Star — who jumped off the edge
STAR — WHO JUMPED OFF THE
EDGE OF THE MAP
'Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar in foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung so mighty in the land.
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star, Hast thou no scar?'
— Dohnavur.
THIS 'BRIGHT ASCENDANT STAR' in the modern Christian firmament — known and beloved on more than one continent for her writings — lives with her husband, Pioneer, in Lisuland, so far north of Jenny that it would take almost two weeks to span the intervening space.
One day, eight days to the south of Star's field, in the little town of Old Street, John was reading a letter from Pioneer. It was a vigorous call for help.
The field to which Star and Pioneer had gone was many days north of the old original district Bachelor had worked. This northern part of the great
Salween canyon is even more inaccessible, wild and mountainous, but Lisu hearts were prepared to receive the Gospel with joy, so the two brave
Second-Mile People missionaries had gone in to live among them. But the work spread far beyond their ability to cope with it; the Mission listened to their need sym- 'pathetically, but there were no workers. to send.
Desperately trying to teach enough to give these young inquirers something solid to stand on, lest they get discouraged and step back into darkness,
Star and her husband decided to separate till help should come. She was to stay all alone among the Lisu of their present district, while he went six days north where Lisu were turning to Christ by hundreds.
Sitting in the rough chapels of Lisuland, during an evening service when the only light is that from the pile of flaming pine chips, I have often noticed the difference between the sappy chips and the drier ones. The sappy ones have a clear transparent look about them, you know them at a glance.
Put one such on to the burning pile and the flame will reach out for it and lick it up at running speed; and often, as I sat and watched such a chip, I noticed that when the fire reached the heart of it it would emit a slight explosive sound, like one great cry of agony; then shortly after the yellow fury has it in full flame, and soon it is only a charred stick or gray ash.
Those clear transparent 'sappy' chips always remind me of Pioneer. He is not afraid of the fire, if by flinging himself onto the pile he can light up the way of salvation for a lost soul. There is desperate determinedness about him at such times. We have seen him fling himself upon an area of Satan's dominion and claim it for Christ, and when the
Star — Who Jumped off the Edge of the Map
'fury of the oppressor' is aroused it only causes him to stick tighter. The hosts of evil, vexed to madness, attack him on all sides, and even appal him, till like the burning pine chip, he lets out a little cry, 'I'm afraid I can't stand it!' — but he always does stand it.
How deep is the heathen darkness of that northern part of the canyon we cannot tell, but a letter from Pioneer, written while among the as-yetunconverted villages, seemed fairly to shudder with the horror of the powers of wickedness. 'At night,' he wrote, 'I can hear the carousing of the heathen Lisu. Their drunken laughter has a demoniacal ring to it that turns the blood cold — this is a terrible place; never have I felt the rule of evil in such strength. I can hardly stand it.' But being
Pioneer, he did stand it, stuck till he had pushed through. The Chinese laird was infuriated at his tenacity, even going so far at one time as to threaten the people if they gave him any food. Still however, all along, Pioneer remained at his post, gladdened on the one hand by the hundreds of Lisu who were turning Christian, and simply dauntless as to the 'fury of the oppressor' that opposed on the other side.
By 'Chinese Laird' you must understand the one who owns, legally, the mountain land which the Lisu plant with corn for food. In those parts feudalism still exists, the Chinese landowner being the 'laird' and the Lisu being the serfs.
These heathen lairds suddenly learn that their subservients, whom they scornfully treat as mere animals, are learning to read, have thrown off
Second-Mile People demon worship and are worshipping one 'Jesus', whom the foreigner has introduced. Jealous and angry lest their hitherto unchallenged control be weakened, they begin to persecute and threaten.
Opium is not supposed to be planted in China now, and ifit is, a tax must be paid. These Chinese lairds make a good profit out of the opium tax, and so when they hear that Lisu Christians will not plant the drug any more, they are enraged and demand double the tax from those who will not plant! What though it is rank injustice! Who would ever dare the hardships of the road in, to come and investigate? One Consul tried, but losing his food load where the narrow road broke and fell into the river under the weight of the mule, he had to turn back at just the fringe of the great northern canyon.
