The Shepherds Have Fed Themselves

Isobel Miller Kuhn, (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. In her book Nests Above The Abyss (1954), she wrote of a certain Lisu tribe of thousands of people:

"Some of them heard this wonderful doctrine was being preached out in Chinaland, and a little party made the trip of two or three days journey to that missionary lady and asked her to come to tell them also. That was ten years ago. Ever since then, that lady (now over sixty years of age) has been trying to find someone to go to those Lisu, and up to this date no missionary has ever been resident among them.

Ten years they have waited. Do you think that when they called for gospel messengers, God did not respond? It could not be. He gave His Son that all might know and receive eternal life. I think that man did not respond. It costs something to leave loved ones and the comforts of civilization. I believe that in each generation God has 'called' enough men and women to evangelize all the unreached tribes of the earth. Why do I believe that? Because everywhere I go, I constantly meet with men and women who say to me, 'When I was young I wanted to be a missionary, but I got married instead.' Or, 'My parents dissuaded me,' or some such thing. No, it is not God who does not call. It is man who does not respond!"

" My sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts,....because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep." ~Ezekiel 34:8

The restless millions wait the light,
Whose coming maketh all things new.
Christ also waits, but men are slow and late.
Have we done what we could? Have I? Have you?
~Gordon