Isobel Kuhn: Turning the Helm over to Him

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

[00:00:06] You're listening to Martyrs and Missionaries. I'm Elise and in every episode I'll bring you a new martyr and or missionary, the called and the brave.

[00:00:12] In this episode we're covering part two of the life of Isabel Kuhn.

[00:00:40] Alright, before we begin there are two things. Number one, I want to apologize for how long it took this episode to come out.

[00:00:47] If you're listening to this months down the road you didn't even notice.

[00:00:50] But those of you who have been waiting for this part two for like two months, I meant to have it out.

[00:00:55] In like two weeks, turn around basically because I was leaving you guys on a cliffhanger and that did not happen.

[00:01:01] So I'm sorry for that and hopefully you enjoy this episode and maybe the wait made it all the better. I don't know. We'll have to see.

[00:01:08] Secondly, I want to read some reviews that came in in the interim period.

[00:01:11] So this first one is from Marcy's Man that says,

[00:01:14] Thank you for telling the stories of the spread of the gospel and these heroes of the faith.

[00:01:18] I've been a believer for 54 years and hearing these names and stories again is so comforting and is a challenge.

[00:01:23] When I was a young Christian, missionaries and the missionary life were prominent.

[00:01:27] This seems to have changed to hardly hearing about missions and almost never being encouraged to think of that if that calling may be ours.

[00:01:33] I love hearing all these stories, some for the first time.

[00:01:36] It reminds us that we all live for reaching eternal souls to bring from death to life, even if our calling is to pray or support.

[00:01:43] And the second one comes from Josh Burrum that says,

[00:01:52] Thank you guys for those reviews.

[00:01:55] And this next set all comes from Spotify on Isabel Kuhn part one.

[00:01:59] And Richard R says, Absolutely love this episode. Looking forward to part two.

[00:02:03] When can I expect a part two?

[00:02:05] Cora Tarnish says, I'm so excited to find out what happens.

[00:02:08] And Caleb says, Part two, please.

[00:02:10] So without further ado, let's go ahead and start.

[00:02:13] When we last left Isabel and John, they were on their way to a temporary assignment in Lisu land because their field director, J.O. Frazier, had nobody else to send to help relieve the missionary couple, the cooks, who were living there.

[00:02:25] And she remarks on how those years of waiting were God's way of preparing her.

[00:02:29] The Holy Spirit blowing like a strong wind across the mountains, new converts springing up in this village and in that one.

[00:02:35] That is a luxury.

[00:02:36] Others have paid the painful price of pioneering.

[00:02:39] We merely walked into the blessing.

[00:02:41] Those 10 long years of waiting and frustration had been needed to open my eyes to the privileges of being allowed to share in the Lisu work.

[00:02:48] If I had gone into the work as soon as my Chinese language exams were passed, I would have taken the tide of blessings for granted.

[00:02:55] The young converts eager to be taught as the usual thing.

[00:02:58] And I might have chafed at the physical hardships, the poor and monotonous food, the difficulty of getting help and getting supplies and so on.

[00:03:05] My spiritual eyesight needed to be clarified.

[00:03:08] The area they were to live in Lisu land was called Oak Flat, which is in the upper Salween Valley.

[00:03:13] And if you look at it on a map, the area today is called Newjiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture.

[00:03:19] And you can see just how mountainous it is and how difficult it would have been to traverse, but also how amazingly beautiful that it is.

[00:03:26] And if you zoom in a little bit closer, you can actually see there's at least two churches that I was able to see.

[00:03:31] So that's really interesting.

[00:03:33] But when they got to Oak Flat, Mrs. Cook was able to rejoin her husband, who was a six days journey away.

[00:03:38] And they were the only missionaries there now.

[00:03:41] So there's no senior missionaries to advise them on anything.

[00:03:44] And they were essentially going in blind while learning yet another language.

[00:03:47] And while they learned the Lisu language, they spoke through Lisu evangelists, John and Job, who understood Chinese and then translated what they would say into Lisu.

[00:03:57] And I was thinking about how just difficult that would be to see speaking in a second language, getting it translated into a third one and just how inevitably there's going to be a lot of translation errors to kind of compound those initial hard months.

[00:04:13] One of the first people Isabel meets in Lisu land is Homei, whose story is told in Precious Things of the Lasting Hills.

[00:04:20] Isabel wrote a lot of books about different people that she met along the way.

[00:04:24] And this is one of them.

[00:04:26] Homei was a sweet girl who knew a little bit of Chinese.

[00:04:28] And so she worked with the Coons at first as a house helper and then later in the Christian work itself after she became a believer.

[00:04:35] And in those early days, the Coons traveled all around their district visiting villages, staying for a week at a time and then teaching the Christians there.

[00:04:42] And their first year, they did this during the rainy season while staying in leaky huts.

[00:04:47] And if you're a longtime Eminem listener, you know that this barely bodes well for the delicate Western Constitution.

[00:04:53] So John had left to minister to another tribe who had never heard the gospel and left Isabel and Catherine in the care of Homei and Job.

[00:05:00] And right after he left, Isabel came down with an illness that she contracted from their last visit to the village.

[00:05:06] She would later know that it was called erysipelas.

[00:05:08] I think I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that right.

[00:05:10] Probably not. But it's an infection of the skin's outer layer and it's only treatable by antibiotics.

[00:05:15] You can look it up at your own discretion.

[00:05:17] It's gross. Basically swells the whole body. Looks bad.

[00:05:20] But she was running a horrible fever and they had been unsuccessful in raising chickens or crops because they were just so busy with getting their feet on the ground and just doing all those early things.

[00:05:29] And there was no one else to advise them. So they didn't know how to prepare.

[00:05:33] And there was a famine.

[00:05:35] And now it was rainy season, which meant that it was too little too late.

[00:05:38] And you were basically you had what you had and they didn't have a whole lot.

[00:05:42] So she continued to get weaker.

[00:05:44] And then Job begged for her to allow him to travel to Baalshan where a new missionary nurse had just been stationed.

[00:05:49] But she thought that surely in the two weeks it would take for her to arrive, she would be better.

[00:05:54] But eventually Job grew too worried and just took off to fetch the nurse.

[00:05:58] Isabel was distraught because she knew that Mr. Frazier would hear about it and it would prove him right that she wasn't cut out for the Lisu because only eight months in she'd already gotten herself ill.

[00:06:08] But there wasn't anything she could do about it.

[00:06:10] And in the meantime, she just felt horribly disgusting and dirty from just being sweaty all the time.

[00:06:16] So she asked Homey to give her a bed bath and Homey had no idea what that was.

[00:06:21] But she tried her best.

