For instance, about 1970, the branch office started receiving regular field service reports from an unknown person at a nonexistent congregation in an unidentified village on the remote Sepik River. The branch office asked Mike Fisher, a circuit overseer, to investigate.

“To get to the village, I traveled ten hours by motorized canoe along narrow waterways through mosquito-infested jungle,” relates Mike. “Finally, arriving late in the day, I met our mystery correspondent, a man who had been disfellowshipped years earlier in another area. He had returned to his village, repented of his sins, and started preaching to others. Over 30 adults in the village called themselves Jehovah’s Witnesses, some of whom qualified for baptism. Soon afterward, the repentant man was reinstated, and the group was officially recognized by the branch.”

[Picture on page 115]

Mike Fisher on the Sepik River