• Micronesia
    1997 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • They arrived at Kwajalein Atoll in 1960 and later dropped anchor at Majuro Atoll, where they taught themselves to speak Marshallese. When they witnessed, the amiable islanders seldom refused to listen, and by 1964 Powell and Nyoma were conducting 12 Bible studies, including one with the Iroij Lap Lap (High King) of Majuro.

      Julian Aki and Melvin Ah You, both of them missionaries, joined the Mikkelsens there in 1965, and in just a few months, these enthusiastic brothers had learned enough Marshallese to present a simple sermon and had also constructed an A-frame missionary home.

      To provide a place for meetings, a makeshift Kingdom Hall was erected by stretching the mainsail from Integrity over several pandanus poles that were set in the ground. “As our crowds got larger, we just added more sail,” Brother Mikkelsen said. “Next came the mizzen sail; a little later, on went the jib sail. When we had no more sails left, the time had come to build a ‘proper’ Kingdom Hall.”

  • Micronesia
    1997 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • Culture Shock for the Circuit Overseer

      When Nathaniel Miller flew out of Hawaii on his first circuit trip through Micronesia in 1968, the initial leg of his journey landed him in Majuro. “I remember my first sight of the tiny atolls of the Marshall Islands,” he recalls. “The DC-9 descended to make a landing but, instead, went up again and circled the airport. Looking down, I could see men running pigs off the airstrip to clear it for landing. Another obstacle was a car parked on the runway. A group of men picked the car up and walked it off!”

      For someone coming from Honolulu, this was culture shock. The Majuro airport had an open-air “terminal” constructed of coconut fronds and a runway made of coral. “I was not used to the idea of coral stones hitting the fuselage of planes when landing,” Miller said. Once on the ground, he and his luggage were deposited in the back of a pickup truck and driven to the missionary home over a bumpy, unpaved road.

      The Kingdom Hall at that time had a tin roof, no walls, and only the hard ground for a floor. “I spoke, through a translator, to a small group of 20 on my first visit,” Miller recounts. “The talk was interrupted by a large hog wandering into the Kingdom Hall!”