Green Leaf in Drought-time by Isobel Kuhn (1957)

Posted on 2025-10-16 by thelittleman

The story of the last 2 China Inland Mission missionaries to flee Chinese communism in 1953

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I first read Isobel Kuhn call-to-ministry book titled By Searching (1959) two years ago and fell in love with her honest portrayal of doubt and submission. I handed that book off to a friend and knew I wanted to read her again.

A Quick Look at the Book

This book is not about Kuhn at all, or her ministry in China, but rather about another missionary couple in the years following the rise of Communism in China. As Communism spread, most foreign “imperialists” were either quickly called home by their mission boards or persecuted and expelled by the local authorities. Some believers however hit roadblocks that prevented their departure, and this is precisely what Arthur and Wilda Mathews faced, with their baby girl in tow.

Invited by another missionary to replace them temporarily at their station along the Mongolian border in Northwest China, the Mathews arrived to find the invitation expired. The compound had already been taken over by a doctor who rejected their claim at ownership of anything—including a bedroom—and the church that the former missionary had partnered with was pressured to treat the Mathews as unwelcomed guests.

Although they were able to minister for the Lord temporarily in this area, particularly among the Mongolians and Tibetans who visited the marketplaces, the vise-grip of the local authorities soon squeezed all their freedoms away. For the next two and a half years, the Mathews faced abuse and near starvation as they were held under virtual house-arrest and denied any permission to leave the city or the country. Their assets were essentially frozen, and they could only live off the generosity of strangers, the funds that could be sneaked to them through secret friends and the mail, and of course the miraculous mercy of God.

A Few Lessons from the Book

The title of the book comes from Jeremiah 17:8, which reads (along with verse 7, KJV):

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

Despite their fears and pains and struggles, Arthur and Wilda both purposed to discover the Source that would keep their leaves green, despite the drought. Constantly, when all hope seemed lost and when the trials seemed too much, the Lord in his own way and timing would give them a verse or a hymn or a note from a friend—enough to lift their spirits from the mire and remind them that God was ever present, giving them spiritual life, even when everything else around them felt dead.

It’s the emphasis of God’s care and timing for these “little” things that stood out most to me. Clearly, the Mathews longed for God to act in a massive way, to pave the road for their departure, to give them clarity in their waiting, to make life just a little bit easier than the suffering they endured. Instead, they dwindled to skeletons, their clothes turned to rags, and they stooped to form cooking fuel from sheep’s dung. Yet through it all, when life seemed to be utterly desolate and all hope seemed lost, that shuddering of the green leaf would come with a breeze.

A gift of salt from a vendor. A surprise visit on their daughter’s birthday. A timely decision by their enemy to exit through an uncommon back door, thus missing the arrival of a gift of money at the front. Regularly, when all hope seemed lost and the Mathews were tempted to give up, God delivered. It’s a wonderful testament to His faithfulness, not to mention of their own weakness.

A Little about the Writing

Isobel Kuhn’s role in all this was, in the years following the Mathews’ eventual expulsion, to work through the Mathews’ many letters and journals from the time period. Through these, Kuhn built a timeline of their experiences and narrated the entire ordeal for the sake of her growing audience.

Because this narrative is based on these original sources, some of the dialogue seems stilted and unnatural—especially in the beginning, as Kuhn prepares the setting. I preferred her later method of strictly quoting the letters themselves, and once I got into the groove of the later style, I realized that this is a much more powerful way to relate the goings on of yesteryear.

I was intrigued by Kuhn’s inclusion of so many poems by Arthur and others throughout the book. It seems that authors of this era used amateur poetry often in their texts, as I saw recently in The Chemistry of the Blood by M.R. DeHaan (1943). The poems they select aren’t all that great—unless of course they’re pulled directly from a hymn or an actual poet—but it seems that many Christians back then poured their hearts out to God in verse, something that I myself dabbled in as a youth but rarely witness today. Perhaps the closest I’ve seen is Chris Anderson, author of Theology That Sticks (2022), whose own devotional poetry has been turned into many a popular modern hymn (see “His Robes for Mine” for example).

I also appreciated Kuhn’s inclusion of the occasional bit of Christian literature which comforted the Mathews. Take this example from a tract titled “The ‘If’ of Your Life” by A.B. Simpson and based off Jesus’ encounter with Mary and Martha at Lazerus’ tomb:

“Lord, if thou had to been here, my brother had not died.” And He could have been there; He was not far away. He knew all about it, and He let him die. I think it was very hard for that woman. … I have come to think that there is an ‘if’ in every life. … It is something that God could’ve made different, if he had chosen, but he has all power; and yet he has allowed that ‘if’ to be there.

I do not discount the ‘if’ in your life. No matter what it is. … Come to the Lord with your ‘if’, and let Him say to you what He said to Martha. He met her ‘if’ with His ‘if’! Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? The glory of God is to come out of the ‘if’ in your life. …

Do not be thinking of your ‘if’. Make a power out of your ‘if’ for God. …

Do you know that a light is to fall on your ‘if’ someday? Oh, glorious horizon! Then take in the possibilities and say, “Nothing has ever come to me, nothing has ever gone from me, that I shall not be better for God by it.” …

Face the ‘if’ in your life and say, For this, I have Jesus. (48)

Conclusion

While this book wasn’t as active as some of the Kuhn’s other books, it’s certainly as introspective. I appreciated her descriptions of the intense loneliness these missionaries felt when they were abandoned to the whims of the authorities, men like Felix, who got sadistic pleasure from teasing and berating them month after month after month.

This might be a book lost to time, since it’s not a story of intense persecution or martyrdom, but I think it could give comfort especially either to those who think the Lord is too slow to act or direct, or to those who feel like a withered branch in the sharp desert wind. Remember Jeremiah 17:7-8 (ESV):

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
    whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
    that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
    for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
    for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

©2025 E.T.

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