Isobel Miller Kuhn

Isobel Selina Miller Kuhn, born Isobel Selina Miller, also known as "Belle" (December 17, 1901 – March 20, 1957) or Isobel Kuhn, was a Canadian Christian missionary to the Lisu people of Yunnan Province, China, and northern Thailand. She served with the China Inland Mission as a Bible translator, church planter, Bible teacher, and evangelist with her husband John Kuhn. She authored nine books about her experiences.

Early life

Family background and education Isobel Selina Miller was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and moved with her family to Vancouver, British Columbia, when she was eleven years old. She was called "Belle" from the time she was a child. Her father was a roentgenologist and a Presbyterian lay preacher at a rescue mission, and her mother was president of the Women's Missionary Society in the Canadian Presbyterian church for many years. In 1942, the Kuhns started a Bible school for girls and an additional one for boys the following year. in August 1943.

The communist revolution in China then forced Kuhn and her son Danny to leave the country in March 1950, and to put her missionary life on hold for two years. John Kuhn left China 18 months after his wife. While on furlough, the Kuhns spent their time in Wheaton, Illinois, as their daughter was studying at Wheaton College.

Death and family legacy After Isobel's 1954 cancer diagnosis, the Kuhn family returned to the United States and settled back in Wheaton, Illinois, where she continued to write and published several books.

Legacy By the beginning of the 21st centurt, the Salween River valley housed a high Christian population. Of the 18,000 Lisu who lived in Fugong, Yunnan, in 1950, 3,400 were recorded as having professed faith in Christ. As of 2007, it was estimated that 80-90 per cent of a population of 70,000 were Christian. In Yunnan, it is estimated that there are between 100,000 to 200,000 Lisu Christians in total. More than 75,000 Lisu Bibles have been legally printed in China following this growth.

Today, this Christian presence in the Lisu communities of China is attributed by certain missionary and Christian groups to Isobel Kuhn and her "Rainy Season Bible School." This was a school that was formed to address the disruption of daily life caused by the monsoon season in the heavily agricultural area where the Kuhns ministered. Kuhn formed a plan to hold classes during this agricultural down time to preach the Gospel and teach the Lisu the basics of the Christian faith. These classes were taught by Kuhn and others. From these classes, a number of men then became evangelists and pastors throughout China.

Kuhn's autobiographical and biographical missionary writings are still in print over fifty years after they were first published.

Works

(Autobiography. Part 1) (Autobiography. Part 2) Green Leaf in Drought - Time, Moody Press (1957) (The story of Arthur & Wilda Matthews, the last CIM missionaries to leave China.) Stones of Fire, China Inland Mission (1951) Ascent to the Tribes: Pioneering in North Thailand, Moody Press (1956) Precious Things of the Lasting Hills, China Inland Mission (1963) Children of the Hills, OMF International (1999) (Formerly called, Precious Things....) Second-Mile People, OMF Books (December 1982) Nests Above the Abyss, Moody Press (1964)

Some later editions of Kuhn's works have been edited and revised by others.