No sooner had Belle settled into this new routine than she was called out from class one day and told to go straight to the dean’s office. As she hurried along the polished wooden floor of the institute, Belle sensed a feeling of dread enveloping her.
Chapter 7
Not Recommended
Belle opened the heavy wooden door of the dean’s office with trembling hands. Inside she took one look at the dean’s face and knew that the matter was serious.
“I have a telegram here,” the dean said, seated behind her desk. “Please sit down, dear.” She gestured for Belle to sit in one of the leather chairs to the left of her desk.
“Please, read it to me,” Belle said as she sat down. “Tell me quickly. What has happened?”
The dean cleared her throat and spoke softly. “It says, ‘Father critically injured in elevator accident. Come home at once. Murray.’”
Belle sat in stunned silence—first her mother and now her father.
“Who is Murray?” the dean asked.
“My brother,” Belle said. “But I can’t stand it; my father too!” Tears began to flow down her cheeks. She did not want to cry in front of the dean, but she was powerless to help herself.
“Is there anyone you could call for help?” the dean inquired.
A memory suddenly flashed through Belle’s head of her walking along the beach at Oak Bay on Vancouver Island with James Fraser. She recalled James telling her what to do if she received a telegram with bad news about her mother while she was at Moody. Belle sat upright in the chair. This situation was happening almost exactly as James suggested it might, only with her father and not her mother. James’s words echoed in her mind: “If that should happen, you cannot leave as soon as you get the telegram…”
Belle felt a new resolve. God was with her in this situation, and He would see her through. “I would like you to contact Dr. Isaac Page and ask him to come. He will be able to help me,” she told the dean.
A half hour later, Dr. Page arrived at the dean’s office. “I took a taxi as soon as I heard, my dear,” he said. “What can I do for you?”
Belle explained what James had told her before she set out for Moody, and she asked Dr. Page to contact Charles Thomson of CIM in Vancouver to find out whether or not her father was critically injured. In the meantime, Belle would go back to her dorm and pack her trunk, though she would not leave for the train station until she heard back from Charles.
That evening before supper, Belle was called once again to the dean’s office. This time the awaiting telegram was more hopeful. “Father improving. Sends love and says stay at your post. Writing. Thomson.”
Waves of relief rolled over Belle as she read the telegram. It sounded as if her father was going to be all right. He was talking, and he had told Charles to tell Belle to stay put in Chicago. When she got back to her room, Belle sank to her knees on the floor beside her bed and thanked God for saving her father and for preventing her from making an unnecessary trip halfway across the North American continent.
A letter from Charles soon followed, telling Belle how her father had been four stories up in an elevator when the cable had slipped and the elevator car had crashed to the concrete floor in the basement. Belle’s father had been severely shaken and suffered some internal injuries, but everything was now stabilized, and he was expected to make a full recovery in time.
Belle was very relieved to get both that letter and another letter that followed soon afterward. This second letter was from Julia Whipple, who was in China with her husband. Otis Whipple was a well-known Seattle architect who had volunteered to design a missionary hospital in China. As she read the letter, Belle got an extraordinary boost to her faith. The letter was in response to a letter Belle had written to Julia about her mother’s death. Julia wrote to say that she had checked her prayer diary, and on the day Belle’s mother died she had been deeply burdened for Alice Miller. She had spent a long time praying for her, and at the end of the prayers she felt sure that Belle’s mother was at peace with God.
Tears filled Belle’s eyes as she read Julia’s words. And there was more. “But now as I write,” Julia continued, “I have another burden that presses upon me. It is for you and is somehow connected with your father. I am in much prayer for you, dear, and for him. I do not know what is happening, but God has called me today to intercede for you both and claim only His will to be done upon each of you.”
Belle looked at the date the letter was written—it was the same day that her father had the accident in the elevator. Chills ran up and down her spine. Julia had no way of knowing what was happening halfway around the world, unless, as Belle realized, God had spoken to her!
With the boost she received to her faith from receiving Julia’s letter, Belle threw herself into her studies with the certainty that God was able to work things out for her no matter how the circumstances appeared.
Belle’s father made a full recovery, but when he had recovered, he decided to quit his job and join Murray in investing through the buying and selling of stocks. It was 1925, and as her father pointed out in a letter to Belle, there was no way to lose—investing in stocks was the new way to get rich! To boost his moneymaking potential, Samuel Miller had sold the family home in Victoria and moved into a small bungalow in North Vancouver, putting the proceeds from the house sale into stock purchases.
Belle was appalled by this move. She knew that her mother was the one with the steady financial hand, and she had no idea that her father would take such financial risks now that her mother was gone. Still, remembering Julia’s letter and James’s prediction, Belle was able to continue concentrating on her studies and leave her father’s fate in God’s hands.
