The group traveled south from Tali in a military truck until they came to the Burma Road and then headed west along the road toward Paoshan. Their trip was delayed when the soldier driving the truck struck a large rock in the road, making the vehicle undrivable. They had to camp out in the road until another truck could come from Paoshan and pick them up.
When they got to Paoshan, Belle was shocked. The town had been a thriving market center for the region, always bustling with people. But Japanese bombing had destroyed much of the town, and many of the town’s residents had fled.
In Paoshan, John and Belle bought flour and sugar and other food staples to take back with them to Oak Flat, while Colonel Hsie procured horses for the trip up the Salween River Valley. Soon Colonel Hsie, John, Belle, Eva, and a group of soldiers were mounted up and on their way. The trip up the valley was much slower than John and Belle were used to, but eventually, at the end of August, they arrived back at Oak Flat.
As Belle excitedly opened the door to her house, she realized that six months had passed since she had left the village to have her toothache attended to in Kunming. How things had changed in that time! Kathryn was now in a Japanese internment camp, John had risked his life numerous times, and she had been halfway across China to northern Szechwan Province and back. As she shut the door behind her, Belle wondered what might happen next.
Chapter 16
Windwords
Belle read the powerful words in her Bible: “There will be wars and rumors of wars.” How right that is, she thought. The Lisu had a word for rumors—windwords. Belle could see firsthand just how destructive these words—carried on the wind by no one in particular—were. Even the Lisu Christians, who were glad to have John and Belle back with them after six months, seemed paralyzed by rumors of war. One day they heard that some soldiers in unfamiliar uniforms had been spotted just beyond the northern village of Cow’s Hump. Many of the Lisu, assuming that they were Japanese soldiers, fled into the mountains, only to discover that they were actually Chinese soldiers dressed in unfamiliar uniforms. Belle sighed when she saw the people’s reaction. If they jumped like that at every windword, they would all go mad!
Since John was away so much after their return to Oak Flat advising Colonel Hsie and visiting outlying churches, Belle decided that it was up to her to set an example of Christian strength. She determined that things at the church at Oak Flat should proceed as usual. The Christmas and Easter festivals would be celebrated and the Rainy Season Bible School would continue, though starting in January rather than with the onset of the rainy season. The change in start date for the RSBS allowed Belle to embark on a new project—a Bible school for teenage boys. She wrote the curriculum for the school and some new songs, which she thought would appeal to the young students.
During the RSBS, Japanese fighter planes began flying over the mountains of Lisuland. The Lisu, who had never seen airplanes before, were puzzled by them and referred to the airplanes as a thousand purring tigers with wings that did not flap. When Belle told them that they actually had people inside them, they started calling them flying houses.
On the day that the Bible school for teenagers opened, March 6, 1943, new windwords swirled throughout the community: the Japanese were nearby at Six Treasures, just a day’s journey away, and had destroyed the boats that ferried travelers across the Salween River. To Belle the reports were just rumors, and she refused to call off the school. Despite the windwords, seventy-six boys arrived for the Bible school. Belle could scarcely believe the number of boys who had shown up, and the thought of overseeing so many boys exhausted her. And she knew why. At the age of forty-one, she was shocked to learn that she was pregnant and expecting a baby in the summer.
Despite the pregnancy, and with the able help of her new assistant Eva, Belle gave herself wholeheartedly to teaching the boys. She knew that it might be their last chance to receive solid Christian teaching. If the Japanese continued to advance into Lisu territory, many of the boys would most likely be captured or killed in the ensuing fighting.
The school ran for a month, and at the end of it many of the boys had committed their lives to spreading the gospel throughout Lisuland, no matter what the cost. One of these boys was Chi-lee, the lone Christian from a remote area called the Heathen Patch. Belle took a special interest in him, and she was excited to see how seriously he studied. Chi-Lee did not know how to read or write at the beginning of the school, and he still had a long way to go at the end of it. Sensing that Chi-lee had a sincere heart, Belle invited him to return in August, when she planned to hold another Bible school for the boys.
The spring passed quickly, and Belle was glad when a missionary nurse from Tali agreed to come and stay with her at Oak Flat until the baby was born. On August 1, 1943, Daniel Kuhn entered the world. His head was covered with downy red hair, and his skin was pearly white. The Lisu stared in wonder at the newborn; they had never seen anything like him before. Both John and Belle were delighted with their new son, though Belle could not help wondering what the future held for him. And she wished with all her heart that she had some way of telling Kathryn that she had a little brother.
August rolled on, and a new Bible school for boys began. To Belle’s surprise, however, Chi-lee did not arrive for it. She had been sure that he would come back. Then she learned the terrible truth of what had happened to Chi-lee. He had gone home to the Heathen Patch as planned at the end of the first school and began preaching the gospel. At first his neighbors just jeered at him. Then they beat him. Then they burned down his house and drove him out into the mountains, where Chi-lee built himself a shelter from pine branches in which to live. Soon afterward he contracted malaria and died from the disease. It was a bitter blow for Belle, but she consoled herself with the thought that Chi-lee was now in heaven with Me-do-me-pa and Homay and so many other faithful Lisu Christians.