So the exultant lairds threatened those dear Lisu Christians around Star, and although she is a good linguist in both Chinese and Lisu, what is a woman to a Chinese official? Of no effect at all. So down to Old Street came a call — would John please come up and stay in Star's district until the opium season was over? His very presence would be some restraint, and any help which would lighten the bitterness these dear children of the soil were enduring, would certainly be worthwhile.
The SOS fell into prepared hearts — a recent sorrow had made us tender and caused us to look up to the beloved Master to try and ascertain if this had a deeper meaning than was on the surface; was He trying to direct our lives into some
Star — Who Jumped off the Edge of the Map
new channel? Then from one source and another, the need of this great new Lisu district began to come to us, and before Pioneer's letter arrived our eyes had begun to look to those northern mountains and watch. Originally we had been designated to 'tribes', but my ill health and other potent reasons had prevented us; we had thought that after furlough perhaps the way might open. But while our eyes were still 'unto Him', this call came and seemed to settle it.
'I must go,' said John, 'and I would like to take you with me. I would like to have you try the hardships up yonder in person, before we offer to the Mission; a visit would test out your physique whether you can stand Lisuland or not.' So, leaving Small Daughter in Faith's capable hands, for it was best not to subject her to such rough travelling, we both went.
* * * There is a river, a green snarling, death-dealing river, which cuts its way savagely through gigantic masses of rock which humans call 'a mountain range'. It is as if, in antediluvian days when God purposed the green plains and valleys of Chinaland, this 'back of beyond' became the monster
Dump Heap ofall the excess rock and debris from the levelled ricefields. Through this chaotic, concreted pile the Salween river has tried to escape, boiling and thrashing its way with impotent fury at the strength of the cool resisting granite. It has dug out, chewed out, a twisted canyon of many
a 4
Second-Mile People hundreds of miles in length, with steep lonely sides rising thousands of feet above the petty snarl of the green waters.
Into this inaccessible, unlivable mountain dump of rock were driven the hunted aboriginal tribes as the greedy strength of the civilized
Chinese overpowered and threatened to annihilate them. And here, on the topmost sides of that Great Canyon, live our dear Lisu, scratching the hard face of the bare mountain for soil enough to grow the corn which is their staple food.
So John and I set out northward, travelling for nine days, with occasional rests in remote Chinese towns where a testimony for Christ was needed. It was a great moment when we arrived at noon at a"
Lisu village, and John, who had been there three years before, called me to the steep roadside and pointed out the rest of our day's journey. We stood on one brow of a mountain; at our left was the long river canyon with its immense peaks piercing the blue. We were on the right bank, as you face up the gorge, but 'the bank' is just a succession of monster mountain-steps with chasmy sides, down and up which the puny little human dot must travel in order to 'go up' the canyon. The hill dropped away from beneath us in one of these abyssal ravines, and curling laboriously back and forth in the brow of the opposite mountain was our path.
'Star lives just around that corner where the trail disappears!' said John, grinning as he watched my face. How often he had tried to describe those mountain vastnesses to me — but who could
Star — Who Jumped off the Edge of the Map III really make them visible to one who had never seen?
I glanced slowly around, catching my breath at the silent magnificence of those wonderful peaks and crags with their mighty dropping sides; then the loneliness and isolation of that back-of-beyond
Dump Heap smote me.
'And a western woman lives on that stony face "around the corner where the trail disappears"!
'Yes.' John was still grinning with joy at my awe. 'And you and I have still to go down this mountain — and it's some drop, you'll find — and up that path before we reach her today!'
Late afternoon found us rounding the curve which was to bring us to Star's fellowship and home. "There is the village over yonder, don't you see those three little huts? That's her house,' pointed out John. 'I wonder is she at home?'
Eagerly we scanned the tiny huts for a sign of life.
'Yes, look Isobel! Someone's standing on the roof watching us!' Sure enough, a man was coolly poised on the roof of the lower shanty; because they are built against the steep mountain sides, you may walk from the ground onto the back of the roof of Lisu houses, so it is often a favourite place to sit and work.
Suddenly we saw a red sweater flash in the sunlight between two of the huts. 'Yes, she's home!' we cried joyfully, 'no Lisu could be rich enough to possess a sweater.'
