Soon after the Christmas celebrations were over, Belle began making preparations for the next Rainy Season Bible School. At the same time, the Cookes returned home for furlough, and the Kuhns took over the responsibility for their ongoing missionary work with the Lisu in the Luda area.
Belle loved the challenges all of this responsibility brought, but most of all she liked the challenge of planning an even better Bible school than the first one. Again her efforts paid off. The next RSBS was also a great success, with a number of participants from the first school returning for a second time. On fine evenings the students would sit outdoors around a fire while those from the first school recounted their adventures in faith since completing their school. While the school was still in progress, Thomas and Homay returned from Goo-moo with wonderful stories to add to those the other past students had told.
Another letter arrived from Aristarchus and Secondus describing how about two hundred fifty Lolo had become Christians and were now hard at work building a chapel in which to hold services. The two young evangelists asked if more helpers from Oak Flat could be sent to help them in their work. Aristarchus and Secondus often explained that they were so busy that they had to part ways and go and teach and preach alone. John and Belle discussed the situation and eventually decided to send Gad and Daniel, two students from the first school, to Yongpeh to assist Aristarchus and Secondus.
As the second RSBS drew to a close, Belle’s only concern was for Thomas, Homay’s husband. Since returning from Goo-moo, Thomas had begun to suffer terrible headaches that sometimes affected his vision so much that he could barely see. Belle and John discussed the problem and decided that the best course of action was to send Thomas back to Burma to the missionary hospital located there. The trek back across the mountains to the hospital was long and dangerous, and Homay would not be able to go with Thomas on the journey, as she had just learned that she was expecting a baby. As soon at the RSBS was over, Thomas set out with several Christian men to get medical attention.
Missionary life among the Lisu fell into a pattern for John and Belle. There were the Christmas and Easter festivities, followed by the Rainy Season Bible School, followed by treks to Christian outposts near and far throughout Lisuland. In February 1940, the long-awaited New Testament in the Lisu language finally arrived, making the prospect of the next RSBS even more exciting for everyone. In the meantime, Thomas had returned to Oak Flat from Burma feeling much better, and on his arrival Homay had presented him with their new baby son! Everything seemed to be going well, but deep shadows were about to fall across Belle’s corner of the world.
Chapter 15
War Zone
In March 1940, the next Rainy Season Bible School got under way. Belle and John took turns teaching the students, among whom was their first Lolo convert from the evangelistic work of Aristarchus and Secondus in the Yongpeh district. As the school progressed, however, the health of Me-do-me-pa, the evangelist at Oak Flat, began to fail. Belle wasn’t sure what the problem was, but she suspected that he had cancer. Night after night she and Homay would visit his hut, where she would play her guitar and the two women would sing choruses to the evangelist. Belle wished that she could do more to help this man who had been the first in the area to become a Christian, a man who had been a pillar in the church and a friend and helper to her and John. But nothing could be done, and as the RSBS drew to a close, Me-do-me-pa died.
Belle and Homay stood side by side at Me-do-me-pa’s funeral, which was held outdoors at night on Sunset Ridge. A bonfire crackled beside them as John eulogized Me-do-me-pa. Belle felt it was a wonderful service, one that suitably honored Me-do-me-pa for all his achievements in the community. But as she looked around in the flickering firelight at the faces of those gathered for the service, Belle would never have guessed how soon she’d be attending another funeral.
A few months following Me-do-me-pa’s funeral, Homay began to become weak and lethargic. At first Belle thought the strains of motherhood were too much for her, but then she realized that was ridiculous. Homay was the most efficient, capable young woman for miles around, or at least she had been. But now she tired easily and slept during the day. After three months of this, Homay’s plump body had wasted away. There seemed to be nothing Belle or anyone else could do for Homay’s condition, and Homay died in spring 1941, leaving behind her husband, Thomas, and their eighteen-month-old son.
Homay’s death was almost too much for Belle to bear, but she knew she had to go on. With China in the grip of war, it was likely that she would face many more tragedies before the war was over.
The next shock for Belle came at the end of 1941 and from halfway around the world. Belle and John just stared at each other, finding the news—which was three weeks old by the time it reached them—hard to digest. Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, and as a result, the United States had declared war on Japan. Belle sighed. At times like these it was hard to be so far away from any kind of news. Who knew what had happened since then? Perhaps the United States had already attacked Japan or the Japanese had taken Burma. Anything was possible, and Belle worked hard to control her active imagination regarding what might be happening.
As Belle thought about the situation, her thoughts raced to Kathryn, and then she felt panic rise in her. Until now, both the Chinese and the Japanese had treated Europeans in China as neutral and allowed them to go about their business. But now that the United States and the Allies were enemies of Japan, things would surely change for Europeans in China. When Belle heard a rumor that the Japanese were close to overrunning Chefoo, every motherly instinct she possessed urged her to pack her things and go find her daughter. Thankfully, common sense prevailed. Neither Belle nor John would have any way to get through to Chefoo if the place was under attack. Belle knew that the best thing was to leave ten-year-old Kathryn in God’s hands and trust that the loyal staff of the CIM school in Chefoo would do its best to take care of her daughter, no matter what.
