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.”

In 1992, another circuit overseer, Daryl Bryon, learned of a remote inland village where people were supposedly interested in the truth. “To reach the village, I drove inland by car for 50 miles [80 km], hiked through dense jungle for an hour and a half, and then paddled a canoe upriver for another hour,” Daryl explains. “To my surprise, standing on the riverbank surrounded by towering mountains was a brand-new building bearing the sign ‘Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses.’

“About 25 interested ones met at the hall each Sunday to study the book You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth. Since they claimed to be Witnesses, I asked them if they chewed betel nut. ‘Oh, no,’ they replied. ‘We gave that up a year ago when we came into the truth!’ Needless to say, I was delighted when the branch office added the group to my circuit routing.”

[Picture on page 115]

Mike Fisher on the Sepik River