Then we both felt queer. How did one meet such a well-known person? (For we were stran-
Second-Mile People gers.) What would she be like? We had often heard of her devotion to the Lisu; perhaps she would not be much interested in anyone else? Would she be regal, dignified with a preoccupied air? ... she was an author, after all.
John was troubled for another reason. An old Hebrew tradition says that Eve was very loquacious, and that Adam used to call her his 'never silent bell'. Sometimes — I say it sadly
— John is tempted to sympathize with Adam.
'Now listen, Isobel; you know how you talk. Just listen to me for once and try to control yourself!
Remember who she is!'
Isobel heaved a sigh at her 'strong weakness', promised to be good, and tried to conjure up the dignity that should befit a newly-made 'senior missionary.
By this time the red sweater was flashing in and out of the curves of the trail, and before another word could be said a happy girlish voice called out, 'Oh how good to see white faces again!' I found myself smothered in a warm loving embrace. The heartiness and joy of our welcome were unmistakable, and the unaffected sweetness and youthful heart of our hostess took us by surprise, for we had pictured her as middle-aged.
Beneath such loving friendliness Dignity found herself forgotten, folded her wings sadly and dropped out of sight, while John was soon groaning within him as he listened to my tongue wagging along merrily like a puppy-dog's tail.
The shanty which was Star's home was a long one-storied place, with bamboo matting for walls,
Star — Who Jumped off the Edge of the Map
partitions and floor, and wooden shakes for a roof.
It was decidedly rough, but tidy and clean, and somehow looked home-like and good to our eyes.
— Star had been expecting us weeks before, she said; we had been delayed, not able to get carriers and with no way of informing Star, so she had given us up. 'So many say they are coming in to see us, but none ever arrive!' she said gaily. "Yours are the first white faces I have seen for nearly a year, except my husband's, of course. But I haven't seen him for over a month, and when he left he told me to be prepared to go without seeing him for three or six months!'
Prepared to go without seeing your husband for three to six months! And taking it all as a matter of course! She was not in a big American city surrounded by loving friends and relatives, but on this lonely steep mountain side, beyond 'the edge of cultivation', with only primitive Lisu for society and help. In my heart I stood and saluted her.
Talking and laughing, she seemed to radiate joy as she busied about getting us a delicious little afternoon bite of fresh muffins and hot tea; for Star is a splendid cook among other things.
Evening brought in Lisu boys and girls, whose free assurance revealed that they knew they were always welcome guests. 'Each evening they come to keep me company,' Star smiled. 'Some nights we study Chinese, at other times learn a new Lisu hymn or have a Lisu-script reading class — always there is something to do.' She might have added, 'and always I waive my own comfort and live for them,' for we saw her, after a busy day of
SecondMile People Bible translation, interspersed with odd interviews with deacons over church problems, sitting down with these Lisu young people in the evenings. A pink spot of fatigue in each cheek would urge her off to rest, but with cheery smile and indefatigable earnestness, she taught them to a comparatively late hour.
We had been at Rock Dump only a day or so, when one morning in through the open doorway walked three strange-looking Lisu; their costumes and features were different, one having a decidedly Hindu cast of countenance. As usual they were too bashful to accept the invitation to sit on chairs, so just squatted on the floor at Star's feet while she questioned them. What a picture that group made! Star's dark eyes were sparkling with the joy of the tale which was unfolding to her ears, and the three brown-faced men in picturesque white and red costume told their story with oriental casualness, their sweet musical intonations falling pleasantly on the ear. Out through the open doorway behind them loomed up mighty peaks with crests of snow dazzling white in the morning sunshine.
Star questioned and listened, and every now and again threw in a hurried interpretation to give us the thread and progress of their narrative. They had come over those great gleaming mountains, come from Burma in fact, for those same mountains are the China-Burma border, called on the other side "he Burma Mountain Wall'. They had been travelling seven or eight days and had come for the one and only purpose of getting Lisu
Star — Who Jumped off the Edge of the Map
teachers to return with them and instruct them how to worship the Lord Jesus. But the thrilling part of their tale was that eleven years previously, in their Burma Lisu village a woman had come under the power of a demon which made her tremble all over and give forth strange tidings.
