Later, Dorothy’s son, Jim Wright, and his pioneer partner, Kerry Kay-Smith, were assigned to Banz, a tea- and coffee-growing district in the picturesque Wahgi Valley east of Mount Hagen. Here they encountered stiff opposition from the church missions, who incited children to hurl rocks at them and drive them from their villages. When Kerry moved to another assignment, Jim stayed on at Banz, pioneering alone. He recalls: “I often lay awake at night in my little grass hut praying, ‘Jehovah, why am I here?’ Only many years later did I get an answer to that question.

“In 2007, I traveled from Australia to Banz to attend a district convention,” Jim continues. “Near the site of my old grass hut stood a fine new Kingdom Hall that could be extended temporarily to form a 1,000-seat Assembly Hall. As I entered the grounds, a brother rushed up to me, grabbed me, and began weeping on my shoulder. When he finally composed himself, the brother, Paul Tai, explained that I had studied with his father 36 years earlier. Paul later read his father’s study books and accepted the truth. He told me that he was serving as an elder.

“During the convention, I was interviewed on the platform and described the persecution we had endured in the early days at Banz,” says Jim. “There was hardly a dry eye in the audience. After the program several brothers came and embraced me and tearfully apologized. As young boys, they had chased me from their village while throwing stones and yelling abuse. Moreover, one of them, Mange Samgar​—now an elder—​was the former Lutheran pastor who had spurred them on! What a wonderful reunion that convention proved to be!”

[Picture on page 114]

Kerry Kay-Smith and Jim Wright