9. A Naive Missionary Bride
Chapter 9
A Naive Missionary Bride
It took a whole day for Belle and John to make the trip from Kunming to Chengchiang. Belle was so exhausted by the time they arrived that she went straight to bed. The next day John showed her around Chengchiang. A large wall with two enormous wooden gates surrounded the town. “The gates close each evening at 6:00 PM, and a watchman keeps guard throughout the night,” John told Belle.
After the tour of Chengchiang, Belle set to work turning their living quarters into a home. She and John shared two upstairs rooms in a house on a market street. In two smaller rooms downstairs lived Yin-chang and his new bride, who served as cook and housekeeper for John and Belle. Before long Belle had the two upstairs rooms repainted, she laid new rugs on the floor, and a new bamboo sofa and chairs adorned the front room. In one corner of the front room Belle placed her trunk, which she covered with a green and crimson travel rug. In the other corner of the room was John’s desk, which doubled as their dining table. Their bed in the second room consisted of a mattress set on planks supported by two trestles, over which Belle spread her new blue and white quilt. Before long Belle had transformed their rooms from the sparsely furnished bachelor apartment it had been into a cozy home the two of them could enjoy.
One day, soon after their new home had been arranged and decorated, John called up from outside the house. “Visitors, Belle,” he said.
Belle looked around and smiled. Everything was as perfect as it could be. The new bamboo couch and chairs contrasted nicely with the brown rug, and the quilt covering the bed hid the variety of boxes that were stuffed underneath it. Belle was excited. She had been in Chengchiang for two weeks now, and these were her first visitors. They were local Muslim women and their children whom Belle had met while out walking. “Welcome,” Belle said in her best Chinese as they reached the top of the stairs, and then she beckoned for them to come in and sit down.
John followed the women upstairs, walked over, and pushed open the folding doors to give them some light in the room. Belle bristled a little as he did so. The upstairs rooms had no windows, only folding doors on two sides of each room that could be pushed open to let in the sunlight. The only problem was that when the doors were pushed open, they exposed to the street below everything going on inside the room. As a result, Belle found herself caught between wanting light and heat from the sun to stream into their rooms and wanting privacy from the people in the street below who stopped to stare up and see what the foreign missionaries were doing. This made Belle feel like an exhibit in a zoo.
Putting her irritation aside, Belle poured the visiting women cups of newly made green tea and spoke with them in her halting Chinese. The women paid attention to what Belle said and seemed to be able to understand most of it. Belle relaxed. Finally she felt as though she was getting somewhere with the missionary business.
Then, as Belle continued to talk, an older woman sitting on the trunk in the corner blew her nose loudly into her hand and then proceeded to wipe the slimy mess onto the travel rug that covered the trunk. Belle set a smile on her face to cover the revulsion she felt at the woman’s action. Then one of the young mothers in the group held her bare-bottomed baby boy over the rug and laughed and nodded as he urinated on it.
Inside Belle wanted to scream, “Get out, all of you, now!” But she held her tongue and continued with the visit, even though her heart was no longer in it.
When the visiting women finally left, Belle surveyed the damage. The travel rug would have to be washed and the floor covering rinsed off and dried in the sun. However, Belle wondered just how many more times this could be done before the coverings were ruined. And then the words of Mr. Hoste came back to her. “You know, Belle, if I had a beautiful quilt, I would throw it in the river.”
Glumly Belle realized that she knew what the general director had meant. If she was going to protect her beautiful things from destruction, she was going to have to scold the Chinese people who came into her home or ask them not to come at all. How could she scold them when they were only doing what they did in their own mud huts? No, she sighed, it was not the Chinese people that needed to change; she was the one who had to change. Did she want a home that was open to all visitors or one where guests felt strange and out of their depth?
Belle knew the answer. She would keep the rug and quilt for as long as they lasted, but she would not worry about how they were treated. And when they were gone, she would replace them with the same type of coverings that the poor Chinese people used. That would make them feel more at home when they visited her.
With that issue behind her, Belle felt more confident that she was turning into a “real” missionary—until she and John were invited to dinner at the house of a poor Christian couple. It was a hot afternoon as they gathered around the table. Flies buzzed in the air, and the stench of the pigsty next door filled the room. Once Belle and John were seated, their hostess brought in several large dishes and placed them on the table. Naturally, one of the dishes contained rice, but it was the content of the other dish that alarmed Belle. The dish contained large chunks of boiled pork fat. Belle could feel her stomach heave as she looked at the boiled fat. “John, do I have to eat this? I think it will make me vomit,” she whispered.
Smiling at their hostess, John took a large chunk of the fat and placed it on the rice in his bowl. At the same time he whispered to Belle, “When our hostess’s back is turned, give your helping of fat to our friend under the table.” John was referring to the mangy dog stretched out under the table.
