Belle slept for a couple of days after arriving in Vancouver. Then she set out on the next leg of her journey, with only one aim in mind—to be reunited with her daughter. Kathryn was now a nineteen-year-old junior at Wheaton College outside Chicago, and Belle arrived just after Kathryn had completed her final exams for the year. What a wonderful reunion the three of them had.
Belle was surprised to learn that many old friends were also staying in the Wheaton area. When she had been a student at Moody Bible Institute in the mid-1920s, Belle had two close friends there, Jenny Kingston and Ella Dieken. Both of them had also felt the missionary call to China, and they too had married missionary husbands and served in China. But now both their husbands were dead, Jenny’s from contracting typhoid fever in China and Ella’s husband having died while home on furlough. This caused Belle to pray fervently for John’s safety, wherever he was right then.
After spending time together and renewing acquaintances, the three friends decided to pool their money and buy a large house in Wheaton. The place had three floors, and each woman set up home on one of the floors. Belle, Danny, and Kathryn took the second floor, where Belle had room to set up a small office. Belle loved the peaceful, genteel life of the Midwestern United States, and slowly her nerves began to unwind from the tension she had been living under for the past few years in China.
Before long, though, Belle was thinking of ways to help the Lisu. Her heart ached at the probability of never seeing them again, but she still wanted to find ways to aid them. Soon her fingers were tapping away on the keys of her typewriter as she began work on another book. Stones of Fire, as the book was titled, recounted her time living with the Lisu. Fortunately, before things had gotten out of control in China, Belle had shipped home her collection of prayer letters and journals, from which she drew source material for her new book. The book, along with her previous two books, Precious Things of the Lasting Hills and Nests Above the Abyss, put her in demand as a speaker. Wherever she spoke, Belle used the opportunity to share her burden for the Lisu people.
Belle had been home for over two months before a letter from John arrived. In it John explained that he had been ordered out of China, which involved making a long trek to the coast and then south to Hong Kong. But he was safe. Belle had to wipe the tears from her eyes before she read on. John explained that he would not be returning to the United States for a while. He had agreed to undertake a survey for CIM of the tribal people of northern Thailand, and then he would be attending a planning conference in England. Since every foreign missionary had now been expelled from China, China Inland Mission had a lot of rethinking and planning to do.
Belle was not altogether shocked when John’s next letter home gushed with enthusiasm about the possibilities of working in Thailand. In part the letter read,
Moreover Belle, we can use the Chinese language in reaching almost all the Thailand tribes. I always found someone who understood me. And Orville Carlson and I were even able to point some souls to the Lord in the short time I was there. The government is friendly. The tribes are approachable. The field is before us. The time may be short.
After reading the letter, Belle sank down onto the couch and let out a weary sigh. She was fifty years old; surely John could see that they were too old for a new posting. Belle tallied up some of the obstacles that stood in their way: learning a new language, understanding a different culture, and, worst of all, leaving behind Kathryn and Danny. Belle quickly wrote a letter back to her husband, saying, “Please do not offer for the new fields until you get home and we can discuss everything together.”
John arrived home six months later full of news about the changes in CIM. For one thing, the organization had a new name, Overseas Missionary Fellowship, OMF for short. The name change reflected the fact that the missionaries would now be working in other areas of Asia, since China had receded behind a Communist “Bamboo Curtain.” John explained to Belle how new goals had been set to reach the Chinese and native peoples of Malaya, Burma, and Thailand, three countries that bordered China. At the conference in England, John’s name had been put forward to be the new OMF superintendent in Thailand.
Belle could not help but notice how John’s eyes shined as he talked about the new opportunities. She found herself thinking back to a quotation from a book by Amy Carmichael she had recently read. In the book Amy had likened the Christian journey to a trek up a hillside, something Belle could easily relate to. Amy had also said that there are times when people have to keep climbing, because if they stay in one place, they will die.
“Climb or die.” Belle could not get the words out of her mind. Somewhere deep inside she knew that she had to take on this new missionary challenge or her spiritual life would wither. She shared her insight with John, and together the two of them began making plans to return to Asia as missionaries.
Since the old CIM school at Chefoo had been disbanded, John and Belle had no option but to leave Danny behind with friends in Portland, Oregon, to attend school. Kathryn moved there as well to begin advanced training at Multnomah School of the Bible. When both children were settled, John and Belle set out for Thailand.
On October 8, 1952, the couple were riding the train north from Bangkok, Thailand, headed for the hill country along the Thai border with China and Burma. As they rode along, Belle was struck with how green and fertile everything looked and how many meandering rivers and streams they crossed. How different this landscape was from the rugged mountains of western China with their steep canyons and raging rivers.
The train trip terminated in the city of Chiang-mai at the end of the railway line, where John and Belle set up the new OMF headquarters. Belle soon found that some aspect of hospitality took up most of her time. She ran an eight-bedroom guesthouse for OMF missionaries working with the tribal people of northern Thailand. Among these tribal people were about five thousand Lisu, and Belle questioned visitors to the guesthouse for news of the people she loved.
