Isobel Kuhn: On the Roof of the World by Janet Benge & Geoff Benge

Author:Janet Benge & Geoff Benge [Benge, Janet & Benge, Geoff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography, General, Religious, Christian
ISBN: 9781576584972
Google: 7plUPgAACAAJ
Amazon: 1576584976
Barnesnoble: 1576584976
Publisher: YWAM Publishing
Published: 2009-08-15T11:46:47+00:00

Chapter 12

Back to Pine Mountain

Nearly two months later, John arrived back at their mission house at Old Market in the Yungping Valley. Soon after his return from the Lisu, a flow of letters began between the Kuhns and James Fraser. James had recently married a fellow missionary named Roxie. The new couple were now expecting their first child.

John and Belle wrote back with their congratulations and news that John had recently been sick with amoebic dysentery and had also undergone a hernia operation under primitive conditions in Tali.

Finally, in November 1934, John and Belle received permission to relocate to Lisuland to take over the work Leila had been overseeing. “Not permanently,” James wrote. “Just for two years until your furlough, and then we will see where you are needed after that.”

This time Belle was packing not for a visit but for a two-year stint living among the Lisu. She wrote lists of everything that she would need to take with her: kerosene for the heaters, clothes for a growing three-year-old, canned milk and meats, medicines, her guitar, a typewriter, reams of paper, pen, ink… Belle watched in dismay as the lists grew longer and longer. Yet she realized that every single item she listed was vital if they were to work effectively.

Eventually, eleven mules, loaded and ready to set out on the journey, stood outside their house. Belle took one last look around the place. She would miss the Yungping River running outside her door and the long, flat plain that spread out in front of her. She wondered how long it would be before she saw another flat stretch of land.

John gave the order, and the mule train began to move. Belle lifted Kathryn up into a small sedan chair, and off they went. At first the journey was relatively easy going. Since it was December, as they started to climb up the Mekong River Valley, the air soon grew thin and cold.

The mule train climbed over high mountain ridges, the mules laboring under their loads, and then dropped down steeply into the bottom of a narrow canyon. The trail then ran along the bubbling river at the bottom of the canyon. As the travelers made their way along the river, sheer rock faces rose up on either side of the canyon. High above, huge boulders jutted out from the cliff face. Then the travelers began to encounter places where these boulders had come crashing down in landslides that almost blocked the canyon and covered the trail. They were forced to clamber over the landslides, which became more frequent the farther up the canyon they went.

At one stage the muleteer pleaded with John to turn back and take the other trail to the Salween River Valley. The mules, he said, were having great difficulty making it over the numerous landslides with their loads. John thought about it, but they were already five days into the journey, and their food supplies were beginning to run low. The muleteer became stubborn

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.