CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SIX
WITH PURPOSE OF HEART
ULLING harder than love of home, children and country was her "'first avowed intent to be a pilgrim."
"Kathryn's graduation from college is now a happy memory .-. then came the goodbye." So it was that in July, 1952 Isobel wrote to her praying constituency, "Inch by inch the Plush
Curtain is being pushed aside that we may go through and out.
The luxury of family life we are forgeoing for His sake... .
Goodbye to our dear little home in Wheaton and to friends!'
Vigilant mother that she was, Isobel made a hurried trip across the States to tuck Danny into the wide-open home of ee old friends, Dr. and Mrs. Willard Aldrich. The fact that they already had nine children of their own did not limit the hospitality of the Aldriches!! Their door stood ajar to Kathy too, who was studying at Multnomah School of the Bible.
With their children settled, John and Isobel faced the inevitable packing, sae engagements and farewells. But in spite of all the details they had to attend to before leaving America, they procured some language records and even began work on the new Thai lessons. But when the French ship Liberte sounded its solemn warning for departure and slipped from its dock in New
York harbour, John and Isobel were aboard bound for the Orient via England and the Continent.
All along their way they added more friends. First it was at the London headquarters of the C.I.M. Then at the Abergele
Prayer Conference in North Wales. There they met the leaders of the C.LM. prayer groups from all over England. "A unique conference," wrote Isobel. "It was held in a beautiful estate,
Clarendon School for Girls, so secluded from the world and its rush that missionaries and prayer partners get closer together
1 Dr. Aldrich is president of the Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon.
ss WITH PURPOSE OF HEART
_than I have ever experienced before."' While visiting in England there were also long and thrilling hours with the widow and young daughters of J. O. Fraser, the pioneer of Lisuland, so dear to the Kuhns.
Stopping next in Holland, then early in August in Switzerland, where the Home Director, Mr. Emanuel Baumann, and his wife made them tremendously welcome, Isobel commented,
"Switzerland is Lisuland come back . .
. only civilized, and in some es even more beautiful." She had been speaking with the help of an interpreter in a meeting there one day. At the end of the service many smilingly greeted her in German, a language
Isobel did not understand. But one lady addressed her warml and in clear English. Isobel never forgot her. "Dear Ma-ma,"' she said, "I love you from your books."
So they were made keenly aware of Christian kinship wherever they were. Although their destination was half a world away from their most precious possessions—their children—yet in their
Father's family, unfolding before them, was fulfilled Christ's omise of a hundredfold compensation. "'And every one that th forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold"
(Matt.
19:29). Who could ask greater recompense?
From Marseilles to Thailand, the Kuhns' journey was entirely by water. While trans-shipping in Singapore, they consulted
= ela their future assignment with the oath officers at the newl established headquarters of the C.I.M. Then sailing on shennah tropical seas they finally entered the mouth of the Chao Phraya
River. There Isobel had her first view of Thai life as the ship wedged its way through crowded cargo craft, and edged past twenty miles of isin shanties, coconut groves and dense
'green jungle. Near the port of Bangkok the sharp spires of Buddhist temples rose from the panorama like the spears of an army of giants. Yellow-robed priests were paca 08% in the city. But soon the missionaries left Bangkok behind as ane boarded a northbound train for Chiengmai, in north Thailand, their destination.
"As John Kuhn took up the responsibilities of superintendent of this tribal area, Isobel made Chiengmai, hub of the tribal
a en
at a) ihe Sy '
ONE VISION ONLY
work, 'home' to all the workers." So wrote Eileen O'Rourke,? herself a tribal worker and a close friend of Isobel's.
"Many a weary missionary reaching Chiengmai tired, dusty, muddy, and footsore from long treks, would know the grip of a hand and the joy of being welcomed, not only into a home but into a heart.
"Days could be very hectic in Chiengmai for the superintendent's wife! Ccnstant comings and goings, ordering stores for the outstations, sending off bundles of mail to isolated missionaries, sccuring language teachers for new workers who made
Chiengmai their base, and numerous other tasks, which used up the minutes of the day. Butshe always gave the time to sit down, listen, pray, weep and rejoice with the incoming warrior. Sympathy and encouragement were always found in her heart. The sympathy was not the weak 'Pity thysclf' type, but the strong sympathy of fellowship in enduring suffering for His name's sake.
And encouragement came as she turned her eyes towards her Beloved and revelled in His good purposes which lay just ahead.
"In the hot tropical climate, when others were taking their short time of rest after the noonday meal, Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn would keep their daily tryst with God as they prayed for their fellow-workers on the surrounding mountain-sides. The knowledge of these intimate prayers that surrounded each worker was a strengthening factor in many a missionary's battle."
