• Papua New Guinea
    2011 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • INTO THE HIGHLANDS

      That same month, Tom and Rowena Kitto left Port Moresby on a grueling journey that lasted several weeks. They were taking the good news to untouched territory​—the rugged New Guinea highlands.

      Thirty years earlier, Australian gold prospectors had entered the highlands to discover a civilization of about one million people completely cut off from the outside world. The awestruck highlanders thought that the white men were ancestral spirits returned from the dead.

      On the heels of the prospectors came Christendom’s missionaries. “When the missionaries heard that we were coming, they ordered the villagers not to listen to us,” relates Rowena. “But their warning proved to be good advertising. The highland people​—curious by nature—​were eagerly waiting for us to arrive.”

      Tom and Rowena established a small store at Wabag, 50 miles [80 km] northwest of the town of Mount Hagen. “The clergy ordered their flocks not to buy from, sell to, or speak with us and even pressured them to ask that our land lease be revoked,” says Tom. “In time, however, the villagers saw that we were different from the other Europeans they knew. Most noticeably, we treated them kindly. Indeed, our kind acts often brought tears to their eyes, and they said they wanted us to stay!”

      PATIENT TEACHING BRINGS RESULTS

      From 1963 onward, a flood of Witnesses from abroad moved to the highlands to help expand the preaching work. Moving slowly east to west, those brothers and sisters eventually covered the entire region, establishing groups and congregations in many areas.

      At Goroka, in the Eastern Highlands Province, a small congregation first met in a private home. Later, they built a modest meeting place from bush materials. Then, in 1967, they constructed an attractive Kingdom Hall with 40 chairs. “I quipped that we might just fill the chairs by Armageddon,” recalls George Coxsen, who served in the highlands for ten years. “How wrong I was! Within 12 months, so many people were attending meetings that we had to form a second congregation!”

      Farther east, near Kainantu, Norm Sharein studied the Bible with over 50 villagers who came to his hut each day. Pioneers Berndt and Erna Andersson later looked after this group for two and a half years. “The people rarely washed, wore few clothes, were totally illiterate, and were steeped in demonism,” relates Erna. “Yet, with patient and loving help, some of them could soon recite and explain 150 scriptures from memory.”

      Berndt and Erna developed a close bond with their group. “When we were assigned to Kavieng, the women gathered around me and cried, yes, wailed!” says Erna. “They took turns stroking my arms and face as their tears flowed freely. Time and again, I retreated to my hut to weep while Berndt tried to comfort them, but they were inconsolable. When we finally set off, a large crowd ran down the mountain behind our vehicle, the women wailing all the way. I still struggle to describe the heart-wrenching emotions that I felt that day. How we long to see those dear ones in the new world!” Other pioneers built on Berndt and Erna’s work, and a fine congregation was established at Kainantu.

      SOWING KINGDOM SEED BEARS FRUIT

      By the early 1970’s, a small group of Witnesses had established themselves at Mount Hagen, about 80 miles [130 km] west of Goroka. This town was famous for its large weekly market, which drew thousands of villagers from miles around. “We placed hundreds of pieces of literature at this market,” says Dorothy Wright, a fearless pioneer. When the people returned to their villages, the Kingdom message went with them, penetrating remote areas that the publishers could not then reach.

      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!”

  • Papua New Guinea
    2011 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • [Box/​Picture on page 112]

      ‘Have They Eaten Your Heart?’

      AIOKOWAN

      BORN 1940

      BAPTIZED 1975

      PROFILE One of the first individuals from the Enga people to learn the truth.

      ◼ WHEN Tom and Rowena Kitto came to Wabag, Enga Province, the local missions spread false stories about them. For example, the missions claimed that Tom and Rowena dug up dead people and ate them. Those stories really frightened me.

      One day, Tom asked my father if he knew of a young woman who could help his wife with her housework. My father pointed to me. I was terrified, but my father made me accept the job.

      Later, Tom and Rowena asked me, “What do you think happens to people when they die?”

      “Good people will go to heaven,” I replied.

      “Did you read that in the Bible?” they asked.

      “I have not been to school, so I cannot read,” I answered.

      They started to teach me to read, and slowly I began to understand Bible truth. When I stopped attending the Catholic Church, one of the church leaders asked me: “Why have you stopped coming to church? Have that white couple eaten your heart?”

      “Yes,” I replied, “my figurative heart is now with them because I know that they are teaching me the truth.”