The strain of living under the constant threat of Japanese invasion continued, and hundreds of Chinese troops were deployed into the area. This carried with it its own set of problems, as the Lisu were ordered to feed and house the Chinese troops. And because the Christians in the villages were the most reliable members of the community, the burden of doing this fell unfairly on them. Yet their joyfulness, even under pressure, heartened Belle.
The Chinese also stopped much of the travel in the area. The Lisu now needed a special permit to cross the Salween River, making it a time-consuming task to get everyone to the various programs being held at Oak Flat. Still, Belle pressed on. John was gone much of the time fulfilling his duties as an adviser to Colonel Hsie and overseeing the work of CIM in western Yunnan Province. In his absence, Belle decided to hold a Bible school for girls in February 1944 and followed it with another school for the boys.
Given the tense situation in the Salween River Valley, no supplies had made it to Oak Flat in months. As a result, the students attending the Bible schools had no pencils or paper to use. Belle prayed about the situation, and the answer to her prayer dropped from the sky—literally. Five American soldiers parachuted into the Salween River Valley and found their way to Oak Flat. The soldiers were on a secret mission, which they said they could tell Belle nothing about. Nonetheless, Belle took them in and gave them all a hearty meal. When they left Oak Flat, the five Americans inquired whether there was anything they could do for her. Belle asked if they might be able to find some stationery for the students, and within days a special delivery of paper, pencils, pens, and ink arrived at Oak Flat.
In the fall, Belle received the best news possible. Kathryn was in the United States! The Japanese had repatriated her and many of the other CIM children to their home countries. With the news, Belle felt a great weight lift off her, and she thanked God that it was only a few months now before she, John, and baby Danny would be headed home on furlough themselves. By Christmas, God willing, the Kuhn family would once again all be together.
The thought of soon being reunited with Kathryn spurred Belle on. Since China was now closed to new and returning missionaries, Belle was unsure whether she would ever get back to Lisu territory after furlough. She used every ounce of her effort to make sure that she taught and reached out to as many people as possible before she left Oak Flat.
In October 1944 it was time for the family to leave. The trip home with a one-year-old was more grueling than Belle could have imagined. The family traveled out of the mountains to Kunming and then boarded an airplane that flew them over the Himalayas to India, where they boarded a troop ship carrying refugees to the United States. The trip across the Indian Ocean and then the Pacific took thirty-six days. Unlike the relaxed voyages Belle had previously made to and from China, this voyage was harrowing. The troop ship was crammed with people, the captain forbade anyone to go above deck, Danny cried from colic most of the way, and the men were separated from the women and children. Belle saw John for only two hours a day. By the time the ship docked in Southern California, Belle and John were completely exhausted. But Belle’s spirits were soon revived when she got to speak to Kathryn by telephone. Kathryn was staying with friends in Pennsylvania, and Belle started counting down the days until they were reunited once again.
Danny’s colic was no better on the train trip across the United States, but Belle’s thoughts were not on her son’s constant crying but on seeing her now thirteen-year-old daughter again. When Belle finally got into Pennsylvania, mother and daughter wrapped their arms around each other in a long embrace. Belle was impressed with the lovely young woman Kathryn was becoming. Kathryn loved her new brother Danny and was a great help to Belle in entertaining him. Still, staying in other people’s homes with a toddler was exhausting for Belle, who longed for a home of her own with a fenced yard where Danny could explore to his heart’s content.
And that is what she got. The two thousand dollars’ worth of shares that she and John had decided not to sell from John’s inheritance from his father had grown in value to six thousand dollars. John and Belle cashed in the shares and used the money to buy a small house in Dallas, where John had been studying at Dallas Theological Seminary between itinerating trips for CIM around the United States.
Of course, Belle, being who she was, had to do something to help the Lisu people, even if she was thousands of miles away. While Danny took naps during the day, she got out her typewriter and began writing another book, which she entitled Nests Above the Abyss. The book told the stories of many of the brave Lisu Christians whom she had known. As she wrote, tears streamed down her cheeks, and memories of Homay, Me-do-me-pa, and Chi-lee flooded back to her. Belle tried hard to capture on paper the courageous spirits of these special people.
On August 6, 1945, John and Belle learned on the radio that the United States had dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later they learned that a second atomic bomb had been dropped, this time on Nagasaki. They waited to see how Japan would respond to the bombing and were relieved when, on August 15, Japan announced its surrender to the Allies. World War II had finally come to an end. Belle breathed a sigh of relief; she would get to see Lisuland once again.
With the surrender of Japan, things moved swiftly for John and Belle. China was once again open to missionaries, and China Inland Mission asked its area superintendents, including John, to return to China immediately, a year ahead of the rest of their families. In January 1946, John kissed Belle and his children good-bye and set sail for China.
