Isobel Kuhn

The life of Isobel Kuhn, missionary to China, has fascinated me and given me a new hero. While attending college, Isobel’s belief in the Lord was questioned by an atheist professor. This caused her to walk away from her faith in God, and she began to live a worldly lifestyle. Later, while she dealt with the consequences of her decisions, she asked God to show Himself to her. After requesting many different things from Him, she waited to see if this God was real. God proved faithful and answered her specific requests. Her faith was renewed, and she went to Moody Bible Institute to train for missionary life in China.

Isobel and her husband began working with the Lisu people in China in 1928. While in China, they were confronted with many difficulties. They constantly dealt with demonic people and the spirits they believed in. They had to leave their seven-year-old daughter Kathryn in the United States at a missionary school. Especially hard for Isobel, John had to leave her for months at a time, and she and Daniel, their son, remained home alone in their little, thatched house. One night after going to bed, Isobel heard someone sneaking around her house. She silently prayed that God would protect her from any intruder. That morning after telling the men in the village what had happened, they decided that they would build a house for her right in the village so that they could watch over her. She and John worked with the Lisu people for twenty-five years.

Isobel is my hero because of her love and devotion to God. Even in the most difficult times in her life she called on God to give her strength and trusted that He would. She contracted many illnesses, but always trusted God. She loved the Lisu people and invested her entire life in teaching them about the love of Jesus. Suffering from cancer, Isobel died at the young age of fifty-seven. She sacrificed a life of leisure so that others may come to know Jesus. Isobel’s constant trust in God remains an inspiration to me.