[00:06:22] So she takes a basin of warm water and then dips her hands in it and proceeded to rub it all over Isabel.

[00:06:28] And she knew she wasn't doing it right, but she just didn't know what she was doing wrong.

[00:06:32] And so Isabel pretended to be satisfied to help ease her, but says she doesn't actually remember much after that.

[00:06:37] So Job blistered his feet, making the six day journey to Bauschon in four days.

[00:06:42] And it took two weeks to bring the two nurses back.

[00:06:44] And they saw that she would just been sleeping on these wooden boards on the ground during rainy season.

[00:06:50] But fortunately, they had bought a camp bed and they quickly diagnosed her with the skin infection, but also with starvation because of the famine.

[00:06:58] And she sums up the story quite eloquently in saying, to shorten the story, I lived.

[00:07:04] But they did have to take her to Bauschon, if only to ensure that she was getting proper nutrition.

[00:07:08] And then she was back at Oak Flat for Christmas after a few months rest.

[00:07:12] And then they decided to build a new little house that would be more protected from the elements before leaving on furlough.

[00:07:17] Because by 1936, John had been in China for 10 years and Isabel for eight.

[00:07:23] And before they left, she reflected on the frustrations of almost dying that first year.

[00:07:27] She said,

[00:07:54] They left on furlough in March of 1936 and had a wonderful time.

[00:07:59] They left on furlough in the U.S.

[00:08:02] And then into Vancouver to visit Isabel's father and I assume her brother as well.

[00:08:06] And then in July of the following year, they had purchased their tickets back.

[00:08:10] The night before they were set to leave, they got a call from the CIM secretary they had just visited earlier that day.

[00:08:15] He said that Japan and China were officially at war and as a result, CIM would be delaying all sailings.

[00:08:21] John was content with the decision, but Isabel was not because the fighting was in the north and they're in the south and they were completely unaffected.

[00:08:28] And even Catherine will go to the mission school in Kunming and not the one in Chifu or modern day Yontai, which is in the danger zone.

[00:08:36] John pushed back and suggested they do their evening devotions.

[00:08:40] And she said,

[00:09:34] So imagine her shock when she arrives in Hong Kong and gets a telegram which says,

[00:09:39] She wrote,

[00:10:27] And so there was time to spare.

[00:10:33] I remember going to a Bible class where the subject was praise.

[00:10:37] The teacher stood in the doorway shaking hands with us at the close.

[00:10:40] As she took my hand, she looked at me very significantly and said,

[00:10:43] The sacrifice of praise.

[00:10:45] My inward reaction was,

[00:10:47] But you have no children.

[00:10:48] It was true.

[00:10:48] She didn't have children.

[00:10:49] She and her husband were childless.

[00:10:51] Nevertheless,

[00:10:52] She had planted a truth from the word in my heart, which I have never forgotten.

[00:10:55] There are times when it is a sacrifice to praise him in the human sense.

[00:11:00] In the light of Calvary, nothing we can offer should ever be called sacrifice.

[00:11:04] But since there are so few things we can offer him, this should be considered a privilege.

[00:11:09] And on the train trip to Kunming, she says,

[00:11:11] The Lord dealt with her heart enough that she felt peaceful by the time that they arrived.

[00:11:14] But she was not prepared for the second blow she would receive when they got there,

[00:11:18] because unbeknownst to them, but known to everybody else in the area,

[00:11:21] Mr. Frazier had decided not to send them back to the Lisu.

[00:11:25] He felt justified in saying that Isabel was not cut out for the work,

[00:11:29] using her illness as justification,

[00:11:30] and a little bit, in my opinion, an insult to injury.

[00:11:33] He chastised her for taking away the nurses from their work in Baoshang.

[00:11:39] Isabel wrote,

[00:12:40] And says that he gave her a passage from Zephaniah 3.

[00:12:43] She says she felt in part that it applied directly to what was going on in the Lisu church,

[00:12:47] and the latter she felt was God's promise that she would come back to the Lisu work.

[00:12:51] And she felt such joy and victory in that moment,

[00:12:54] and went to Baoshang with a happy and peaceful heart.

[00:12:57] And they'd been in Baoshang for maybe a little bit more than a month,

[00:13:00] before a letter arrived from Mr. Frazier,

[00:13:02] telling them to go to the Lisu land on a temporary assignment.

[00:13:06] There was a grave matter which needed missionary intercession,

[00:13:09] and missionaries who could speak the language.

[00:13:11] He said he would go himself, but he was just too far away.

[00:13:14] They were also escorting a new missionary into the area,

[00:13:17] and he needed senior missionaries to show him the ropes.

[00:13:20] He added to his letter,

[00:13:21] Remember, this is not a permanent designation.

[00:13:23] You do not need to move all your things in,

[00:13:25] but you will need enough to set up housekeeping for a few months.

[00:13:29] Isabel wrote,

[00:13:30] When I heard that I slipped away to our bedroom and carefully closed the door,

[00:13:33] I did not want to shock my dear husband by my unseemly levity.

[00:13:37] But when privacy was well secured,

[00:13:39] I danced with joy.

[00:13:40] Temporary designation, I gloated gaily.

[00:13:43] So says you, my dearly beloved super.

[00:13:45] So says you.

[00:13:46] So says you, but not so says the Lord.

[00:13:49] The issue with the churches was over the doctrine of law and grace,

[00:13:52] and they felt it warranted more time and deeper Bible study with church leaders.

[00:13:55] So they wrote to Mr. Frazier asking if they could start a rainy season Bible school,

[00:14:00] which would take place as the name suggests during the three months of rainy season,

[00:14:04] when life in the villages basically comes to a standstill.

[00:14:08] He gave it an enthusiastic go ahead and it went really well.

[00:14:11] And they realized that it met a deep seated need in the churches.

[00:14:15] And on September 30th, 1938, they received news that Mr. Frazier had died of malignant cerebral malaria.

[00:14:22] Isabel wrote,

[00:14:23] Personally, I have never ceased to miss him.

[00:14:25] Nearly 18 years have passed, but at crises or decisions, I often still think,

[00:14:29] What would Mr. Frazier do?

[00:14:32] With their superintendent gone, all the missionaries just kind of stayed where they were.

[00:14:36] Yunnan was a huge province and it was decided they should divide the superintendency between the east and the west,

[00:14:42] with John being appointed in the west to Lisu land and also the regional Chinese.

[00:14:46] For years afterwards, the idea was floated that they should move to Baoshan so that he could be nearer to the telegram office.

[00:14:52] And so this temporary designation status still hung over their heads for far longer than Isabel would have liked.

[00:14:59] John would have been happy anywhere, but he did not seem to have a specific heart for the Lisu that Isabel did.

