Don and Shirley’s preaching aroused the ire of the local United Church minister, who pressured their landlord to order their hut off his land. “When people from a nearby village heard about this, they were very angry because they did not want us to leave,” says Don. “About 20 of them helped us to move our hut​—foundations and all—​to a new plot of land owned by their village.”

The irate clergyman refused to give up. He lobbied the Port Moresby authorities to ban the Fielders from locating their hut anywhere in the district. “Rather than leave our assignment,” says Don, “we asked Alf Green, a skilled carpenter, to salvage wood from our hut and build a small room on our twin-hull canoe. We then anchored the canoe in a mangrove swamp near the mouth of a nearby river. There, among swarming mosquitoes and lurking crocodiles, we lived, while pioneering, for the next two and a half years.”

When the men returned home for vacation, Lance and Jim Chambliss decided to visit them for two weeks to take the good news to Kerema.

“The whole village gathered together to listen to us,” writes Lance. “During our presentation, the local London Missionary Society pastor stormed in and attacked our interpreter, punching him several times before the villagers intervened. He insisted that the local people did not want us there and ordered us to leave ‘his’ area. We replied that those who wanted to listen to us could accompany us to the other side of the village, while the rest could stay with him. The whole village followed us.

“The next morning we went to see the district commissioner to report what had happened. On the way there, we met a woman who was very ill. We offered to take her to the local hospital, but she was afraid to go. Only after much persuasion did she finally agree to accompany us. After leaving her with the hospital doctor, we called on the district commissioner, who clearly did not welcome our visit. In fact, he angrily accused us of teaching people not to accept medical help! Just then, however, the hospital doctor walked in and overheard his accusation. He told the commissioner that we had just persuaded a sick woman to go to the hospital for medical treatment. The commissioner, to his credit, immediately apologized. He told us that the local Catholic priest had just visited him and misrepresented our beliefs. He then assigned two armed policemen to protect us from further trouble. It was quite an experience to have policemen with rifles sitting in on our Bible studies!”