'God has a son named Jesus,' spoke forth the demon who said it was 'God's Daughter'. 'He is the Saviour, and one day God is going to burn up the world, but if you trust in Jesus, God will take you to heaven so you will not be burned. If you believe in Jesus, you must keep one day in seven as worship day, and not smoke opium nor drink wine.' (As far as we have been able to ascertain since, this woman had had no contacts with Christianity at any time.) The villagers were so frightened at-this that eleven families tore down their demon altars and have trusted in Jesus ever since. Years passed, and one day a Lisu who had been across the huge mountain range to the Salween canyon to trade returned with startling news. He said that the Lisu over there were also worshipping one 'Jesus', but they had books and teachers to tell them how. This was wonderful joy to the faithful little band, and immediately the decision was made to send for these teachers and books, and also learn the ways of their God. Twice an attempt was made to do so, but both times the parties failed to get over the Great Pass. At length in March 1934 these three young men started forth with purpose not to be frustrated, and now even though they had 'to bite their way through the snow of the Pass', they had crossed and here
Second-Mile People they were. 'We have no books and no teachers.
Please help us.' They had been worshipping thus ~ for eleven years.
'They say they've brought their own food and are going to stay till they can get a teacher, no - matter how long they wait!' — and Star shot us a glance of triumphant joy, for the staunchness of Lisu hearts never ceases to thrill her. But it was quickly followed by sadness — 'There is no one free to go.' (Later two went and there is now a little
Church there.) The men dismissed, we fell to talking over the — work, and before long we had told her how God was laying it on our hearts to offer to the Mission for this field. 'How happy my husband will be!' she cried. 'We've just not known how we could manage if someone did not come to help us soon!
Oh I wish you could stay right on, and didn't have to go back!' But responsibilities cannot thus so easily be flung off; it takes a long time to get an answer from Headquarters back to these inland parts.
We had not been at Rock Dump many days when a letter arrived from Pioneer, which said that he was badly needing her to help him cope with a Short Term Bible School which he was hoping to hold. Laughing gaily she read out tous a portion: 'If our guests have arrived, can't you leave them to take charge down there, and come and help me?'
'Imagine such a thing at home! "If your guests have arrived can't you leave them alone and come to me?" then she stopped and said merrily, 'Well,
Star — Who Jumped off the Edge of the Map Piz what will I answer him?' Soon it was decided that since the Lisu pastor and ourselves all spoke
Chinese, we could be left with him as interpreter without any cruelty, and it was much the best for her to join her lonely husband.
But before she went, a question which had often been in my heart was answered for me. The question was this — do people who seem to make sacrifices quickly and easily really care as deeply about things as us other folk, who seem to find it so hard? Isn't it just that they are naturally ascetic, that their hearts do not cling to the things of this world like our hearts do? I knew Star as a writer, had now met her as a missionary, but I was curious to know her as a mother.
On the wall of the shanty hung a few photographs, among them one of Star and Pioneer with their two boys, taken the year previously when the parents had visited our Mission school at Chefoo.
I knew that the older boy had not seen them for four years. From six to ten is a long time for a mother not to see her son — how did Star ever stand it? To me it had been simply agony to leave
Baby Girl in order to come in and make this trip, and that was to be only a separation of a month or two. Was it that Star's love for the Lisu was greater than her mother-love, and helped her not to care? Or was there a sorrow that she did not let people see, a something under the bright cheeriness which ached and hungered for what for His sake she was denied?
'Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar, in foot or side or hand?'
Second-Mile People One may not pry into another's sacred privacy, but it is sometimes good for us to know the truth, lest we excuse ourselves from the Cross saying it would cost us much more than it costs others, that we are more delicate and tender and we must receive special consideration; thus falling into the pit of self pity, we can miss His pattern for us.
— It was not difficult to get Star to talk about her boys — she was full of stories of their young days at home in Lisuland, and once said quietly that when she came back without either of them, to this lonely Rock Dump, she did not know at first how she could stand it. She passed quickly on to some other matter and we did not dare ask her to linger, but we had caught a sense of a silent Companionship which had gently offered to fill the empty aching places. There is none but He can do so.
However, later on at the table the conversation once turned upon Chefooites, and their enforced absence from home.
'Most of them,' said Star, 'get to see their parents at least once in two years. We did not know till we got there that our David had gone the longest ...' here her voice broke suddenly and with eyes swimming in tears she finished with quivering words . .