[00:15:04] And other designations kept him away for months on end out of every year.

[00:15:08] She wrote that one day she overheard some of the Lisu church leaders talking and one of them said,

[00:15:12] We would never have had Ma Pa, their name for John, if Mama had not loved us so dearly.

[00:15:17] It was a remark of shrewd perspicuity, and I pondered as I walked on,

[00:15:21] I think he was correct, and then my mind glanced back many years to that conference in 1924 at the Furs,

[00:15:27] when Mr. Frazier had poured out his heart about the Lisu tribe,

[00:15:30] inwardly hoping that for one or two brilliant young men who were present,

[00:15:34] he got neither, only a girl. Of what use was a girl?

[00:15:37] In God's unfathomable ways, she was the one who brought the needed man into the Lisu work.

[00:15:44] Moving forward a few years to 1942, the year which Isabel says always stands out in my memory,

[00:15:49] as my own personal experience of the horror of dark greatness.

[00:15:54] The war had been an ongoing but distant fear.

[00:15:56] Ministry was doing well, and relationships were thriving.

[00:15:59] But China had lost province after province, and only three provinces remained,

[00:16:03] one of which was Yunnan where they were.

[00:16:05] And this area provided China's only route of supplies,

[00:16:08] and if the Japanese took that, then all of China would be theirs.

[00:16:12] And about this time, she wrote,

[00:16:13] Now as to my onward pilgrimage, there was an area of my life which the Lord long needed to discipline.

[00:16:19] It was the area of affections.

[00:16:21] I have always considered this to as one of my strong points, a deeply affectionate nature.

[00:16:26] But the very intensity of such love has a danger, the danger of selfish possessiveness.

[00:16:31] Intense affection is unconsciously very monopolizing.

[00:16:34] Since God taught me this truth, I have seen it many times in life.

[00:16:37] Such a pure love as mother's love, if it becomes too possessive, can blight the life of the child.

[00:16:43] And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

[00:16:47] I believe that lust can also be interpreted as a strong desire.

[00:16:50] So we may read that verse,

[00:16:52] They that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and strong desires.

[00:16:56] I knew this truth before I came to China, but it was mere head knowledge.

[00:17:00] I did not know how to recognize it in my own life, let alone know how to deal with it.

[00:17:05] The time would come that I must learn.

[00:17:07] So in 1942, there began a systematic stripping away from me, all whom I loved.

[00:17:13] The first of these strippings away was John, who was called away to a conference of superintendents,

[00:17:18] and then things transpired enough that he was called away from much of that year.

[00:17:22] The second was that Catherine's school, as you may have foreseen, was captured by the Japanese.

[00:17:27] Occasionally, a letter was able to slip through to let them know that she was alright,

[00:17:31] but the toll that would take on you as a mother would be immense.

[00:17:35] The third was that her right hand in ministry, Lucius, whom I haven't mentioned before, but he will come up,

[00:17:40] got married and left across the river with his wife.

[00:17:43] The reason was joyous, but the loss was still felt.

[00:17:46] In February, they held the first Bible school for girls,

[00:17:49] and it was so successful that it shocked the Lisa church leadership who thought that women could not learn.

[00:17:54] But then in March, she develops this toothache that just wouldn't go away.

[00:17:59] The nearest competent dentist was in Kunming, a week's journey away.

[00:18:02] The old time had been cut in half by the creation of the Burma Road,

[00:18:05] but it was still a long trip, and she dreaded it, but the ache just wouldn't go away.

[00:18:09] She decided to set off.

[00:18:11] To her delight, Lucius asked to go with her because he was building a house for him and his wife

[00:18:16] and needed good nails, which would be at a city along the way.

[00:18:19] And Isabelle was happy because Lucius was such a pleasant chatterbox and always knew everything that was going on.

[00:18:24] Anyway, the hours and days passed quickly.

[00:18:26] And there's one thing about the Lisieux that I haven't mentioned yet, but it's important.

[00:18:30] They loved to sing, and Isabelle loved to sing as well.

[00:18:34] And they were particularly fond of four-part harmonies.

[00:18:38] Isabelle would often have them translate different hymns into the Lisieux language or even compose their own hymns.

[00:18:45] And so as they were traveling along, they also did this.

[00:18:48] To travel along the Burma Road usually meant taking a Chinese truck,

[00:18:52] which was loaded down with everything they could possibly fit on it.

[00:18:55] And then to earn a little bit extra, they'd take on passengers who would often just ride on top of everything else

[00:18:59] as the drivers made hairpin turn after hairpin turn.

[00:19:03] And occasionally, fellow travelers would come across the wreckage of a truck that had gone over the ledge,

[00:19:07] which was a worst nightmare come true.

[00:19:10] Luckily for Lucius and Isabelle, they came across a few of the flying tigers,

[00:19:15] which were American pilots who had volunteered to help China fight off the Japanese invasion.

[00:19:20] And these flying tigers invited them to ride in their nice car all the way to Kunming.

[00:19:25] That first night, they stayed in a hostel which had these cells for women

[00:19:28] so they could lock themselves in at night to keep themselves safe from, you know,

[00:19:32] people who had ill intentions coming in in the middle of the night.

[00:19:35] And this turned out to be a good thing because one of these flying tigers,

[00:19:38] I'm not sure if it was their drivers or just a different one, not sure.

[00:19:43] But he had a little bit too much to drink and tried to come in and harass Isabelle,

[00:19:48] but he couldn't because of the locks on the door.

[00:19:50] She says that aside from this, they were so kind unless she tried to talk about Christ,

[00:19:54] and then they were a stone wall.

[00:19:56] She was looking forward to arriving in Kunming and visiting with Kay and Dave, John's sister and her husband.

[00:20:01] But when she arrived, there was no one there to greet her until a young Chinese woman ran to the courtyard from the house

[00:20:06] and greeted her and told her that Kay and Dave were gone to the country for conferences.

[00:20:11] This young woman was Eva, and she's one of my favorite people Isabelle talks about.

[00:20:16] She was the daughter of a Chinese pastor who had come to stay with the Harrisons, Kay and Dave,

[00:20:20] so that she could maintain their house while going to high school to get an education,

[00:20:24] which was rare for Chinese women.

[00:20:26] She was also infectiously bubbly and looked much younger than she was.

[00:20:30] She was 21, but still looked like an early teenager.

[00:20:33] And Isabelle was grateful that Eva spoke English because she had not used her Chinese in six years,

[00:20:37] and Eva was happy to practice her English.

[00:20:40] Now the entire time that they've been on this journey and arriving at the Harrisons' house,

[00:20:45] her tooth actually stopped aching.