Belle scooped some rice into her mouth and began to chew. When their hostess turned her back, Belle seized the moment to slip the helping of boiled fat under the table. The dog hungrily gulped it down and then licked Belle’s fingers. Belle let out a sigh of relief at John’s solution to the situation, though John himself seemed to be enjoying eating his portion of the fat. Belle was also sure that it would not be the only time she was served boiled pig fat. John informed her that the dish was a staple among the rural Chinese of this region.
Another food that Belle found difficult to keep down was bean curd. The curd reminded her of a woolen sponge—not something she would ever choose to add to her menu. Yin-chang seemed to cook a lot of bean curd, and Belle tried to eat it when it was put in front of her. She knew that employing Yin-chang and his wife allowed her the time to continue her Chinese language studies and for John to preach and work with the tiny church at Chengchiang.
As the weeks rolled by, Belle became eager to get out into the countryside and begin evangelizing some of the smaller villages nearby that had never heard the gospel before. One such village was Yangtsung, seventeen miles from Chengchiang. John proposed that he go and preach in and around the village, taking Belle, Yin-chang and his wife, and Mr. Yang, a local Christian convert, with him. Belle jumped at the opportunity, and the party of five set out together over the hills and into the valley beyond.
To get to Yangtsung they made their way over the rolling hills of Yunnan Province. Belle marveled at the patchwork of colors spread across the landscape and reveled in the beauty that surrounded her. By nightfall they had reached their destination.
Of course, there was no hotel in Yangtsung; the only visitors to the place were family members of people who lived there. Instead, the missionary band was offered an upstairs room in an old temple in which to stay. Belle was happy enough with the accommodations. The only thing she did not have was privacy. Belle was the first white woman to ever visit Yangtsung, and the locals were enthralled with her. They gathered to listen to her rehearsed short sermon and surrounded her every time she left the temple. Adventurous boys would scale the walls of nearby buildings and peer through the window into their room, yelling down reports to those waiting on the ground of what Belle was up to. At night, when Belle lay down on her bedroll to sleep, word got around and the village women would come to see if they could visit her in bed! It was all a little exhausting for Belle.
During the day John and Belle walked out into the nearby countryside to meet the local people. Yang-tsung was located at one end of a narrow valley. A crystal-blue lake sparkled in the sun in the middle of the valley, and rice paddies covered most of the rest of the valley floor. Small farming enclaves dotted the edges of the valley, with mud brick houses set among tall, lush groves of bamboo. John and Belle and Mr. Yang would walk on until they found an open spot near one of the enclaves. There Belle would take out her guitar, and the three of them would sing songs in Chinese. If and when people began to gather, John would preach a short sermon in Chinese and Mr. Yang would give his testimony. When they were done, they would invite those who had stopped to hear them to come that evening to Yangtsung, where they were holding open-air gospel meetings. Then they would move on to the next enclave and do the same thing all over again. In this way, over several days they worked their way along the whole length of the valley, preaching the gospel to those they met.
As the week went by, however, Belle found that she had less and less energy. This was partly because Yin-chang prepared only bean curd and rice for their meals. Belle assumed that this was all that was available in Yangtsung, until she got up early one morning and visited the market. To her astonishment, baskets were overflowing with plump red tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, onions, and cabbage—all foods that she longed to eat.
Belle hurried back to their room and told John to ask Yin-chang to fix her a big plate of fresh vegetables for dinner. But that night the same meal was served—bean curd and rice. Belle, who had not eaten all day in anticipation of her evening meal, asked, “Isn’t there anything else in this place to eat?”
“Nothing. We did not see anything else at the market today,” Yin-chang’s wife replied.
By now Belle was seething with frustration. Just what did Yin-chang and his wife do all day, anyway? Tears welled up in her eyes, and before she knew it she was sobbing into her pillow. She knew she looked like a child having a tantrum, but Belle didn’t care. She was exhausted and hungry and angry with the hired help. Suddenly, in the midst of her tantrum, Belle’s mind flashed back to Ruth Paxson on the Empress of Russia on the voyage to Shanghai from Canada. “When you get to China, all the scum of your nature will rise to the top,” Ruth had told the new missionary recruits. Now Belle knew exactly what Ruth meant by those words. Nonetheless, she carried on with her tantrum until she eventually fell asleep. She awoke around midnight, her stomach growling with discontent. John brought her a little rice with bean curd on top, and Belle was so hungry that she ate it.
Upon their return to Chengchiang, Yin-chang and his wife became even more of a frustration to Belle. Even though they were paid well, they appeared to like to do as little work as possible. Not only that, they seemed to make sure that they had the best of everything in the house.
Things came to a head one day when Belle was studying Chinese in the front room with a local teacher. The doors were closed, but a cold northerly wind whistled in through the gaps around the folding door. When Belle began to shiver, she realized that it was time to do something about the temperature in the room. She called Yin-chang and asked him to fill the new portable stove with coal and bring it to her. Half an hour passed before Yin-chang reappeared with a tiny stove in which glowed two or three coals.
