The manager of a timber mill in Honiara also promised to supply all the 300 milled logs required for the main support pillars and the veranda and porch posts as well as the roof trusses along with purlins and rafters. The trusses would be constructed in Honiara and then dismantled and shipped by barge to Auki, where they would be reassembled and erected on top of the main support pillars.

The construction work crew was eager and ready to start! However, the only equipment they had was two claw hammers and two chisels. Of course, there were a lot of willing helpers ready to lend their hands to the task. But none of the Witnesses on Malaita had any commercial building experience. “The brothers and sisters were looking to me to oversee the construction work, but I had never even built a chicken coop!” said Brother Allan.

How were the Witnesses going to get the roof trusses​—each consisting of eight large logs bolted together and weighing from two to five tons—​off the ground and onto the top of the 20-foot-high [6 m] support pillars? And, besides, how could they lift the roof apex some 40 feet [12 m] into the air without the use of heavy construction cranes?

“I don’t know,” confessed Brother Allan at the time. “We’ll just have to rely on Jehovah to help us.”

Assistance Welcomed

Skilled assistance came from far across the sea in October 1986. Jon and Margaret Clarke, who had shared in the construction of the New Zealand branch office, heard of the plight of the Auki Congregation and were able to get a three-month visa to visit Malaita.

With a concrete mixer received as a gift, the congregation proceeded with building a large stage and a concrete-block wall with side wings behind the stage. Using their bare hands as shovels, they dug deep holes and filled them with concrete, into which they set the 18 main support pillars for the wall, roof, and veranda.

Having received training from Brother Clarke, the native brothers themselves reassembled the auditorium roof trusses and the three porch roof trusses. But they still had the problem of setting these heavy trusses in place. It was quite an engineering feat, since the trusses were made by bolting eight logs together into a huge triangle. The brothers’ determination and ingenuity defies description.

A Log Ballet

The only equipment available for such a mammoth lifting job was a block and tackle on a makeshift crane. The crane itself was made from eight logs. The first truss, weighing two tons, had to be lifted over the newly constructed concrete-block wall and mounted on two support pillars behind it. When the crane lifted the truss by its peak into an upright position, the brothers realized, to their dismay, that the crane could not lift the truss high enough to clear the wall. It was three feet [1 m] too short! For two days the truss was left dangling from the crane​—supported with logs underneath—​while the brothers lamented and pondered over the problem.

People would pass by and ridicule, saying: “Can’t Jehovah lift the truss for you?”

“Good!” exclaimed the brothers. “Now Jehovah will help us for sure!”

A sudden spurt of creativity inspired the workers. A jack from a pickup truck was slipped under one end of the truss and lifted it a few inches higher. That end of the truss was then further supported. The jack was then moved to the other end of the truss to lift that end, and it too was raised higher and supported. This procedure was repeated until, after a four-day juggling act, the first truss had been inched up and over the concrete wall and put onto its designated support pillars. This tremendous accomplishment prompted the brothers to dance around the site in a large circle, clapping their hands and singing happy tunes.

It was only after the project was completed and the jack had been used successfully to lift three trusses​—one weighing as much as five tons—​that the brothers realized that the blurred words stamped on the side of the jack indicating lifting capacity did not say “15 tons,” as they had believed, but in fact, only “1.5 tons”!

“On reflection, what the brothers and sisters did defies logic,” says Brother Allan. “Watching those enormous trusses rise in the air was like watching a log ballet!”

Kona Village to the Rescue

Only 38 logs from the mill were free of rot, so the balance of the required 300 logs would have to come from somewhere else. But from where? The Witnesses from Kona village, located three miles [5 km] from the building site, approached the construction workers to offer to donate special hardwood trees from their own land. The timber would replace the main support pillars, the veranda and porch posts, and the auditorium roof trusses. This was a large sacrifice by those Witnesses from Kona village, since Malaita had been devastated by Cyclone Namu, and these trees had been specially set aside to rebuild their ruined homes.

To obtain the logs, the sisters of the Auki Congregation built a 20-foot-wide [6 m] road, cutting a half-mile-long [0.8 km] swath through thick jungle from the logging site to the main road. They mustered all their strength to cut down trees, build bridges over ditches, and remove obstacles from the new roadway. Then the selected trees could be felled, trimmed of their branches, and milled square with chain saws.

“We Are Like Ants”

The new timbers had been cut 14 inches [36 cm] square and 21 feet [6.4 m] long. But how would these huge logs reach the main road half a mile away?

The congregation members responded: “We are like ants! With enough hands we can move anything!” (Compare Proverbs 6:6.) When additional brothers and sisters were needed to carry the logs, the cry would resonate in the logging area: “Ants! Ants! Ants!” Brothers and sisters would come streaming from all directions to lend a hand. Forty brothers and sisters would lift a half-ton log by hand and carry it down the road to the main highway, to be carted to the building site by truck.

Setting the pillars and posts in place was a risky operation. Once again, the native way of doing things proved to be most successful. On arrival at the site, each pillar was placed about three yards [3 m] away from the deep hole into which it was to be lowered and then set in concrete.

Thirty brothers and sisters lifted the top end of a pillar onto a crisscross frame. They then pushed the pillar rapidly across the ground, with the bottom end skidding toward its designated hole. Two of the most courageous brothers stood holding thick pieces of board on the opposite side of the hole, and when the skidding log hit those boards, it would come to an abrupt stop, so that the forward momentum propelled the pillar into an upright position, whereupon it dropped into the foundation hole.

Making Do

This Assembly Hall on Malaita serves as an example of how great things can be accomplished without modern construction equipment and commercial materials. It stands as evidence of how Jehovah blesses the efforts of those who put full trust in him. Frequently the work went ahead without even the most basic tools, such as spades or shovels, which would be regarded as an absolute necessity in more affluent countries.

When it was necessary to have coral-based dirt excavated and loaded into sacks for transportation to the building site, sisters dug the coral gravel from a quarry with sharp sticks and then scooped the sharp, jagged gravel into bags with their bare hands. In just one day, the sisters dug and loaded 13 three-ton truckloads of coral fill!

Another example of making do with what is on hand occurred when the wheel on the only wheelbarrow on the site was damaged beyond repair and a replacement could not be found anywhere in the Solomon Islands. This did not deter the Witnesses one bit. After filling the wheelbarrow with concrete, they simply lifted it up and carried it to the location until a replacement wheel arrived from New Zealand five weeks later.

[Pictures on page 243]

Logs carried from swamplands and cut square with chain saws are loaded onto a truck. Squared-off log (wall post) is put in foundation hole for Assembly Hall at Auki

[Pictures on page 244]

Huge roof trusses weighing up to five tons are made by bolting eight logs together. The trusses are positioned on top of 20-foot-high [6 m] support pillars without the aid of heavy construction equipment

[Picture on page 245]

The completed 1,500-seat Assembly Hall at Auki, Malaita