[00:20:47] There was no pain, but she still felt awful.

[00:20:49] She had no appetite and she just got weaker and weaker.

[00:20:53] She'd been in Kunming for two weeks before they finally discovered that her tooth had died

[00:20:57] and had been leaching gangrene into her body, and so that's why she felt awful.

[00:21:02] And if they hadn't been able to pull it and treat it within 24 hours later,

[00:21:07] she probably would not have made it.

[00:21:10] Now all this time, the Japanese have been inching closer.

[00:21:14] They bombed Baoshan on a market day causing 15,000 people to lose their lives.

[00:21:18] And John went to help the isolated missionaries evacuate because they would never know that something had happened.

[00:21:23] And the question was, would Yunnan fall?

[00:21:26] And she was under the British consul jurisdiction because she wasn't an American citizen yet.

[00:21:31] And women and children needed to evacuate.

[00:21:33] And if you are familiar with the wartime atrocities of the Japanese,

[00:21:38] women and children were particularly susceptible or vulnerable to these kinds of attacks.

[00:21:43] But despite all this, she went to the Lord in prayer and didn't feel as though he was telling her to evacuate.

[00:21:49] And then she gets word that the Japanese had crossed the Salween and Yunnan looks like it is going to fall.

[00:21:55] There was one final convoy out and the missionaries decided that they would evacuate.

[00:22:00] And Eva was crying because she wouldn't be able to come, but she went to see them off anyway.

[00:22:05] And as she is seeing them off, the soldier comes around and says, well, why is she crying?

[00:22:10] And Isabel explains that she's sad because she won't be able to come with them.

[00:22:14] And Eva looks like a child.

[00:22:16] So the man says, oh, I think I think we have room on the truck.

[00:22:20] She's super small.

[00:22:20] We'll just kind of squeeze her in there.

[00:22:22] No big deal.

[00:22:22] And so is Eva was able to evacuate with them.

[00:22:26] They spent seven days in a truck leaving Yunnan for a different province.

[00:22:30] And Isabel felt unsettled because she felt that God had not told her to leave.

[00:22:34] And as a result, she felt as though she was outside of his will.

[00:22:37] And it turns out that Yunnan didn't fall after all.

[00:22:40] The Japanese have been pushed back over the river.

[00:22:43] But now she was stuck two provinces away with no hope of getting back because there just weren't any trucks that were going back to Yunnan.

[00:22:49] And sadder news still was that a lot of the refugees had come into Yunnan.

[00:22:54] And now there were no missionaries in the entire province to share the gospel with them.

[00:22:59] So Isabel went out to a Chinese cemetery and poured her heart out to the Lord.

[00:23:03] She asked for money to make the trip.

[00:23:05] She asked for trucks going to Yunnan.

[00:23:07] And travel as a single woman is very dangerous.

[00:23:10] And so she asked for a companion.

[00:23:12] And within a little bit more than 24 hours, the Lord had answered all three of those requests.

[00:23:16] Special gifts arrived in the mail.

[00:23:18] A convoy of three merchant trucks going back to Kunming had been found.

[00:23:22] And Eva asked to go with her.

[00:23:23] The money was the biggest miracle of all.

[00:23:26] Years before, John had received a legacy.

[00:23:28] Learning that a certain young Bible student had not had sufficient funds to finish her course, we had given her $100.

[00:23:34] She wrote to us that if she was ever able, after graduation, she would repay us.

[00:23:38] But we merely laughed it off and gave it as to the Lord and forgot about it.

[00:23:41] I had truly forgotten all about it.

[00:23:43] But the Monday after my prayer day, the mail brought two letters from this girl.

[00:23:46] These letters were written and posted six months apart.

[00:23:49] And yet they arrived in the same mail.

[00:23:51] And each letter contained $50.

[00:23:54] The marvel of it all has never left me.

[00:24:18] Eva and Isabel arrived safely in Kunming and prepared to head back west to Lisu land.

[00:24:23] But there was a stag because in Kunming, there was nobody left to teach Bible classes at the university because that had been Kay's ministry before they all fled.

[00:24:32] And so she was asked to teach it for two weeks.

[00:24:35] And the Lisu were being taken care of for the time being.

[00:24:38] So she thought, you know, I'll go ahead.

[00:24:40] I'll do this.

[00:24:40] This is okay.

[00:24:41] And soon she was asked to teach a second class for believers.

[00:24:44] And she shares the story of Jack, who was a young man from Manchuria who had married in his early teens.

[00:24:50] And when the Japanese invaded, he fled, leaving behind his wife and two-year-old daughter.

[00:24:55] He doesn't know if they're alive or dead.

[00:24:57] And he makes his way to Kunming and attends the Bible English classes and becomes a Christian.

[00:25:02] And it was actually Jack who asked for Isabel to teach the second deeper class.

[00:25:06] And she shares his story in the book.

[00:25:08] And I'd like to share it as well.

[00:25:10] As soon as he was saved, he became burdened for his wife and her need to know the Savior if she were still alive.

[00:25:15] He had not seen her for 10 years then.

[00:25:17] And the ordinary Chinese would have laughed at the thought of loyalty to her under such circumstances.

[00:25:21] It was good Chinese custom for a man to have a concubine to travel around with him while the legal wife was left at home.

[00:25:27] Jack was a tall, good-looking, and personable man.

[00:25:30] He was not even sure that his wife was alive.

[00:25:32] Why be so finicky?

[00:25:33] The only reason was the command of his Lord and Master Jesus Christ.

[00:25:38] Seven more years of silence passed.

[00:25:40] Still, Jack was clean and single.

[00:25:41] By that time, he was an ordained Episcopalian clergyman

[00:25:44] and his friends who were willing to send him to America for further training.

[00:25:48] That was, to any Chinese, a tremendous temptation.

[00:25:51] Studying in America was the acme of good fortune to a young Chinese in those days,

[00:25:55] and Jack was human enough to fill the pool of it.

[00:25:57] He wrote to me to ask about, asking for prayer for guidance.

[00:26:00] I would love to go to America, he said, but somehow I could not get away from the burden of my wife and family.

[00:26:05] It is 17 years since I saw them last.

[00:26:08] My little two-year-old girl will be a young woman of 19 now.

[00:26:11] I feel I should try to go find them.

[00:26:13] Please pray with me, Mrs. Kuhn, that the temptations of this world would not sway me,

[00:26:17] but I may only do the will of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:26:21] A few months later, another letter dated from Peking or Beijing.

[00:26:25] By this time, the communists were in control of Manchuria.

[00:26:28] I did not have the original letter, but in substance, it ran thus.

