Belle’s hand touched her face as she read the telegram and felt the sting of tears in her eyes. How could it be? Everything was arranged for Kathryn to go to school in Kunming, where the Harrisons were waiting for her. It seemed impossible to think of parting with her bright, happy six-year-old daughter and sending her north to CIM’s main school for missionary children in Chefoo. And wasn’t north where the fighting was?
Grace Liddell was also staying at the CIM guesthouse. Belle had not yet met her, but she had heard from others that Grace was a very effective worker in Yunnan Province. Despite Grace’s effectiveness in Yunnan Province, China Inland Mission was short of teachers at the school in Chefoo, and Grace had been asked to take up a teaching position there.
Belle liked Grace immediately, but she still did not want to entrust her daughter to her. Throughout the rest of that day and the next, Belle wrestled with the situation. She agonized over every part of Kathryn’s life that she would miss out on with her being so far away in Chefoo. She would not be there to read her bedtime stories, comb her hair, help her dress, answer her questions, or watch her learn to read and draw and play music. Everything Belle had hoped to do with Kathryn was all about to be ripped from her.
John tried to reason with her. He pointed out to Belle that Chefoo had a wonderful school, much larger and with more opportunities than the little school at Kunming. Kathryn would be with loving adults, all of them missionaries themselves, who would care for her like their own, and she would be surrounded with other children who were in the same situation.
Belle knew that John spoke the truth, but it did not make the situation any easier. Still, as she prayed about the matter, Belle felt that it was God’s direction, and so she allowed Grace to take Kathryn’s hand and lead her onto another boat that would take them north to Chefoo.
As soon as Kathryn was out of sight, Belle burst into uncontrollable tears. John walked the streets of Hong Kong with her all night, as she could not sleep. By the time they set sail from Hong Kong for Haiphong the next day, Belle was exhausted. And once they arrived in Haiphong and boarded the train for Kunming, she continued to weep silently. As the train wound its way toward Yunnan Province, it was taking Belle farther away from Kathryn. Dark thoughts ran through her mind. What if Kathryn forgot her altogether and preferred to be with Grace Liddell or one of the other teachers? Or what if Kathryn got ill and died and Belle never saw her again?
About halfway through the train trip, the fog in Belle’s mind began to lift. Belle took a good look at what she was doing. Yes, she was grieving for all the things that she would never experience with Kathryn. But what good had all that grief done? Was she any better off for all her weeping? Was Kathryn any better off? Had her marriage to John been strengthened by her wallowing in self-pity? The answer to all of these questions was no, and with that realization Belle dried her tears. There would be more good-byes to come—it was part of being a missionary—and it was best not to dwell too long on them. If such partings was part of God’s will, He would have to bear the burden. It was not one that Belle could carry. She prayed and asked God to forgive her for indulging her grief. Now it was time for her to look ahead.
As the train rolled along, snow-capped mountains began to appear in the background through the window. John and Belle were already in Yunnan Province and would soon be arriving in Kunming. Belle refused to think about how Kathryn was supposed to be going to school in Kunming and instead focused on how wonderful it would be to see John’s sister and brother-in-law and fill them in on all the news from home.
Another blow awaited Belle in Kunming, however. Belle had been so focused on returning to the Lisu that she never considered the possibility that James Fraser would not reassign them there. But he did not. Instead he posted John and Belle temporarily to Paoshan, from where, he told them, they could make trips into Lisuland. As far as their future in China went, James asked John to consider becoming the assistant superintendent of CIM for the western part of Yunnan Province.
Belle was speechless when she learned of their new posting. First Kathryn had been taken from her, and now the Lisu people. But this time Belle did not wallow in grief. Instead she set aside a day to pray about the situation. At the end of the day, she was certain that God had promised her she would return and live permanently among the Lisu. A huge grin spread across her face at this realization, but she kept it in check. Belle decided not to tell anyone—not even John—about what she had felt from God. It was a special secret God had shared with her, and now Belle was eager to see how it would work itself out.
Belle sang as she packed her bags for the trip to Paoshan. After all, she told herself, it was just a steppingstone to Lisuland. She noticed John giving her a couple of strange looks as she packed, but she resisted the urge to tell him that she knew they would be returning to Lisuland soon.
And they did. A month after arriving in Paoshan, a desperate letter came from James, asking John and Belle if they would go up to Oak Flat Village and help settle a problem that had arisen in the church. At the same time they could escort Victor Christianson, the new missionary going to work among the Lisu, and help get him settled and on his way to learning the Lisu language. The letter ended with the words, “Remember, this is not a permanent designation. You do not need to move all your things. But you will need to set up housekeeping for a few months. It would be good for Victor to have the comfort of experienced seniors for a little while.”
Belle nodded politely as John read the letter to her, but in her heart she was dancing! John and James might think she was going back for only a few months, but Belle was certain that she would be back among her Lisu people for good. She could hardly wait to see what would happen next.
