But where could they best serve? The Australia branch office provided the answer​—Madang.

At Madang, a town on the northeast mainland coast, the “fields” were ripe for harvesting. (John 4:35) In fact, the small group of publishers there could barely keep pace with the level of interest. When Canadian pioneer Matthew Pope and his family arrived and purchased a house with several backyard cabins, the way was open to send in more pioneers.

Eight pioneers arrived from Rabaul and spread out into the Madang District. One of them, Tamul Marung, obtained a bicycle and traveled by coastal boat to Basken, his home village, 30 miles [48 km] north of Madang. After preaching in Basken, he rode his bicycle back to Madang, witnessing as he went. He then returned to Basken, established a congregation, and pioneered for another 25 years. During that time, he married and raised a family. His daughter and his niece later served at Bethel.

Meanwhile, in Madang, John and Lena Davison met Kalip Kanai, a schoolteacher from Talidig, a small village between Basken and Madang. Before long, John and Lena were traveling out to Talidig to study with Kalip and his relatives. This incurred the wrath of the school inspector, a Catholic, who ordered the police to evict Kalip and his relatives from their homes. Undeterred, the group moved to Bagildig, a neighboring village, and grew into a thriving congregation. They later built a large Kingdom Hall that was used for assemblies and conventions. Now there are seven congregations and two groups in the Madang District.

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‘We Will Never Give Up’

KALIP KANAI

BORN 1922

BAPTIZED 1962

PROFILE One of the first people to accept the truth in the Madang area. As told by his son Ulpep Kalip.

◼ MY FATHER was a humble man and a deep thinker. When faced with a problem, he would listen carefully and analyze the matter before finally offering his opinion.

When I was 15, I was hospitalized in Madang because a shark bit my leg off just below the knee. While visiting me, my father met John Davison. “In the new world,” John said, “Jehovah can give your son a new leg.” Father’s interest was aroused, he began studying the Bible in earnest, and he soon developed a strong faith.

Because my father and his relatives had left the Catholic Church, the police were incited to evict us from our homes. Our 12 houses, set among lush flowering gardens, were less than a year old. The police threw blazing torches onto the thatched roofs, which burst into flames. We rushed to salvage our belongings, but burning embers and smoke drove us outside. We wept as our homes were reduced to ashes.

With heavy hearts we walked to Bagildig, the neighboring village, where the village chief kindly allowed us to move into a small one-room hut. There, my father addressed our family: ‘Jesus was persecuted. So we can expect that people will persecute us too, but we will never give up our faith!’