And surely, spiritual battles rage on those eerie hillsides. The Ancient Foe storms away at God, the Mighty Fortress. The tribes are not easily won to Christ: they have no written language, they worship demons, they deeply involve themselves in the opium traffic—smoking it, growing it, smuggling it. Of course, the missionaries, few and scattered as they are, feel like grasshoppers in their sight except as God reassures them that they are fighting under the shelter of the "Bulwark never failing .. . and He must win the battle."
« So the superintendent and his wife assumed the work of prayer as one of their major responsibilities for helping their fellowworkers.
"It is probably her prayer life that stands out most in people's 1 August 30, 1958, Miss O'Rourke became Mrs.
J. B. Kuhn. g
ET ere Sere ee
'WITH PURPOSE OF HEART
memories of Isobel, a disciplined prayer life that trained her for immediate access to the King at any time," said Nurse Doroth
Jones. "Up each morning at five-thirty, she kept a careful Bock
j _ over her bed time to ensure this. Missionaries and tribal Christians were prayed for by name; problems and difficulties brought before the Lord; hard places wept over. We were all accustomed to praying with her over matters that arose and it was not uncommon when talking to find one's words suddenly interrupted by 'Let's pray about it.' Days were set apart for this special ministry. It meant a lot for missionaries in their tribal villages to know there was someone to whom one could write anything and everything, to know such letters were spread before the Lord, and also to receive answers not written just to soothe or comfort if a stimulant seemed necessary."
Isobel dealt with herself as faithfully as she dealt with others, as Mrs. Orville Carlson adds, "I believe the inward life of prayer gave a daily victory. .
. She told me how she had to fight selfpity all her life. Another thing she fought was mental depression.
From her bright ways, one would never have thought these ings to be difficulties. Her own testimony to me was that the Lord never removed this from her; it had to be a daily commitment to Him."
A visitor in 1952, Dr. A. J. Broomhall,! remarked, "What struck me particularly about her was the strength of personality that was apparent in her, as well as a high Foitinisk standard.
Whatever she turned her hand to she seemed to know exactly what she wanted to do and to approach it with definite suggestions about getting down to prayer or taking some practical action on the matter."
Of course "Home Base" as the house came to be called, was primarily for the convenience of C.I.M. personnel—men like
Dr. Broomhall, on Mission business; young missionaries based there for language study; others in transit who came and went to their out-of-the-way places of service. Sometimes staff members came from Singapore. Annually a field conference convened there for the available C.I.M. workers in North Thailand.
Occasionally there was a distinguished guest to entertain, 1 Author of Strong Tower and Strong Man's Prey.
ONE VISION ONLY
someone ee a world survey of mission fields. Once in a while a lone globe-trotter dropped in, like the young lady from the United States doing a world tour on her own. She called herself an agnostic, so Isobel had little in common with her. But, discovering a common interest in elephants, Isobel led her visitor off to find some of the big beasts at work. This excursion provided the missionary-hearted Isobel with her desired opportunity to chat personally with the empty-hearted girl about the Saviour, all-sufficient.
It was no small task to supervise her Thai servants in their round of purchasing, preparing and serving of food, and in their laundering of clothes that so soon mounted into sodden piles if not promptly cared for in that tropical heat. And to Isobel,
"servants were not just employees," as Nurse Dorothy Jones observed. "Each one was a real responsibility to the missionary who employed them. Reckoning accounts with the Christian cook led into many more matters than so many pounds of rice at so much a pound,
"One Sunday morning one of the servants was being admitted into church membership. She had believed only a short while and this was a big day for her. Mission-family prayers were interrupted while Isobel gave her a word of encouragement, prayed with her and saw her off down the road. Later she was given a course of Bible study when on regular nights each week she turned up with Bible and notebook for instruction."
Many women under similar circumstances would have declared they had no opportunity for this direct type of missionary work. But not Isobel. She prayed for opportunities and seized them eagerly.
** Alert."
WITH PURPOSE OF HEART
rt This was the one word that seemed most to characterize _ Isobel in the mind of Mr. Herbert Griffin, now for many years
_ Home Director for the C.I.M. in North America.
In spite of her duties as hostess in Chiengmai Isobel refused to become bound to the house where traditionally "a woman's work is never done." Instead she made long weary trips to strange settlements. She mentions one day's trek of seventeen miles. Sometimes she introduced young women workers to their first tribal living, then fluttered her mother wings over them in their new experiences. Together they encountered discomfort, fatigue and danger. Her singing helped them, as Eileen O'Rourke mentioned, "Out on the trail wending towards a distant village, it was Isobel Kuhn's voice first which would be raised in song that floated back to those who followed single file, making it easy to worship the One we loved together. One of her favourites was:
"Rivers to the ocean run Nor stay in all their course, Fire ascending seeks the sun Both speed them to their source.
So my soul, derived from God, Pants to see His glorious face.
Forward tends to His abode To rest in His embrace."
Anon.
The last few lines of the song held deep significance.
But panting along in the heat of the tropics, little did any of the party foresee how soon Isobel's panting soul might rest literally in her Lord's embrace!