The following week John, who since James Fraser’s death had served as the head of CIM’s work in West Yunnan Province, left for a conference in Chungking. He planned to be gone from Oak Flat for three months. With Kathryn’s fate weighing on her mind and John away, Belle decided to hold a Bible school just for the Lisu women. On February 1, 1942, twenty-four women responded enthusiastically to the invitation to attend the school. One of the younger women who signed up for the Bible school was a blind girl named Sah-me-nyio. Belle had a few reservations about accepting her. An eye infection had robbed Sah-me-nyio of her eyesight, but before the girl became blind, she had been able to read and write. Now, however, she would have to have someone read aloud to her and write down the things she wanted to say.
As the month-long school began, Belle soon realized why Sah-me-nyio was known as the Blind Singing Girl of Deer Pool Village. Sah-me-nyio was one of the happiest Christians Belle had ever met, and one of the smartest too. Sah-me-nyio memorized large portions of the New Testament and passed all the tests near the top of the class. When the school was over, she asked Belle if she could be sent over the mountains to preach.
Belle did not know how to answer Sah-me-nyio’s request. She had never dreamed that a blind Lisu woman would want to scramble over mountains to share the gospel with other Lisu, but now one wanted to do just that. Belle eventually decided that if that was what Sah-me-nyio wanted to do, she should be allowed. But before such a preaching trip could be arranged, Sah-me-nyio became ill with typhoid fever, and it soon became obvious that she was dying from the disease. Belle burst into tears when she learned that the last thing Sah-me-nyio had told her family was, “Two things I know—that God loves us, that God is faithful. When I am gone, keep God’s honor high. Don’t complain. Go on believing. I shall wake up in the Land of Light.”
Toward the middle of March, Belle knew that she had to address another situation—her own health. Since Christmas, her tooth had been aching and had now reached an unbearable threshold of pain. No matter what she did, Belle could not get any relief from her throbbing tooth. Reluctantly she made plans to go to the nearest competent dentist, who was located in Kunming. The only things that cheered her about making the trip was the expectation of seeing Kathryn and David Harrison, John’s sister and brother-in-law, in Kunming. She also thought that she might meet up with John and together they could travel back home to Oak Flat.
The trip to Kunming proved to be more hair-raising that Belle could have imagined. There was the usual long trek from Oak Flat to Paoshan, where Belle met two pilots with the Flying Tigers, the popular name for the First American Volunteer Group. This was a group of American ex-military pilots who had volunteered to serve with the Chinese Air Force, flying fighter planes to defend against Japanese air attacks. Originally these pilots had been based in Burma, defending the Port of Rangoon and the Burma Road that ran all the way from there to Kunming, China, an important supply route for the Chinese. But when the Japanese finally captured Rangoon and more and more Burmese territory, the Flying Tigers had been ordered to relocate their base of operations to Paoshan. The two Flying Tigers pilots whom Belle had met were about to drive to Kunming, and they kindly offered to take Belle along with them for the ride. And what a ride it proved to be as they followed the Burma Road east toward Kunming!
The Burma Road had been completed three years before, but this was Belle’s first experience traveling on it. Belle had thought it would be easier to travel to Kunming by car or truck on the road rather than by foot, as she usually did, but her assumption proved to be wrong. As it descended from the mountains, the Burma Road looped back on itself like a contorted snake, and at almost every bend in the road Belle could look far down below and see the wreckage of some previous vehicle that had failed to negotiate the bend at the appropriate angle and speed. Because of the harrowing, steep hairpin bends, their progress was slow, and often hours would pass without their seeing another person traveling the road.
Then on the fourth day of traveling down the Burma Road, the car broke down. The two airmen knew little about Chinese culture and decided that under the circumstances the best thing for them to do was to pull over the next vehicle that passed by and force the driver to take them along with him, at gunpoint if necessary. Belle cringed at the idea and set about convincing the airmen to allow her to handle the negotiations with the driver. She felt nervous about doing this, mostly because she had not used her Chinese language skills for several years now.
Thankfully her fluency in Chinese did not have to be put to the test, as the first vehicle to come by was driven by a European who offered them a ride. Unfortunately the vehicle had no room for their luggage, and Belle had to leave her bed and clothing bundle in the car. The airmen said they would send someone back for it, but Belle knew she would never see it again.
By the time she arrived at the Harrisons’ house in Kunming, Belle was exhausted and felt quite sick. She nearly burst into tears when she learned that Kathryn and David were not in Kunming but were out in the countryside preaching. Fortunately Eva, a Chinese pastor’s daughter who was charged with taking care of the Harrisons’ home while they were gone, let Belle into the house and set about taking care of her.
