Idly she reached under the cushion of the chair she was seated on at the table and pulled out two magazines she discovered there. As she set them on the table, something caught her eye on a page of one of the magazines. “Dr. and Mrs. Isaac Page have been transferred to the Chicago area. If anyone wishes to communicate with them, their address is…”
Belle sat bolt upright in astonishment. The Pages were long-time friends of her parents. As he and his wife were leaving Vancouver by ship to return to their mission work in China, Dr. Page had rankled Belle by declaring that he would pray for her to be called to China as a missionary. And now, nine years later, the Pages were living in Chicago.
As soon as she could, Belle left the house, a letter of resignation from her teaching job in Vancouver in one hand and a draft of a telegram to Dr. Page in the other. The telegram read, “Is it possible to work one’s way through Moody Bible Institute? Please wire collect. Isobel Miller.”
Before nightfall, Belle had an answer. “Yes, indeed. The institute even has an employment bureau to help you find appropriate work. Hoping to see you soon. Isaac Page,” was the message Belle received by return telegraph.
The following day James and Belle walked together beside the bay. Belle was grateful to have someone to unburden her heart to. She told James all about her mother’s opposition to her being a missionary and how her mother had changed her mind about letting her go to Moody.
“She may well change it back again,” James cautioned as seagulls wheeled above their heads. He looked up and then spoke softly, almost as if he was thinking aloud to himself. “In fact, I wonder whether you will ever get to China. You are very young, and you have so many obstacles ahead of you.” After a pause he continued. “It’s even conceivable that after you get to Bible school, Satan will try to tempt you from your path. For example, a telegram might come telling you your mother is very ill and asking you to come home right away. Now”—he turned to look at Belle, his blue eyes bright—“if that should happen, you cannot leave as soon as you get the telegram. Is there some Christian here that you could trust to check on the situation and advise you on the seriousness of the illness?”
Belle had to think for a moment. The strangeness of the request had caught her off guard. “Why, yes, I would trust Charles Thomson of China Inland Mission.”
“Right! If you get such a telegram, wire Mr. Thomson and ask his opinion before you leave Chicago,” James said.
“I can do that,” Belle said, wondering where he had come up with such a strange notion.
On the one hand, Belle was happy that James was convinced she would make it to Moody Bible Institute. But on the other hand, it did not sound as though he thought her troubles were over yet.
Sure enough, the next month proved one of the most difficult ever for Belle. Within days her mother was back to her weeping fits, claiming that if Belle loved her she would not leave Victoria, especially not now. Belle could see her point; the family was in disarray. Her brother Murray was not making money chicken farming, and he seemed unable to stick to any other work. And her father had a malpractice lawsuit pending against him. The suit was based on lies, but if it succeeded in court, the Miller family’s meager savings would be wiped out, and Samuel Miller could spend up to ten years in jail. Such an outcome would leave Belle as the sole breadwinner for the family.
Against this background it was a daunting task for Belle to continue preparing for Moody, and she was glad of small signs of God’s blessings along the way. James Fraser gave her some money toward her expenses and promised to pray regularly for her. Marjorie Harrison sent the train ticket for Belle to get to Chicago, and Isaac Page wrote to say that he would be waiting at the station to meet Belle when she arrived.
Finally, departure day arrived for Belle. It was a day she would never forget. The ferryboat to Seattle was to leave Victoria at two thirty in the afternoon, and that morning Samuel Miller was to make his final appearance in court to hear the verdict in his malpractice trial. Belle dared not think about what she would do if the verdict went against her father and he was led away from court in handcuffs. She sent her trunk ahead to the ferry dock and waited by the telephone to hear from her father. At 10:30 AM the phone rang. Belle picked up the receiver and heard the clear and strong voice of her father on the other end of the line say, “Praise God! Fully acquitted.”
Belle heaved a huge sigh of relief. She would not be deserting her family in their most desperate time of need after all. The Millers gathered at the ferry dock and said their good-byes before Belle boarded the ferry. As she glanced back from the gangway, Belle saw her mother on the dock sobbing into a handkerchief. Belle smiled courageously and waved. Whatever lay ahead, she had set her course, and now she was on her way.
In Seattle, Belle caught the train to Chicago, and on September 3, four days after setting out from Victoria, she finally arrived at Moody Bible Institute, just in time to begin classes. In 1886 evangelist Dwight L. Moody had founded the Bible institute that bore his name. The school’s campus was located in downtown Chicago, a large, bustling city, far bigger than Victoria or even Vancouver.
Belle had a lot to do during the first week of school. She signed up for classes in comparative religion, the history of missions, singing and conducting groups, and preaching. During her first year Belle shared a room with another young, former schoolteacher, Lillian Billington, whom she had met at The Firs. The two of them soon became good friends.
Belle soon learned, however, that she could not look for a job. She had been unaware that during their first semester at Moody, students were not allowed to work outside the institute. Her heart sank when she learned this, as Belle knew that she did not have enough spending money to make it through the year. Winter was on its way, and Belle needed warmer clothes to withstand the bone-chilling arctic wind she was told regularly swept through Chicago from Lake Michigan. Faced with this situation, she decided the best thing to do was pray about the matter, and pray she did.