Belle finished her first year at Moody with high grades and spent the summer of 1925 in Toronto, Canada, with her aunt before returning to Chicago for her second year. Unfortunately, early in the year Belle became ill and had to cut back the number of classes she was taking. This meant that she would have to take an extra four months of study to graduate.
Nonetheless, Belle was feeling well enough to be one of eight Moody students to attend the Foreign Missions Convention being held in Washington, D.C., in February 1926. She did not have any extra money to pay for the conference on her own, but an anonymous donor paid Belle’s conference fees and travel expenses to and from Washington, D.C., and even gave Belle twenty dollars to spend on herself.
Belle had a wonderful time at the Foreign Missions Convention. The group was hosted at an event at the White House, where Belle got to meet President Calvin Coolidge. Belle also toured George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon and heard many inspiring missionaries from around the world speak during the conference sessions.
Perhaps best of all, Belle got to spend time with the blue-eyed dishwasher whose gaze she had caught back at Moody several months before. His name was John Kuhn, and he was one of the other conference delegates from Moody Bible Institute. In the week they were together at the conference, Belle got to know John. She was drawn to his steady, quiet ways and how he intelligently thought through situations.
Once they returned to Chicago, Belle agreed to double-date John, along with John’s best friend Francis Fitzwilliam and Belle’s friend Jenny. The four of them spent many happy Sunday afternoons picnicking and talking. Their talk often turned serious. Belle told John that she was one hundred percent committed to going to China to reach the Lisu people, while John told her that he felt a more general call to serve in China.
Because Belle lagged behind a semester as a result of her illness, John graduated before her and entered China Inland Mission’s candidate school in Toronto. But before they parted, he and Belle promised to write to each other, though Belle made it clear that she was not prepared to make any greater commitment than that. Her calling to the Lisu people in China came first in her life.
Belle completed all her required studies and graduated from Moody in December 1926. She was elected to be the female class speaker, and her father, full of excitement about his latest stock tips, came to Chicago for the graduation ceremony.
After graduation, Belle went straight to China Inland Mission’s candidate school in Toronto. By then, John and his sister Kathryn had already left for China, leaving Belle the only missionary candidate at the school at the time. The Reverend Brownlee and his wife ran the candidate school. At the same time that Belle was there, Mr. Seaman, a missionary on furlough, was staying in the CIM house in Toronto. Belle began taking basic Chinese language lessons from Mr. Seaman and participated in daily Bible study with Mr. and Mrs. Brownlee. Meanwhile, the references Belle had supplied on her application to serve with China Inland Mission were being meticulously checked out. As well, Belle had to undergo a physical examination, which she passed.
Belle had been in Toronto a month when it was finally her time to go before the CIM council for eastern Canada to learn whether she was a suitable missionary candidate for the organization. She was nervous about her appearance before the council. She had no idea what questions council members might ask her, and she preferred to have time to think about her answers rather than have to answer the questions right away. Everything seemed to go well: the council was impressed with Belle’s grades and the subjects Belle had chosen to study at Moody. The council members asked Belle some questions about language study and then asked her to leave the room.
Belle’s heart beat wildly as she waited outside while the council members discussed her candidacy. As she waited, she thought over her answers to the questions she had been asked. She was relieved that she had not made any mistakes during the interview.
Finally Mr. Brownlee called Belle back into the room and began a stern summation of the council’s deliberations. “The council is very satisfied with the answers you have given, and you have been a wonderful addition to us here at CIM in Toronto. However, we do have one serious issue to raise with you. We checked all of your references, and one of the people replying to our inquiry indicated that they could not recommend you for a post with us.”
Belle looked blankly from one council member’s face to the next, hardly able to take in what she was hearing. Did this mean that she would be rejected from serving with the mission?
Mr. Brownlee continued. “The person in question said that you are proud, disobedient, and most likely to turn into a troublemaker. This person has known you a long time, and we don’t feel like we can totally ignore the person’s input.”
“Who was it?” Belle asked, her throat dry and raspy.
“We cannot tell you,” Mr. Brownlee replied. “We never say who said what, because we want our referees to feel free to be completely honest. But I feel I need to point out to you how difficult the forenamed qualities would make your life and the lives of others around you on the mission field.”
Belle dropped her head in dismay as Mr. Brownlee spent the next hour lecturing her on cases of missionaries who had caused problems overseas. By the end of his lecture, she was nearly in tears. However, Mr. Brownlee finished off what he had to say with the words, “I am not sure how much you know about this, but there is an antiforeigner uprising in China at the moment, and we have just received word to suspend all new missionary operations. So we would not be sending you to China anyway. Instead, we recommend that you go back to Vancouver and wait for China to open up again. In the meantime, we will be watching to see if you exhibit any of the traits mentioned in the letter. If you prove to us that you have conquered these traits, the Western Council of CIM will approve you and send you out with the first party of missionaries when the situation in China resolves itself. We are confident that you can have the victory here, and we have voted to pay your train fare home as the first leg of your trip to China. How does that sound?”