[00:26:33] I have decided to do the will of the Lord and go in search of my family.

[00:26:36] I have resigned my position in Yunnan and have come here,

[00:26:39] hoping to get information as to how I might gain entrance to Manchuria.

[00:26:42] I found I could get a seat on a plane tomorrow, but that it is a very dangerous procedure for a Christian to try to do this.

[00:26:48] I am afraid.

[00:26:49] I have found my family.

[00:26:50] Oh, pray for me that my faith may not fail.

[00:26:51] I looked up the Chinese family whose address you gave me.

[00:26:54] They were very kind to me and asked me to supper.

[00:26:57] But oh, Mrs. Kuhn, why is it that so few Christians asked to have prayer with me?

[00:27:01] I fly in tomorrow.

[00:27:03] If it is possible, I will write to you from there.

[00:27:05] If you never hear from me again, you will know that it was only because communication with you was not possible.

[00:27:11] Then followed silence for three long years.

[00:27:14] Then through a very roundabout way, Sister Catherine received a message.

[00:27:17] I have found my family.

[00:27:18] Finally, they have become Christians and the Lord has given us a little son.

[00:27:21] So ends one of the sweetest little stories that I know of Christ's roundtable nights in China.

[00:27:27] After the university classes are finished, Eva and Isabel try to get back into Lisu land.

[00:27:32] They arrive in Tali where John was supposed to be, only to find out that he was now in Baoshang.

[00:27:37] And Tali was the last civilian zone, so everything west required a military pass.

[00:27:41] So they go to the general, General Song's headquarters, to secure a pass.

[00:27:45] Yes, and Isabel doesn't look great.

[00:27:47] She's wearing very old, worn clothes.

[00:27:49] She's seen better days as far as hygiene and things like that go.

[00:27:53] So she was turned away by the guards like they were checking out garbage.

[00:27:57] And later that day, she receives word that General Song himself was securing transportation for John to return to Tali.

[00:28:03] But the reason was not discussed.

[00:28:05] And when they arrived at the general's residence, they were told that the Japanese had been welcomed by some of these heathen earth peoples, as he called them because tribal peoples were not highly regarded in China.

[00:28:14] The Chinese realized that they needed the cooperation of these earth peoples, but who could speak their language?

[00:28:20] So at first they go to these feudal lords, but the feudal lords are all opium addicts and are completely unreliable.

[00:28:26] So they turned to the missionaries.

[00:28:28] John and Isabel told them they had already warned the Christian Lisu about the Japanese who would be opposed to them being Christians.

[00:28:34] John was then made advisor to the nationalist guerrilla colonel who would be stationed in the Oak Flat area.

[00:28:39] And they prepared to leave via military escort in a few days, which was a dream because that's such a luxurious trip, especially compared to what they were used to doing.

[00:28:49] But it turns out that the colonel to whom John had been assigned was not such a luxurious assignment.

[00:28:54] On the way back, he tried to solicit poor Eva in exchange for paying her way through college.

[00:28:59] And when she refused him, he tried to make their lives miserable.

[00:29:02] Thankfully, Isabel says the Lord always thwarted him and kept them from harm.

[00:29:06] She wrote a reflection of 1942, which I will read.

[00:29:10] It says,

[00:29:10] As I look back on 1942, the disappointments and heartaches are a dark blur.

[00:29:14] That which stands out was the unfailing faithfulness of my Lord.

[00:29:18] When I was kicking against the rocks, he was never impatient, never withdrew his love.

[00:29:23] Every time I cried out to him to fulfill his promise of Genesis 28, 15, he responded immediately.

[00:29:29] The power of his resurrection, that is what stands out most sharply.

[00:29:33] In the dearness of himself that I may know him, and now see what he was lovingly planning to give me as soon as my Job experience had borne fruit.

[00:29:40] He did not even wait for that fruition, but gave me Eva as a foretaste and a wonderful reception back to Lee Soo Land from our dear spiritual children.

[00:29:47] I could not even imagine that in one year's time, a little baby son, Danny, with red gold hair and snow white skin would be cuddled in my arms.

[00:29:56] It was beyond the thought that our home should be moved from Oak Flat that I would put down right beside Lucius and Mary in the village of Olives.

[00:30:04] And yet that is what happened.

[00:30:05] And there I had not only Lucius and Mary, but Eva and Danny as well.

[00:30:36] Life resumed as normally as it could during wartime.

[00:30:39] There were always rumors or wind words, as the least who called them, of the Japanese coming.

[00:30:43] But they adopted the now cliche phrase made famous by Britain during wartime, keep calm and carry on.

[00:30:49] In February, the girls Bible school had 33 students come, even with the war rumors and the feelings of the fear of being stranded for many of the girls.

[00:30:57] The next month, they started a new Bible school for the cowherds.

[00:31:01] These were boys aged 10 to 20 who would come for a shorter period of time before the plowing season started.

[00:31:06] And these boys were notoriously difficult to reach for the Lord because they always had to be in the fields.

[00:31:13] And despite the threat of pending invasion and even dogfights going on overhead, 76 boys came.

[00:31:19] And then later that year in August, baby Danny was born and Isabel had to supplement her supply with goat milk.

[00:31:25] But finding a reliable goat herd was difficult because they watched the goats when they felt like it and milked the goats until they were finished.

[00:31:33] So sometimes you got a court, other times you got a cup.

[00:31:36] So it was very frustrating.

[00:31:37] But these frustrations led to a funny story, which I'll read now.

[00:31:41] We had two Billys, the older we called Hitler because he loved to rule and had a passion for destruction.

[00:31:46] He became quite rambunctious as he saw the younger Billy growing up and being able to hold his own.

[00:31:52] This made him want to be the first in all things.

[00:31:54] When they were being driven home at night, the older Billy would frequently rush ahead of the herd and make for our kitchen.

[00:31:59] Woe betide the cook if the door were not securely fastened.

[00:32:02] Hitler would rush in and make for the garbage pail.

[00:32:04] Being so big and strong, he was difficult to handle in that small place where a hard kick could dent the pots or break the bulls.

[00:32:11] But one day he whacked Boulder.

[00:32:13] He found the stairs to the green room.

[00:32:15] I was in my bedroom working at my desk when I heard noises.

[00:32:19] Push, bang, a yell in Chinese, a loud whack, a squeal, and then a terrific commotion.

[00:32:24] Above it all arose Eva's voice high with anger.

[00:32:27] Mama, big goat old man.

[00:32:29] She could not stop to remember the correct English for the older Billy.

[00:32:32] And the name Hitler was attached to him after this event.

[00:32:34] Big goat old man ghost storeroom make awful mess.