Within days of her praying, Isaac Page paid Belle a visit. “Put on your hat and coat, Isobel,” he instructed. “I’m taking you around the corner to introduce you to someone.”
Belle obeyed, assuming that Dr. Page wanted her to meet some missionary friend of his. Instead the doctor marched Belle into a bank and introduced her to the manager.
“Just put your signature here, Miss Miller,” the bank manager said, handing Belle a pen, “and then you will be set.”
Belle signed the official-looking paper, after which the bank manager handed her a blue bankbook.
“There’s one hundred dollars in the account to get you started,” Dr. Page said with a smile.
Belle was speechless. One hundred dollars was a lot of money. If she managed it carefully, the money would carry her a long way.
After thanking Dr. Page profusely, Belle returned to her studies, her worries taken care of, or so she thought.
It was only a few weeks later that Belle received a startling letter from her mother. Apparently her mother had just learned that she had cancer and had not yet decided whether she would have an operation to remove the tumor or undergo radiology treatments. Belle was stunned. Her mother was only in her mid-fifties and had seemed fit and well when she left her at the dockside back in Victoria. Belle read her mother’s letter five or six times, hoping to find some more information in it. What kind of cancer did she have? How far had it spread? And what was her prognosis?
After receiving the letter, part of Belle wanted to flee back to Victoria and find the answers to her questions, but she contented herself knowing that her father would make sure her mother got the best possible medical treatment. She waited anxiously for the next letter to arrive, telling her more of her mother’s illness.
It was not a letter, however, but a telegram that arrived next. The telegram bore terrible news from her father. Alice Miller had chosen to have surgery to remove the cancerous tumor from her body but had died on the operating table while undergoing surgery. In the telegram Belle’s father urged her to stay at school, since she could not make it home to Victoria in time for the funeral anyway.
After receiving the telegram Belle locked herself in her room and wept bitterly. Her mother’s words “You will go to the mission field over my dead body” kept playing in her mind. And now her mother was dead. Belle wondered whether she had made the right decision to leave her mother and come to Chicago, so far away from home. If she had chosen to teach another year in Vancouver, she would most likely have been able to be with her mother to the end. Her questions were unanswerable, and Belle could find no peace.
Belle prayed about the situation, and soon afterward she received an unexpected letter from one of her mother’s friends. The woman told Belle that her mother had written to her the night before her operation. In this letter Alice had confessed to her friend that she had done a lot of what she called “busy work” for the Lord but that deep down she knew that Isobel was doing the right thing devoting her whole life to God. She confided in her friend that if she lived through the cancer, she would try to follow Belle’s example of sacrifice. This letter made Belle feel much better. How wonderful it was to know that her mother had understood her calling to missions and approved of it before her death.
At dinner one night not long after learning of her mother’s death, Belle waited in line to be served food to take back to those sitting at her table in the cafeteria. As she waited for the bell to sound that would signal it was time to start serving food, Belle found herself daydreaming about the events of the past several weeks and looking ahead to what China would be like. When the bell finally did sound, it brought Belle’s wandering mind back to the cafeteria with a start. As she looked up, Belle found herself staring into the bright blue eyes of the young man operating the dishwashing machine. Why, she asked herself, hadn’t she noticed him before? Her eyes locked momentarily with his. It was as if electricity surged through her. Belle did not know the young man’s name or anything about him, but in her heart she was sure that a bond had been forged between them in that brief glance.
Belle spent a quiet Christmas at Moody. The institute drew students from all over North America, as it had the best missions program available. Like Belle, because of distance, many of those students were unable go home for Christmas. Belle joined in some of the Christmas carol singing and testimony evenings at Moody over the Christmas break, but she worried about her father and brother home alone for Christmas.
Nineteen twenty-five finally arrived, and now that she was in her second semester at Moody, Belle wasted no time in getting herself a job. It was definitely not her dream job, but it was a job nonetheless. For two hours each day Belle worked as a waitress in the staff cafeteria of a nearby Montgomery Ward department store. She served employees their meals and cleared the dishes away when they were done. Many of the full-time waitresses in the cafeteria were large, strapping women who boasted of being able to carry five or more complete dinners on a tray at once and balancing the tray while they served the meals. But the best Belle could manage was two dinners at a time on her tray. Still, she stuck at the job. She needed the money, and over time she was accepted by the other waitresses and cooks in the kitchen as part of the team.
With the start of a new semester, Belle also made a fresh commitment to pray regularly throughout the remainder of her time at Moody Bible Institute. Until now, she had sometimes become too busy attending classes and doing assignments to fit in an hour of prayer a day, but now she decided that prayer had to be a priority. It was hard to imagine how she would do it, since her roommate liked to sleep in until breakfast, but finally Belle worked out a plan. She awoke at five thirty each morning and crept out of bed and down the hall to the mop cupboard. She slipped inside the cupboard, turned a scrubbing bucket upside down, and sat on it. There she sat each morning with the mops dangling above her and the cleaning rags stacked beside her, praying for herself, her college friends, and the work she would do among the Lisu people in China.
