Isobel Miller Kuhn | |
---|---|
Missionary to the Burmese Lisu people in China
|
|
Born |
Isobel Selina Miller December 17, 1901 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Died | March 20, 1957 Wheaton, Illinois, United States |
(aged 55)
Education | University of British Columbia; Normal School; Moody Bible Institute |
Occupation | Missionary |
Spouse(s) | John Becker Kuhn |
Isobel Selina Miller Kuhn, born Isobel Selina Miller, aka, "Belle" (December 17, 1901 – March 20, 1957), was a Canadian Christian missionary to the Lisu people of Yunnan Province, China, and northern Thailand. She served with the China Inland Mission, along with her husband, John, as a Bible translator, church planter, Bible teacher, evangelist and authored nine books about her experiences.
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. Her grandfather was an ordained Presbyterian minister.
Kuhn was raised in a loving Christian home although, in her words, it was without having "a direct confrontation with [the] living Savior" herself. After experiencing a "pitying sneer" from a skeptical University of British Columbia English professor, Kuhn decided that she didn't need to know or seek the God her parents had been teaching her about. She became an agnostic, like many of her peers. A vivacious and popular young woman (even though she didn't drink or smoke), Kuhn was taught by her parents to do what was respectable and to "marry well," which meant she was to marry a man with a good education and social status like her own. While at the university, she had even gained a lifetime membership in the coveted college drama troupe as a freshman, which was a rare honor.<