In 1956, two more Gilead graduates, Charles and Reva Chappell, arrived in Freetown. On their way to the missionary home, they were taken aback by a large sign advertising a Bible lecture at Wilberforce Memorial Hall. “The advertised speaker was C.N.D. Jones,” says Charles, “a representative of the ‘Ecclesia of Jehovah’s Witnesses.’”

Jones, who professed to be one of the anointed, led a splinter group that had broken away from the congregation in Freetown several years earlier. His group claimed to be “true” witnesses of Jehovah and labeled the missionaries and those loyal to the organization’s representatives as “impostors” and “Gilead cowboys.”

Matters came to a head when Jones and some of his supporters were disfellowshipped. “This announcement shocked some brothers who favored showing tolerance towards the dissenters,” says Chappell. “A few voiced their dissatisfaction publicly. They and others kept associating with the rebels and tried to disrupt meetings and field service arrangements. The disgruntled ones sat together at the meetings in an area dubbed dissenter’s row. Most eventually fell away from the truth. But some regained their spiritual balance and became zealous publishers.”

Teaching the Kisi

Soon after Brother Arnott’s visit, Charles Chappell received a letter from a brother in neighboring Liberia. The brother wanted to open up the preaching work among his kinsmen in Sierra Leone. He belonged to the Kisi tribe, who occupied the forested hills and valleys spanning the junction of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. It seemed that many Kisi-speaking people wanted to understand the Bible.

Since most of the Kisi could not read or write, literacy classes were arranged in Koindu to teach basic Bible truths. These classes attracted hundreds of students. “Soon the group had 5 new publishers, then 10, then 15, then 20,” Charles recalls. “People came into the truth so fast that I doubted whether they were genuine publishers. But I was wrong. Most of them were not only faithful but zealous as well!”