Chapter 14
Rainy Season Bible School
Every minute must count while we’re with the Lisu!” Belle exclaimed, soon after she and John had settled in at Oak Flats Village. “We have to find the best ways possible to bring the Good News to the remote areas while strengthening the local Christians as well.”
John nodded in agreement. “Is there something you have in mind?” he asked.
Belle laughed. Her husband knew her well. “As a matter of fact, there is. Here at Oak Flats there is preaching every Sunday. But other Lisu throughout the area do not have a way to learn Bible truths except from each other. That can lead to all sorts of strange teachings. It would be wonderful to bring better Bible teaching to hundreds of Lisu men and women.”
“Hundreds of men and women,” John said, echoing her words.
Belle nodded. “Maybe not to begin with, but John, I can see it already. We could get Homay to type out the books of Galatians and Corinthians in Lisu, and everyone could have his own copy. Think of the truths the people could learn from Saint Paul!”
“I suppose we could ask James about it,” John conceded, “though I don’t know when we’d do it.”
“During the rainy season, of course,” Belle interjected. “We’ll call it the ‘Rainy Season Bible School’—RSBS for short. It’s the perfect time to run a Bible school. There’s hardly anything to do in the fields, and it’s hard for anyone to travel over the slippery slopes. What do you think?”
“I think that you have it all planned out in your head. If you can convince the Oak Flat Church to go ahead and I get permission from James, we’ll hold the first ever Bible school for the Lisu,” John said, patting Belle’s hand.
That was all the encouragement Belle needed, and she set straight to work on the project. She had brought a typewriter back with her from furlough and was soon teaching Homay, who had recently returned from the Cookes in Luda to live with them, how to use it. James had finally finished his translation of the New Testament into Lisu, but at that point only the Gospels and the book of Acts were in print. Belle planned to have Homay type out the unpublished books of Galatians and 1 Corinthians in Lisu using carbon paper so that up to five copies could be made at a time. The typed pages would then be sewn together to make study books for the students attending the Bible school.
At first the church elders at Oak Flat were not enthusiastic as Belle laid out the plan to run a three-month program of Bible teaching based at the church. “If fifteen people come and stay in the village for three months, we will have to supply them with a lot of corn. We have never done this before. Where would the church find so much food?” Me-do-me-pa, the church evangelist, asked.
“We will watch God supply it for us all,” Belle replied, knowing that this was a stretching idea for the Lisu Christians at Oak Flat.
More talk about the program ensued, and eventually the church elders voted to approve the Rainy Season Bible School. Soon after their vote, John and Belle received a letter from James giving them permission to begin the program. “How much better it is for the Lisu Christians to teach each other and continue to build a strong native church, independent of foreign missionaries,” he wrote in his letter.
Belle knew what he meant. It was 1938, and the Japanese had pushed farther south into China, capturing Peking and Shanghai and occupying large parts of northern and central China. The Chinese army, which had been involved in a civil war against Communist forces wanting to turn the country into a Marxist state, had now joined forces with their enemy, and together they were trying to stop the Japanese advance, but with little success. While the treacherous high mountain trails and sparse resources of the region gave the Japanese little reason to bother the Lisu, people in other regions of China were laboring under the brutal occupation of the Japanese. It was still unclear what would become of the missionaries in China. So James’s admonition to build a strong local church that was independent of foreign missionaries had seemed farsighted to Belle.
James ended his letter with the news that he was sending two young, single male missionaries to help with the work among the Lisu. Belle was elated. She would have more time to devote to preparing for the Bible school; all it needed now were students. To that end she sent invitations to church leaders and evangelists throughout the mountain region informing them of the RSBS.
On May 28, 1938, the students began arriving at Oak Flat for the Bible school. The first to show up was Job from Pine Mountain Village. At thirty-eight years of age, he was the oldest student. Others soon appeared with clothes and sleeping bags slung across their backs and carrying sacks of rice and corn with them. By the end of the day, eighteen students had shown up for the school. Fifteen of them were men, and three, including Homay, were women. Of course, Homay had an advantage over the others since she had typed out the curriculum for the school. The students settled into the small bamboo shanties that would be their home for the duration of the RSBS, and they met for class in a large hut with weathered, woven bamboo sides.
Belle, who was the main teacher in the RSBS, got straight to work teaching the next day. Each weekday was divided into periods of Bible study, preaching practice, and personal evangelism techniques, along with hymns and choruses. On the weekends the students braved the rainy deluges and visited nearby villages to practice their newly developed skills. As the weeks went by, some students walked in pairs up to twenty-five miles each way to preach at a Sunday service or visit a village that had not yet heard the gospel.
People in the surrounding villages were so grateful to hear more Christian teaching that they sent the young evangelists back to Oak Flat with food and even silver coins, so that there was enough food and drink to feed everyone for the three months of the school.