. 'of any of them,' and quickly rose and turned away.
'... can he have followed far That has no wounds? no scar?"
A holy reverent silence filled the little shanty as that mother-heart offered up its bleeding tears to the One who 'fully understands in our weakness'.
'God never wastes His children's pain' said one
oe . a os
Star — Who Jumped off the Edge of the Map
who knew pain. But He has a pattern for each of us, which He longs we might attain, a perfection so lovely that it is easily worth a few years of cost, a few 'hidden scars'.
'Why should I start at the plough of my Lord, that maketh deep furrows on my soul?' cried out the valiant Rutherford, in days of long-forgotten suffering. 'I know He is no idle husbandman; he purposeth a crop.'
And so, because not even God can give us at the same time a 'crop' and an unfurrowed soul, Star dried her tears and quietly raised up under the weight of the Cross again. This 'crop' was not for herself, for her own vainglory; oh no, it would not be worth a scratch let alone a 'furrow' if that were all; it was for Him, that He might 'see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied'; and it was for them,
_ that they might have 'Life, and Life more abundantly'. As for what she might or might not get out of it, long experience had taught her that that was in perfectly safe hands.
All too soon the morning came when Star left us to go north to Pioneer. As she passed on to the trail ahead, riding her white mule with her Lisu bodyguard of faithful carriers, John turned to me and said, 'Isobel, you think you've done some travelling in your time but you have yet to tackle a road that can touch the one she's facing now! I went over it on that trip three years ago and believe me, it was a hair-raising experience more than once!
Why, some places the trail just disappears into a ledge at the top ofa precipice, and all you can do is to cling to your mule, close your eyes and pray!
SecondMile People And she has only Lisu to accompany her — well, I'll say she's brave!'
* * * Months later word came from Headquarters that, after prayerful consideration, it had been decided to approve John and family moving into Rock
Dump Canyon, but that whether they settled in the south or northern district would be left for Pioneer to decide. It did not take him long. 'South' had been discovered and opened up first by one we can only call Trail-Blazer, for here he and his plucky wife made the first missionary home and stayed till her health broke down and they had to withdraw. Their enforced desertion of the field acted as a challenge to Pioneer and Star, who had volunteered to leave their old beloved Lisu district
(Jenny was sent there later) and come in here to fill the emergency. The 'emergency' turned out to be a permanent call, and, as I have already told,
Pioneer flung himself through the narrow-wedged opening into the 'North' and there he decided to remain.
'You take the south', he wrote to John. 'The south is partly broken in now, you can get food and stores through much easier there than up here. Here there is no market of any kind for ten months of the year and we will have to grow what we are to eat. Come in as soon as you can. I hardly dare leave here for fear the Chinese laird thinks he has driven me out, and then he'd turn his rage upon the poor people; else I'd come down and help you get settled in.'
Star — Who Jumped off the Edge of the Map I21 As a matter of fact, later on he did come down once for that purpose, and waited day after day, leaving Star alone in the North; and day after day we did not come. No telegraph here, very irregular mail once in ten days — how could we tell him that John was ill and we had had to go for medical help? But that is the next story.
Finally God brought us in, and this is being written from Star's old shanty home. Star herself is up that tortuous rocky canyon, on the other side of the river. To get there she had to cross a 'rope bridge', which is merely strands of bamboo twisted into a rope and flung over the river, across the canyon. To get you across, the Lisu tied you onto a bamboo slide, which slides over the rope; when tied, you shoot head first down to the middle of the rope, and wait there with the hungry green
_waters beneath you until a Lisu on that side slides down, attaches a rope to you and hauls you up to the other bank.
The rope decays every so often, and ifyou are on it when it breaks you are doomed. The stiff sundried coils unwind with great rapidity and twine around you, then in that octopus-grip you are spun down and held under the green waters until you have departed this earthly tabernacle — and perhaps much longer. This will help you to understand a letter I received from Star just a few weeks ago. She wrote:— 'T must say that I feel a wee bit as though I had jumped off the edge of the map. For there is no way out of this place except to go dangling across the river on a rope. However, I seem to have all I need
Second-Mile People to eat, plenty of servants and heaps of friends, so I guess it doesn't matter whether I am on the map or not!'