You are my King and my God.  You command victories… Psalm 44:4

Isobel Kuhn was a truly intrepid woman.  Born in 1901, she was one of a generation of Christian missionaries who seemed to know no sacrifice too great to bring hope in Jesus to the most remote areas of the world.  Kuhn went with her husband, John, to northeastern China to reach the Lisu people, although much of the time Isobel labored alone with her young son in a mountainous village.

Kuhn saw God do miracles.  But it is the harassment of trials that prick, sting and weary one that she said God most uses in the average Jesus-follower’s life. “Small harassments,” she called them.

Village work stopped during rainy season, so Kuhn would hold Rainy Season Bible School each year when the people were free, amidst a lot of mud.  In 1942, as WW2 began around them, typhoid struck and the villagers were jittery and ready to head for caves in the hills.  Rain turned to snow and yet 33 girls came over the bitter cold and sloppy mountain trails for the week-long school!  The next week the cook left, 76 boys came, and her milk goat helped himself to her storeroom of food, all while Japanese dogfights took place overhead.

“He does not rule out small harassments; but He does rule that they shall not overcome us!”[1] Kuhn wrote.  Whatever your small harassments are today, Philippians 3:21 says He brings all things under His control.  He controls and uses your troubles. You can bring them to Him.  He’s listening.

 

Resource reading: Philippians 3:20-21

[1] Kuhn, Isobel. “Small Harassments.” In the Arena. OMF, 1995. 135. Print.