[00:32:37] When Eva got excited, English grammar just flew to the winds, so nouns and verbs were mainly all that were needed.

[00:32:43] I got up and went out to behold a spectacle.

[00:32:45] There was big goat old man running for his life up the hill towards the refuge of his pen.

[00:32:50] And after him was a blur of Chinese gown and a stick that ascended and descended regularly.

[00:32:55] On hair or on air, up and down it went.

[00:32:58] I laughed until I cried.

[00:32:59] He who lorded it so over the females of the goat pen was now scurrying in fear ahead of one small dot of femininity from Chinaland.

[00:33:07] There is no question as to who won that battle.

[00:33:11] At the end of 1944, the Japanese finally entered the valley and they watched as the town across the river went up in flames.

[00:33:18] The girls' Bible study was scheduled to begin and one of the other main missionary helpers, Charles, was away recuperating from an illness.

[00:33:25] John was there, but he had caught the flu.

[00:33:27] And then he gave it to the baby, who in turn gave it to Isabel.

[00:33:30] All the same, 25 girls came and it was a success despite the setbacks.

[00:33:35] Next up was the boys' Bible school and it seemed truly impossible.

[00:33:38] John was gone for another conference and Charles was not yet back from sick leave and that left Isabel all alone to run the program.

[00:33:44] And the cherry on top was that there was no writing supplies for the boys to use.

[00:33:49] The shipment had been delayed due to the war.

[00:33:51] And so she told the Lisu church she needed to cancel and they were just not having it.

[00:33:55] She told them she would only run it if they agreed to free up two of the evangelists from their village duties to help out.

[00:34:00] They agreed and the Bible school commenced, kind of, because there were so many issues, one of which was getting passes to cross over to their side of the river.

[00:34:09] The new guy in charge of recruitment was also in charge of granting passes.

[00:34:13] And Isabel suspected him of being a communist, which was later confirmed and he was executed.

[00:34:18] But at that point they had no proof.

[00:34:21] So they got together to pray.

[00:34:23] These American soldiers literally fall from the sky or they came from the road because the censor wouldn't allow her to say.

[00:34:29] But she treated them to an American meal and they asked if there was anything she needed.

[00:34:34] And so she told them about these passes, which they had power over.

[00:34:38] So they were able to get the passes.

[00:34:40] And on day five, the other half of the group came and so did the writing materials.

[00:34:46] And so it was a great time and a great memory, despite the rough start.

[00:34:50] At the end, the boys received certificates of completion, which they treasured all their lives because it was the only form of schooling that they would ever receive.

[00:34:59] In fall of 1944, the Kuhn family was finally up for a furlough.

[00:35:03] It had been seven years since their first one and also seven years since they had seen Catherine.

[00:35:08] They had tried to go visit her in school, but the war just made it impossible.

[00:35:12] And then obviously they were taken by the Japanese.

[00:35:14] So that made it completely impossible.

[00:35:16] But their trip back was miserable.

[00:35:18] They got delayed in India for a month.

[00:35:20] And then their ship ride back was a nightmare you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.

[00:35:24] Men and women were separated.

[00:35:26] You had the men down below decks.

[00:35:28] The women and children were up top.

[00:35:29] The men could only come up for two hours a day.

[00:35:32] And there were so many places for a toddler to get hurt, killed, fall off.

[00:35:36] There were just random holes all over the boat for random things.

[00:35:39] And the ship's captain was not very amenable to being commissioned as a passenger ship.

[00:35:46] And so he told the women that he would not stop the ship if one of their children fell off the ledge.

[00:35:51] So they better hold on to them.

[00:35:53] So Isabel, having Danny, had to hold on to him at all times.

[00:35:56] And two weeks in, as she's at her last wit's end, cannot take it anymore.

[00:36:00] A wonderful lady offered to relieve Isabel of some of the stress by helping Danny before and after mealtimes as a self-appointed nurse,

[00:36:07] which was such a godsend and enabled her to carry on for the rest of the trip.

[00:36:13] So 36 days in total passed before they were able to land.

[00:36:17] And then they reunited with Catherine as if no time at all had passed,

[00:36:21] even though they had spent as much time apart as they had together.

[00:36:25] In contrast to his sister, Danny was a difficult baby.

[00:36:30] He fussed all the time.

[00:36:31] And when he wasn't fussing, he was trying to get into everything.

[00:36:34] The next six months were spent busy in visiting and deputation work.

[00:36:37] For the most part, we stayed with our relatives, the Harrisons, who were generously hospitable as always.

[00:36:43] Sister Catherine's children were no longer small, however, so her home was arranged for adults.

[00:36:47] It was beautiful, with green plants in the windows,

[00:36:49] but at such a low level that toddlers were tempted to reach out for the pretty trailing branches and pull at them.

[00:36:55] Danny had to be watched all the time.

[00:36:57] Everyone was wonderfully kind to me and did their best to help me rest.

[00:37:00] But at the end of the six months, I was as taut as on arriving.

[00:37:04] That was disappointing to everybody, because how can a person help such a missionary anyway?

[00:37:09] When it seems that no one understands us, we can always turn to the Lord.

[00:37:13] Lord, I have been home for six months, and I feel as ill as when I have arrived.

[00:37:16] I cannot unknot my nerves.

[00:37:18] If we only had a home of our own, owned it, so that if Danny broke or scratched anything, no one else would suffer.

[00:37:24] And oh, if I could be alone for a while and sleep the clock around for more than one day,

[00:37:29] as many days as I needed, what an impossible thing to ask.

[00:37:33] But gently and quietly, he gave it.

[00:37:35] All of it.

[00:37:37] John wanted to take a refresher course at Dallas Theological Seminary.

[00:37:40] None of them had ever been to Dallas before, so they had no connections,

[00:37:43] and finding a home during the war was almost impossible.

[00:37:47] But long story short, the Lord provided in an amazing way,

[00:37:50] because John's father in his will had left him some shares in a certain company.

[00:37:56] And they almost sold them years ago, but were persuaded not to.

[00:37:59] And so now those shares were worth the equivalent of $100,000 today.

[00:38:04] God provided the perfect little home for them near the school with all the little things that Isabel had asked for.

[00:38:10] John had planned to be at DTS for a year when the atomic bomb happened,

[00:38:14] and all CIM supervisors were asked to return a year earlier than their families.

[00:38:19] Isabel was grateful for one more year with Catherine before they had to leave again.

[00:38:22] And when the time came for them to leave again in 1947,

[00:38:26] a longshoreman strike meant that the number of passenger ships was low.

[00:38:30] They had to book passage on a slow steamer with no railings,

[00:38:33] which carried, of all combinations, cotton and kerosene.

