Tom and Rowena then moved on to Hanuabada, a name meaning “Big Village” in Motu, the local language. Extending over Port Moresby Harbour, the village included hundreds of stilt houses connected together by long wooden walkways reaching out from the beach. “People flocked around us to hear the good news,” writes Rowena. “There was so much interest that we returned every evening to conduct Bible studies, missing only two evenings in two months.” Tom adds: “The hope of the resurrection and life on a paradise earth really appealed to these people. When Christendom’s missionaries and a local policeman pressured them to stop their studies, every one of them stood firm. The truth had settled deep in their hearts.”

Among those who took their stand for the truth were Raho and Konio Rakatani, Oda Sioni, Geua Nioki, and her husband, Heni Heni, who had obtained literature from the crew of the Lightbearer 16 years earlier. Soon a group of about 30 interested ones was coming to Heni Heni’s home for regular meetings. “Men and women sat apart on separate sides of the room,” recalls Oda Sioni, a young boy at the time. “The women wore grass skirts and no tops and carried their babies in colorful string bags that they suspended from the rafters in the room. After breast-feeding their infants, they placed them in the bags and gently rocked them to sleep.”

Tom Kitto conducted those meetings with the aid of an interpreter. Understandably, things did not always run smoothly. “At one meeting, Heni Heni’s brother, Badu Heni, served as interpreter,” relates Don Fielder, who arrived in 1953. “Things seemed to be going well at first, with Badu interpreting Tom’s words and even copying his gestures. Only later did Badu confess that he did not understand a thing Tom was saying. He just repeated what truths he knew and copied Tom’s gestures so that the talk looked right.” Despite those challenges, the group grew rapidly, and soon a second group was formed at Raho Rakatani’s home, also in Hanuabada village.

[Picture on page 79]

Hanuabada village with downtown Port Moresby in the background