Once things were running smoothly at the new guesthouse, Belle began to feel a longing to get back to some pioneering mission work. Missionaries from six other mission groups worked throughout the mountain areas, but none of them was involved in reaching the Lisu villages far up in the mountains. When Belle learned this, her heart raced, and she began praying about the possibility of going to the villages herself.
Belle’s opportunity to focus more closely on the Lisu came when a couple arrived to take over running the OMF guesthouse. With no more hospitality responsibilities, Belle accompanied John on trips up into the mountains. On one of these trips she had her first contact with a Lisu village. The Lisu of Thailand spoke a slightly different dialect from the Lisu in China, but Belle was still able to make herself understood. The Lisu, of course, were amazed to find a white woman who could speak their language.
Belle and another young missionary woman, Edna McLaren, then decided to make another trip to the Lisu village, which was named Ta-Mgo. Since the Lisu of northern Thailand had never before heard the gospel, the two missionaries set about sharing it with anyone willing to listen. Belle had to admit, it was not easy at first. The Lisu people would listen to what she had to say, but they were unwilling to commit to it. And then, finally, one old Lisu man announced that he wanted to become a Christian. Because the man’s family name translated to Wood in English, Belle took to calling the man Father Wood.
Father Wood and his wife, Wu-be, were both opium addicts. Also, Father Wood was crippled with arthritis, and his wife suffered from beriberi. Yet their conversion was real. Much to the shock and surprise of the other Lisu, who continued to hold fast to the Lisu belief in appeasing demons, Father Wood ordered the altar to demons taken out of his house and burned. Most likely, Belle reasoned, the Lisu were waiting for demons to descend on Father Wood and destroy him for his action. When that did not happen, they began to take note and be more open to this new religion. They especially paid attention when Belle and Edna began giving Father Wood some medication to relieve the pain and symptoms of his arthritis, and he was able to get up and walk around once more.
Whenever she could, Belle made more trips to the Lisu villages of northern Thailand. She was delighted when younger missionaries moved into the Lisu areas to continue the work of evangelization among them.
Belle was saddened to learn a year later that Father Wood had died suddenly. His son told her that he had woken up one morning in intense pain and told his wife, “Today I am going home to God.” A short while afterward, he died. Unfortunately, after Father Wood’s death, persecution followed for his family. The headman of the village forbade anyone to help with the burial, fearing reprisals from demons, and Father Wood’s wife and children were left to dig his grave and bury him and grieve alone. Soon afterward the family was driven from the village. Wu-be remained strong in her faith, however, and thanks to the efforts of Gospel Recordings, who had recorded Father Wood sharing about Jesus and the gospel, his strong voice continued to be heard by the Lisu throughout the mountains of northern Thailand.
Chapter 18
“There Is No Gloom in Our Hearts”
At the time of Father Wood’s death, Belle did not know it, but she herself was ill with breast cancer. She first noticed signs of the cancer in 1953, but a doctor did not confirm the diagnosis until October 1954. Belle took a deep breath when she heard the news. At fifty-three years of age, she had one last journey to take with God, and this one was going to be her toughest yet.
An excellent surgeon was located in Chiang-mai. He performed surgery on Belle, after which she returned to the United States for radiation treatment. Belle urged John to stay on in Thailand and continue his work while they waited to learn whether the radiation treatment would help Belle, or whether he needed to fly home to be by her side.
The radiation treatment was carried out at a hospital in Philadelphia. It was successful to a point, but the doctors told Belle that her cancer would eventually spread throughout her body and kill her. No one, though, could predict how long this might take.
As soon as Belle was feeling strong enough, she moved back into her second-floor apartment in Wheaton, Illinois. Danny, who was now eleven years old, joined her there and started attending a nearby school. Kathryn, who had completed her degree at Multnomah School of the Bible, also came to stay with her.
As always, Belle looked for ways to serve the Lisu people, and she decided that more books should be written about them. She got out her collection of prayer letters, her journal, and her typewriter and set to work. The words flowed, and soon Belle had composed Ascent to the Tribes, about OMF’s work in northern Thailand; Green Leaf in Drought, the story of the last two missionaries out of China; and By Searching and In the Arena, collections of stories from her own life.
Belle also continued to write prayer letters that were widely distributed. It was hard for her to tell those who read the prayer letters that she had cancer, but she knew that she had to. In one of the letters she wrote, “John and I are anxious that this news should not cast a gloom over you. There is no gloom in our hearts; there is no gloom in His heart as He watches over me—why should there be in yours? Look up for His direction in praying for me; that is all.”
In February 1955, Kathryn Kuhn was accepted to be a missionary with OMF. Belle braced herself when she heard the news that Kathryn had been posted to northern Thailand. She knew that if she asked her daughter to postpone setting out for Thailand, she would. But then Belle thought back to her own mother and how she had tried to stop her from following God’s call to the mission field. No, Belle told herself. Even if I am dying, I will not stand in God’s way. My daughter has been called to serve, and I must let her go.
