How lovely on the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who announces peace
And brings good news of happiness,
Who announces salvation,
And says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7).
Isobel “Belle” Miller seemed an unlikely candidate for the mission field as a child. Born in 1901 in Toronto Canada she was a young woman during the Roaring Twenties. While attending the University of British Columbia she was a popular honor student. She was also receiving accolades as a talented drama and dance student.
She was born into a Christian family and lived in a comfortable home. Before God would get a hold of her heart she would become agnostic for a time. As is not unusual in public universities a professor had criticized Isobel’s belief in the Biblical creation account. He challenged the students to “think for themselves” and not believe something just because their parents said it to them.
Isobel thought about what the professor had said and decided he was right. She stopped going to church and reading her Bible. She began to do things that she normally would not have.
She met and fell in love with another student who eventually two-timed her. She was brokenhearted and became depressed for a while. She even thought of taking her own life by poisoning herself. Just as she was going to the bathroom to get the bottle of poison she heard her Dad moaning in his sleep. Though she did not believe in hell, she knew that her father would probably think she had gone there if she took her own life.
Though Isobel longed to die, she could not disappoint her father. Isobel went back to her room and prayed, “God, if there is a God, if you will prove to me that you exist, and if you will give me peace, I will give you my whole life. I’ll do anything you ask me to do, go where you send me, obey you all my days.” When Isobel fell asleep, feeling at peace for the first time in a long time, she wondered if God had answered her prayer and began to search for Him by reading the Gospels.
Isobel began to attend Bible conferences with her mother. One summer Mr. J. O. Fraser of the China Inland Mission was one of the speakers. He spoke about how God had led him to China to tell the people about Jesus, to help them to get free of the demons they worshipped, to teach them how to read and how to live more fruitful lives. Ref. Fraser appealed to his listeners to consider going to China.
Isobel’s heart was completely won over for the Lisu people. She began to prepare for the mission field by attending Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. It was here that she met her future husband, John Kuhn. They say that “opposites attract” and that was certainly true of Isobel and John. Isobel was very passionate and John was very cool, calm, and collected. What they shared was an intense desire to take the Gospel to China.
John went ahead to China in 1926. Isobel followed two years later and married John when she got to China. They settled in Chengchiang for the first two years of their marriage. All during their beginning years in China Isobel would long to see her dream fulfilled of going to the Lisu people. She would serve in other places in China for 6 years before finally arriving in Lisuland.
Belle had been used to a comfortable life and had quite an adjustment period not only as a newlywed but in getting used to the customs of China. The food, housing, and sleeping arrangements were all very different from America. One of the hardest things for her was in giving up her privacy.
From Chengchiang the Kuhn’s moved to Tali, Yunnan (1930- 1932), then to Yongping, 
Yunnan (1932- 1934) under the mentorship of J. O. Fraser. Rev. Finally in 1934, the Kuhns arrived in Lisuland.
During their service in China, Isobel and John had two children, Kathryn and Danny. Much of the time that they were in Lisuland, Kathryn was away at a mission boarding school. Isobel missed her and when the Communist rebels controlled the roads making travel dangerous the parents and their child were unable to see other.
The Lisu Christians were great evangelists. They spent so much time telling others about Christ that John and Isobel were concerned that they did not take time to learn more about the Bible. They were happy for the enthusiasm of the new converts, but they did not want them to be ignorant of the Scriptures.
So John and Isobel came up with a plan. They would hold Rainy Season Bible School. After all, during the rainy season life practically came to a standstill in Lisuland. Why not take this opportunity to train the Lisu Christians and then send them out to the surrounding villages? The Lisu were so missions minded that they even went to villages that they used to war against to share the Gospel.
God blessed their efforts and sixteen years after the Kuhns began working with the Lisu, 3,400 of the 18,000 Lisu were Christians and seven other tribes had been evangelized by Lisu missionaries. Today, there are over 200,000 Lisu Christians.
These were exciting times for missionaries in China, but then in the late 1940’s the communists began to take over the country. The Kuhns were spared any trouble until 1950 when the rebels conquered Lisuland. John and Isobel were forced to flee, Isobel leaving immediately and John following a year later.
Isobel’s heart was aching to be with the Lisu people. Many of them fled to Thailand. Now Belle had to make a decision about whether to retire or to serve her beloved Lisu in Thailand. She turned to God, “Lord, I’m tired! I’m 50. In the past 20 years I’ve seen wars, I’ve been separate for months and even years from my husband and children, I’ve been sick to the point of death. Going to Thailand would mean learning a new language and a new place and a new culture. I want to sit in a rocking chair on a porch somewhere and rest!”
But Isobel had promised God she would give Him her whole life many years ago when He met her in her darkest hour. She would not give up now. And anyway it would give her a chance to be with her beloved Lisu. She would work among them until she developed cancer and died in 1957.
Truly Isobel was one who looked to the love of her Savior Jesus Christ whose love constrained her to live no more for herself but to live for Him who died for her.