[00:38:37] This slow-ticking time bomb would take 46 days to arrive,

[00:38:41] because it wasn't safe to push the boilers.

[00:38:43] When they got back to China, most of the bridges which the Japanese had destroyed were still not repaired,

[00:38:48] and journey into the interior was difficult.

[00:38:51] Thankfully, Isabel and Danny were able to take a plane back to Kunming,

[00:38:54] where John picked them up and drove them towards home.

[00:38:57] And in Tali, they met Eva, who was studying to be a nurse,

[00:38:59] and she cried and begged to go back to Lisu land with them.

[00:39:03] And Isabel reminded her that she only had one and a half years left until she graduated,

[00:39:07] and encouraged her to wait, as heartbreaking as it was, to leave her again.

[00:39:12] John stayed behind, and Baoshan and Isabel and Danny traveled back the rest of the way with Lucius.

[00:39:17] And along the way, they saw so many little villages that were abandoned.

[00:39:21] Lucius told them it was because of the bandits.

[00:39:23] After the war ended, a lot of soldiers deserted and became roving bandits, terrorizing the countryside.

[00:39:28] Things in their area weren't much better.

[00:39:30] There were thieves, massive changes in church leadership, and not for the better.

[00:39:34] There were two bad seeds and influential church positions,

[00:39:38] Pate John and Cadesipa.

[00:39:40] The former had been corrupted by a bad wife,

[00:39:42] and the latter Isabel compared to the magician in the Book of Acts, Simon,

[00:39:46] who had seen the power of the Holy Spirit and wanted it for himself,

[00:39:49] but not through repentance and regeneration.

[00:39:51] He tried very hard to become head deacon,

[00:39:54] but was thankfully thwarted and was very mad about it.

[00:39:57] After his rejection, he was later removed entirely from being a deacon

[00:40:00] due to blatant sin because the church practiced New Testament discipline.

[00:40:05] And after all of this, the schoolmaster position became available,

[00:40:09] and then he put his hat in the ring via his second son,

[00:40:12] and nobody wanted to tell him no because he was rich and he held political power.

[00:40:17] This son had been sent to Tali to study Chinese,

[00:40:20] and Eva knew his reputation and had written Isabel to tell her that he was a rotten apple.

[00:40:25] So Isabel rejected him for the position because many of the church leaders were across the river,

[00:40:29] which left her to deal with all of this important work that would normally fall to others.

[00:40:35] So Kadesipal and his son one night cornered her in her house

[00:40:38] and tried to force her to allow the son to take up the position.

[00:40:42] And one of the other Christians had seen them sneak in,

[00:40:44] so entered in after them and sat in a chair,

[00:40:46] pretending that he wanted to sell her charcoal,

[00:40:48] but in reality he was providing a witness to their conversation.

[00:40:52] So thwarted again, they resorted to petty intimidation tactics,

[00:40:55] which made it almost impossible for her to continue because she was the only missionary in the area,

[00:41:00] the only woman, and she had a small child.

[00:41:03] So she was about to move across the river when one of the men finally came back,

[00:41:06] and she was no longer alone.

[00:41:09] Now at the end of 1948, Potty John asked to come to the Bible school,

[00:41:13] and he was tricky.

[00:41:14] They didn't know what he was planning.

[00:41:15] They didn't want to let him in, but they couldn't really say no to him.

[00:41:19] But they had no idea that he would go this far.

[00:41:22] His wife Ruth and Isabel's cookboy Jada had been caught in sin a few months before

[00:41:28] and were suspended from communion.

[00:41:31] Now Potty John waited until everyone had gathered for the clothing ceremonies

[00:41:34] to have the maximum audience,

[00:41:36] before he and Kadesipa brought out Ruth and Jada

[00:41:40] and tied them up in Isabel's kitchen,

[00:41:42] condemning them,

[00:41:43] and said that anybody who cut them down would have to face Chinese justice,

[00:41:47] which sounds like a good thing until you remember

[00:41:49] that it was so corrupt that it would never go in the way of justice.

[00:41:53] So Potty John was essentially holding them hostage

[00:41:56] until John would sign a paper

[00:41:58] allowing him to become the pastor of the Mid-Solvene Church.

[00:42:02] This was an absolutely no-win situation,

[00:42:05] and it just kind of kept escalating and escalating.

[00:42:07] They didn't know what to do because they couldn't cut them down.

[00:42:10] And eventually a deacon decided that he would cut them down,

[00:42:13] and word spread to Potty John's crew.

[00:42:15] And so there was about to be an absolute all-out brawl,

[00:42:19] and so John agrees to sign the papers.

[00:42:21] And Isabel was worried,

[00:42:22] but Lucius, who had told her all of this,

[00:42:24] said that they were worthless

[00:42:25] because everyone would hear of what had happened

[00:42:27] and would never allow Potty John as their pastor,

[00:42:30] and that's exactly what happened.

[00:42:32] All the same,

[00:42:33] they still moved to the village of Olives

[00:42:35] next to Lucius and Mary

[00:42:36] in the middle of the town,

[00:42:37] and she missed their quiet little house.

[00:42:39] But four months after they had moved,

[00:42:41] Oak Flat was invaded by a band of communists.

[00:42:44] Cadet-Sapah joined forces with them

[00:42:46] and specifically inquired as to the whereabouts of Isabel.

[00:42:49] So what would have happened if she had still been there?

[00:42:52] Nothing good.

[00:42:53] The Upper Solwing was a forgotten and neglected territory.

[00:42:56] It didn't matter much to the Chinese,

[00:42:58] but it mattered a great deal to the communists

[00:43:00] who were now reorganizing in the countryside.

[00:43:03] They would employ the use of bandits

[00:43:04] to bring a village to its knees

[00:43:06] before coming in as the saviors

[00:43:07] and repudiating these bandits.

[00:43:10] It's a tried-and-true playbook

[00:43:12] used by communists all over the world,

[00:43:14] and the unrest continued to grow and grow

[00:43:16] until Yunnan was handed over to the communists,

[00:43:19] and it was no longer safe for Danny to stay,

[00:43:22] and it was becoming increasingly less safe

[00:43:24] for any missionaries to stay.

[00:43:27] Isabel had tried to get Danny into the mission school,

[00:43:29] but they wouldn't allow him,

[00:43:31] and the situation was so volatile now

[00:43:32] that she decided to take him back to America

[00:43:35] and put him in school there.

[00:43:36] In the midst of all of this,

[00:43:38] January 1950,

[00:43:39] John arrives very unexpectedly,

[00:43:41] bringing Eva with him,

[00:43:42] who was now a full-fledged nurse.

[00:43:44] She was overjoyed to see her again.