“Where is the big stove?” Belle asked.
Yin-chang shrugged, put down the small stove, and left the room.
When the language lesson was over, Belle decided to get to the bottom of the matter. John might have a relaxed attitude toward the servants, but she would not stand for an employee shrugging his shoulders at her!
Belle marched downstairs to Yin-chang’s room and knocked on the door. Yin-chang opened the door sheepishly. Looking over his shoulder, Belle could see in the room her new stove stuffed with brightly burning coals. A wave of warm air whooshed out the door. Belle turned and walked away before she exploded in anger.
Similar situations occurred. Yin-chang’s wife took their bathtub and started helping herself to Belle’s toiletries. With each new offense Belle became more and more angry, until one day she told John that he had to dismiss Yin-chang.
John did not agree. He pointed out that servants were hard to find and that Yin-chang did many things well. Also, Yin-chang had served John faithfully for several years while both men were bachelors. Now Belle was furious with both Yin-chang and his wife, and with John. She grabbed her shawl and hat and stomped out the door, slamming it behind her.
Belle walked for miles, arguing with herself, making up conversations to have with John about how she would not live another day with a lazy servant. Finally, as dusk began to descend, Belle stopped and looked around. She was in a village she had not visited before, and many people were looking at her curiously. Suddenly Belle realized how inappropriate it was for her to be walking alone at dusk. All respectable women were at home by now. She turned around and hurried back along the path she had come. As she walked, she calmed down enough to realize that this was more “scum” coming to the surface. No matter how Yin-chang and his wife behaved, she had to admit that she had behaved just as badly. She wondered what John was thinking of her now. And what of the people who had seen her walking along with a scowl on her face. What kind of Christian example had she been to them? Perhaps the residents of Chengchiang were laughing about Pastor John and his bad-tempered wife!
Belle hurried along as fast as she could, making it back inside the city gate before it was totally dark. She made her way up the cobblestone street to her house. John looked relieved to see her when she walked in but did not say much.
That night, after their Bible reading and prayers together, John turned to Belle. “If Yin-chang and his wife bother you that much, you may dismiss them. But I have to tell you, it will be difficult to replace them with anyone better.”
Belle felt the tenseness leave her body. “Thank you so much,” she replied. “I would rather do the extra work myself than depend on a lazy servant. And I am sure the Lord will send us someone better eventually.”
The Chengchiang church was not happy that Belle had dismissed Yin-chang and his wife. “There are worse sins for a servant than being lazy,” one of the deacons told her.
But Belle was more than glad to finally have the house to herself, that is, until she realized just how much work was involved in bargaining for their meat and vegetables every morning at the market, carrying the water by hand from the village well to wash the clothes and then iron them with a charcoal-filled iron, and balancing the pots on the fire grate so that everything cooked evenly but nothing boiled or tipped over.
Before too long John and Belle were asked if they would employ another servant, this time a woman who had been abandoned by her husband with only the clothes she was wearing. They agreed to hire the woman, who proved to be loyal and industrious. The woman cooked vegetables every day and completed the laundry in half the time it had taken Belle.
Belle was glad to be able to get back to her language study full-time. She still had a long way to go before she became fluent in Chinese, but she felt that she could now understand a lot of what was being spoken around her.
John and Belle had served together at Chengchiang for nearly six months, and while Belle was content, she was also anxious. It had now been over seven years since she’d heard about the Lisu people and dedicated herself to serving among them. Yes, she was in China, but the Lisu still seemed a long way off to her. She began to wonder just when China Inland Mission would appoint her and John to work among the Lisu.
Then one day John returned from a meeting with James Fraser in Kunming. He had a broad grin on his face. “We’re headed west!” he exclaimed to Belle.
“To the Lisu?” Belle gasped.
“No, not quite that far,” John replied. “I asked James if we could be stationed there, but he is worried that your health might be too delicate for that. But he did say that they need a couple to take over the work in the ancient city of Tali. The CIM house there has been vacant for a year, and the small church in the city needs encouragement and leadership.”
Belle hugged John tight. “It might not be Lisu territory, but it’s a whole lot closer. We might even be able to go on a mission expedition to the Lisu!”
It was the best news Belle had heard in a long time, and she started to pack immediately. Not that there was a lot to pack. She left her pretty furniture behind and vowed to buy sturdier, more easily cleaned furniture when they got to the new house.
Tears ran down Belle’s cheeks as she walked through the gates of Chengchiang for the last time. Six months before, when she first passed through the gates, she had been a naive missionary bride. But in the time she had spent living in Chengchiang, she had learned so much. The local church leaders had been patient with her as she came to terms with the hardships of missionary life. Now, at twenty-eight years of age, Belle felt she was ready for the next step in her missionary calling.