] the lice,

[00:33:11] the scum of your nature,

[00:33:12] Miss Paxton had said.

[00:33:14] So what was she going to do?

[00:33:15] She took her problem

[00:33:16] to the Lord

[00:33:16] and he gave her Galatians 2.8

[00:33:18] and she said,

[00:33:19] if God can work in Peter,

[00:33:21] he can work in me.

[00:33:22] And Isabelle applied it

[00:33:23] to her need for victory

[00:33:24] over things that bothered her.

[00:33:26] Lord, make these souls

[00:33:27] more important to me

[00:33:28] than anything else,

[00:33:29] she prayed.

[00:33:30] Missionary friends

[00:33:31] gave her some practical tips

[00:33:32] for coping with the differences

[00:33:33] in her new life.

[00:33:34] Insect powder,

[00:33:35] for one thing,

[00:33:35] helped with the ever-present

[00:33:36] creeping and flying creatures.

[00:33:38] And when a Chinese hostess

[00:33:39] proudly served the chunks

[00:33:40] of glistening white fat

[00:33:41] that Isabelle could hardly eat,

[00:33:43] the family dog

[00:33:44] scavenging under the table

[00:33:45] could help her quickly

[00:33:46] and quietly dispose

[00:33:47] of her share.

[00:33:49] After some time there

[00:33:50] in their little house,

[00:33:51] J.O. Frazier wrote

[00:33:52] to Isabelle and John

[00:33:53] asking them to go to Dali,

[00:33:55] which was a city

[00:33:56] 200 miles west

[00:33:57] and a little bit north

[00:33:57] of Kunming,

[00:33:58] which had been without

[00:33:59] a missionary for over a year.

[00:34:00] They were to continue

[00:34:01] their language studies there

[00:34:02] and then also run a mission home

[00:34:04] while getting other

[00:34:05] missionary families settled in,

[00:34:06] John would preach

[00:34:07] in the surrounding areas

[00:34:08] while Isabelle focused

[00:34:09] on language

[00:34:10] and taught a Bible study

[00:34:11] class for women.

[00:34:12] After almost two years

[00:34:14] in Dali,

[00:34:14] their first child

[00:34:15] was born in the spring

[00:34:16] of 1931

[00:34:17] and they named her

[00:34:18] Catherine, Alice,

[00:34:19] and Kun

[00:34:19] and they called her

[00:34:20] I think,

[00:34:21] I don't know 100%,

[00:34:22] but I think it's

[00:34:23] Reina or Reina.

[00:34:24] I'm going to say Reina

[00:34:25] for short.

[00:34:26] About six months later,

[00:34:28] John and Isabelle

[00:34:28] passed their language examinations

[00:34:30] and they were moved

[00:34:31] to Yangping,

[00:34:32] which is about 60 miles

[00:34:33] from Dali

[00:34:33] and they were sent

[00:34:34] to work among

[00:34:35] the Muslims there

[00:34:36] and they were friendly

[00:34:37] but they weren't really

[00:34:38] receptive to the gospel

[00:34:39] at all

[00:34:39] and Isabelle even

[00:34:40] traveled all over

[00:34:41] the valley

[00:34:42] speaking with the women

[00:34:43] but had precious

[00:34:44] little fruit

[00:34:45] to show for her efforts

[00:34:46] and they wondered

[00:34:47] why they had not yet

[00:34:48] been sent among

[00:34:49] the Lisu people

[00:34:49] who needed so many

[00:34:51] missionaries

[00:34:51] but Mr. Frazier

[00:34:52] thought that Isabelle

[00:34:53] was not strong enough

[00:34:54] to make the journey

[00:34:55] through the difficult terrain

[00:34:56] nor resilience enough

[00:34:57] to tough it out

[00:34:58] so he told them no

[00:34:59] but that he would

[00:35:00] re-evaluate it

[00:35:01] after their furlough

[00:35:02] then after they got

[00:35:03] that news

[00:35:04] they learned that Isabelle

[00:35:05] was going to have

[00:35:05] another baby

[00:35:06] and they could never

[00:35:07] have made that journey

[00:35:08] with a newborn anyway

[00:35:09] so they felt comforted

[00:35:10] in that

[00:35:10] but then not long

[00:35:12] after they found out

[00:35:13] about the baby

[00:35:14] there was a flood

[00:35:15] and while John was away

[00:35:16] Isabelle had to haul

[00:35:17] some of their heavy furniture

[00:35:18] up away from the waters

[00:35:20] that were coming

[00:35:20] into their house

[00:35:21] and the next day

[00:35:22] she felt the sharp pains

[00:35:23] of a miscarriage

[00:35:24] and then they lost the baby

[00:35:26] John was able to arrive

[00:35:27] a few days later

[00:35:27] to comfort her

[00:35:28] and the day after he arrived

[00:35:30] a letter came

[00:35:31] from Mr. Frazier

[00:35:32] asking them to join him

[00:35:33] in prayer

[00:35:34] for a situation

[00:35:35] unfolding in Lisu land

[00:35:36] the churches

[00:35:37] in the upper canyon

[00:35:38] there were under persecution

[00:35:39] because they would not

[00:35:40] grow opium

[00:35:41] and there were two

[00:35:42] missionaries there

[00:35:43] the cooks

[00:35:43] who were the only

[00:35:44] missionaries in the area

[00:35:46] and they had actually

[00:35:46] split up

[00:35:47] to provide both churches

[00:35:48] in the area

[00:35:49] with a missionary

[00:35:50] to help deal

[00:35:51] with the local warlord

[00:35:52] who was asking them

[00:35:53] to plant this opium

[00:35:55] and it was a dangerous

[00:35:56] situation

[00:35:57] because they were

[00:35:57] separated by six days

[00:35:59] of travel

[00:35:59] Mr. Frazier wrote

[00:36:00] that he could not

[00:36:01] allow this to go on

[00:36:02] any longer

[00:36:02] but he had nobody

[00:36:03] else to send

[00:36:05] well

[00:36:06] John and Isabelle

[00:36:07] had some ideas

[00:36:08] about who he could send

[00:36:09] and so they wrote

[00:36:10] to him offering

[00:36:11] their services

[00:36:11] and left with

[00:36:12] no other options

[00:36:13] Mr. Frazier

[00:36:14] allowed them to go

[00:36:15] until the matter

[00:36:16] was resolved

[00:36:16] so after ten years

[00:36:18] of waiting

[00:36:19] Isabelle was finally

[00:36:20] going to go

[00:36:21] to the Lisu people

[00:36:22] and here we'll end

[00:36:24] part one of Isabelle

[00:36:25] Kuhn's story

[00:36:25] and we'll pick it up

[00:36:26] again in the next episode

[00:36:28] as always

[00:36:29] thank you for listening

[00:36:30] to Martyrs and Missionaries

[00:36:31] I'm Elise

[00:36:32] and I'll see you next time

[00:36:32] and I'll see you next time