[00:43:46] She worked in the village for a time,

[00:43:47] and they went back to school to become a doctor.

[00:43:51] And after the country completely succumbed to communism,

[00:43:54] they were never able to communicate with Eva again.

[00:43:57] And I tried Googling to see if there was any update

[00:43:59] since the book was written,

[00:44:00] but as far as I can tell,

[00:44:02] there was no further communication with Eva,

[00:44:04] and we have no idea what happened to her.

[00:44:08] John chose to stay on and disciple the hundreds of new converts

[00:44:11] from the final rainy day Bible school.

[00:44:13] Time was short before the bamboo curtain would fall completely,

[00:44:16] and they wanted to make sure that these people were prepared.

[00:44:19] And so Isabel and Danny returned to Wheaton without him,

[00:44:22] where Catherine was now in college,

[00:44:24] and John joined them 18 months later

[00:44:26] after he had been detained by the communists

[00:44:28] and then forced to walk all the way across China to get out

[00:44:31] because they refused to let him take the easy way through Burma.

[00:44:35] And two years later, they were ready to go back to work,

[00:44:38] but China was obviously closed to them,

[00:44:40] so they decided to work among the Lisu people of northern Thailand,

[00:44:43] and they set out in 1954,

[00:44:45] leaving behind Danny, who was now in school.

[00:44:48] And Isabel relayed that as they were walking through the jungle,

[00:44:51] one of the men in front of her stepped on a stick,

[00:44:53] and the other end smacked her really hard in the breast

[00:44:56] and caused some damage.

[00:44:57] And she was 50 years old,

[00:44:58] and I suppose at this time it was thought

[00:45:00] that a blow like this could lead to cancer

[00:45:02] because of the lump that it would cause.

[00:45:04] She had it inspected,

[00:45:05] but the doctor ensured her that it was just a torn ligament.

[00:45:08] And then about seven months later,

[00:45:09] she took a nasty fall in the jungle

[00:45:11] and landed on a jagged stump in the exact same spot.

[00:45:15] Another year passed,

[00:45:16] and she felt that something wasn't right,

[00:45:18] so she got a biopsy.

[00:45:19] It came back non-malignant,

[00:45:21] but she just wasn't sure,

[00:45:22] and so she asked her friends back home to pray with her

[00:45:24] that if it was, she could get treated in time,

[00:45:26] and if it wasn't,

[00:45:27] that she could just get on with her work.

[00:45:29] Further testing proved that it was, in fact, malignant,

[00:45:32] and she underwent an operation to remove the tumor.

[00:45:35] And after the operation,

[00:45:36] the report came back that it was a fast-growing malignancy,

[00:45:39] which had already spread into her chest.

[00:45:41] They gave her a little more than a year to live

[00:45:43] and advised her to head back to America immediately.

[00:45:47] She insisted that John finish his term of service

[00:45:49] while she got treatment

[00:45:50] and settled back into the Wheaton community with the kids.

[00:45:54] In the last two years of her life,

[00:45:56] she wrote five books,

[00:45:57] including this one that I've been reading from for the episode,

[00:46:00] and in reflecting on her final days,

[00:46:02] she wrote,

[00:46:03] Loving friends have made it possible for us

[00:46:04] to have our own home, a little flat,

[00:46:06] and I have already had our dear son with me

[00:46:08] longer than a normal furlough would have given.

[00:46:10] I rejoice in that.

[00:46:12] Why not?

[00:46:12] The future of my loved ones after I leave them?

[00:46:14] The Lord who has been so kind to me

[00:46:16] will not be less so to them.

[00:46:18] Facing the end of one's earthly pilgrimage

[00:46:20] is not a melancholy thing for a Christian.

[00:46:22] It is like preparation

[00:46:23] for the most exciting journey of all.

[00:46:25] The spirit of expectation

[00:46:26] is our dear inheritance and right.

[00:46:29] For the Christian,

[00:46:30] death is not the disillusion of life,

[00:46:31] but the consummation.

[00:46:32] Or as Amy Carmichael worded it,

[00:46:34] the days of our bloom and of our power

[00:46:36] are just about to begin.

[00:46:39] She lived long enough to see Catherine

[00:46:40] follow in her parents' footsteps

[00:46:42] and become a missionary to Thailand to get married.

[00:46:44] John wrote that Isabel slipped away from us

[00:46:46] in a series of surrenders.

[00:46:48] First, she had to surrender writing,

[00:46:50] which she did uncomplainingly.

[00:46:51] Then she lost all strength

[00:46:52] through her regular times of intercession

[00:46:54] for the Lisu.

[00:46:55] Quietly, serenely,

[00:46:56] she surrendered the Lisu prayer time.

[00:46:58] Thirdly, she had to surrender her son.

[00:47:00] Only mother and son were together

[00:47:02] on that last afternoon

[00:47:03] after they took leave of each other.

[00:47:05] Finally, she surrendered life itself.

[00:47:07] We had read and prayed

[00:47:08] and then suddenly the end was near.

[00:47:10] Quietly, patiently,

[00:47:11] with the sense of his presence so near,

[00:47:13] she crossed the last defile.

[00:47:15] Three months before her death,

[00:47:17] she had managed to write

[00:47:17] a final prayer letter,

[00:47:18] signing off,

[00:47:19] there is rest in turning the helm over to him.

[00:47:23] In the grand scheme of things,

[00:47:25] Isabel's life was relatively short,

[00:47:26] but her legacy continues on

[00:47:28] because today,

[00:47:29] over 80% of the Lisu in China are Christian

[00:47:31] and hymn singing like Isabel loved to teach them

[00:47:34] is still a centerpiece of their worship.

[00:47:36] The emphasis J.O. Fraser placed

[00:47:38] on indigenous church leadership

[00:47:39] and self-reliance

[00:47:40] combined with Isabel's running day Bible school

[00:47:42] and the hard times of the war

[00:47:44] prepared them for the even more difficult days

[00:47:46] of communism.

[00:47:48] Because China remains

[00:47:49] under communist leadership,

[00:47:50] persecution persists

[00:47:51] for the Lisu believers.

[00:47:53] In the last few years,

[00:47:54] the government has raided house churches,

[00:47:56] arrested pastors,

[00:47:57] and forced the demolition of churches.

[00:47:59] So to close this episode,

[00:48:01] I'd invite you to keep the Lisu

[00:48:02] in regular prayer

[00:48:03] and thank God

[00:48:04] that so many remain faithful

[00:48:05] in the face of persecution.

[00:48:07] As always,

[00:48:08] thank you for listening

[00:48:08] to Martyrs and Missionaries.

[00:48:10] I'm Elise.