After Saipan, the next to benefit from regular service by Watch Tower missionaries were the Chuuk (formerly Truk) Islands. Merle Lowmaster had visited here briefly in 1961, but in 1965 Paul and Lillian Williams took up residence in Chuuk—the first of more than 30 missionaries who have adapted to the primitive conditions here.

When they arrived on the main island of Moen in 1965, religious intolerance made securing missionary quarters difficult. A store manager finally offered to rent half of his Quonset hut to them. This angered Catholic priests so much that they went straight to the village chief and demanded that Jehovah’s Witnesses be expelled from the islands. The chief replied: “You came here years ago telling us to love one another, so why are you now telling us to hate?” The priests had no answer. The missionaries stayed.

Interest was quickly found, and soon 30 Bible studies were being conducted in these islands, which once served as Japan’s major World War II naval base.

That explains why today five missionary brothers serve as the only elders in small congregations on three separate islands—Moen, Dublon, and Tol.

“This can be a real test for our sisters,” says David Pfister, one of the missionaries. “Young girls grow up with the idea of raising many children, but at this time there are no young men in our congregations whom they can marry. Some of our sisters have a deep love for Jehovah, and they respect the Bible counsel to ‘marry only in the Lord.’ (1 Cor. 7:39) For others, this prevents them from serving Jehovah.”

Salvador Soriano, now a member of the Guam Branch Committee, spent 14 years as a missionary in Dublon, where he was the only brother. He says: “It reminded me of Psalm 68:11, which says that the women telling the good news are a large army.”

Unusual Ride to the Kingdom Hall

Missionaries throughout Micronesia routinely use their cars or pickup trucks to help people get to meetings, but there is a form of transportation that perhaps only Barak Bowman has tried. When the failing health of a heavyset 70-year-old sister prevented her from walking the two miles [3 km] to the Kingdom Hall, Barak tried to figure out a way to help her. “I would like to pick you up for the meeting,” he said, “but I only have a wheelbarrow that I can use.” To his surprise, she replied, “OK, I don’t mind.”

You can imagine the sight as they rolled along the trail en route to the meeting—also the effort that was required on Barak’s part. He would leave home at 7:00 a.m. with an empty wheelbarrow and arrive back at the hall with our sister aboard just in time for the 9:30 a.m. program.

[Picture on page 234]

Warm welcome for new missionaries