During Brother Fanidua’s stay in Gizo township for two weeks, he was encouraged to continue in his preaching work by the district police superintendent, who also told him and his partner to contact him if they should meet with any problems in his jurisdiction, which covered the New Georgia island group. It did not take long for pioneers to arrive in Munda, a settlement on Roviana lagoon on New Georgia Island.

Munda is actually a series of small villages that dot the perimeter of a landing strip built in the early 1940’s by the Japanese Army. The U.S. Air Force later took over the landing strip, enlarged it, and used it throughout the remainder of World War II. The tribes in this area are matriarchal societies. Brother Fanidua remembers: “When we arrived in Munda on the government mail boat, we began wondering where and with whom we would stay and what kind of reception the truth would get in this new area. We walked along the road edging the lagoon and shortly arrived in front of the house of Taude Kenaz, a Malaitan. I knew Taude would make us welcome, as he was a fellow Kwara’ae, but whether we would be able to stay at his home while in Munda depended a great deal on the reception we would get from the landowner, his widowed mother-in-law, Miriam.”

Miriam was a well-known and respected member of the Roviana tribe of New Georgia Island. Miriam not only wielded power as landowner but was very influential in the United Church. Her late husband had been instrumental in introducing that religion into their area. Because Miriam dreamed earlier that she would receive some unusual visitors, she could not believe her eyes when she saw the two pioneers with briefcases and Bibles in hand, standing at her door. She immediately invited them to stay at her house, much to the surprise of the pioneers. Her hospitality proved to be a blessing for her whole family. The pioneers concentrated on studying every evening with all those who showed such kindness. Miriam and her daughter Esther and Taude, Esther’s husband, were three such people.

It was during this period, in 1970, that traveling overseers John Cutforth and Jim Smith visited Munda on their way back to Papua New Guinea. Quickly discerning the potential interest at Munda, Brother Smith told the pioneers that it would be good if they could stay until a congregation was established. These two overseers diligently helped the pioneers to organize meetings. For the first time, songs of praise to Jehovah could be heard on the island of New Georgia! Leaving the pioneers in Munda to care for the sheep, the traveling overseers set out for other territories.

Suddenly, one evening, the pioneers were rudely awakened by a crowd of angry people. The mob was led by an off-duty policeman, who sternly ordered the brothers to vacate the area immediately. Brother Fanidua turned to the crowd and told them what the police superintendent had said to them back on Gizo: “Should you have any problems in any of the areas under my jurisdiction, be sure to contact me.” On hearing this, the policeman became frightened, and the crowd dispersed. However, this disturbing news quickly spread and was heard in Gizo by the superintendent himself.

The superintendent immediately boarded a plane for Munda. Soon after his arrival, he asked Brother Fanidua to come to the local police station. On entering the station, Brother Fanidua noticed that two high-ranking local police officers were present. Then it dawned on him; the interview with the superintendent was for the benefit of those two local police officers. After Brother Fanidua explained why he and his partner had come to Munda, the superintendent summed up the hearing by saying: “I have a religion; you, Albert, [pointing to one officer] have a religion. You, Alex, [the other] have your religion. The law of the Solomon Islands guarantees freedom of worship to everyone. The Witnesses are staying at Miriam’s home at her invitation. She is the customary landowner, and she is quite within her legal and tribal right to have people of any religion visit her in her own home, and you as officers of the law, either on duty or off, have no right to try to prevent Miriam from showing her interest in Jehovah’s Witnesses.” He concluded by placing the two pioneers in the special care and protection of the local police officers.

Down Comes the Cross in Temotu Province

About 600 miles [900 km] southeast of Honiara lies Temotu Province, embracing the eastern outer islands of the Solomons, including the Santa Cruz Islands. Temotu Province was unusual. Only one religion was represented there, the Anglican Church. For years no other religion had been able to make any impression on the serious-minded people of those islands. But in 1976, John Mealue, an Anglican lay preacher, was sent to Papua New Guinea by his church for training as a translator of local languages. The religious fabric of the province was about to change.

While residing in Papua New Guinea, John opened the door one morning to one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He got his first taste of the good news of the Kingdom. After several discussions, John quickly recognized that what he was hearing was Bible truth. Although he had been selected to be the next Anglican bishop of the Santa Cruz Islands, he resigned from his linguistic studies and returned to the Solomon Islands. On his way back to the Santa Cruz Islands, he stopped at the branch office in Honiara and asked if someone could visit his island for the purpose of starting a congregation. The branch immediately began making arrangements.

Back in his village, John began witnessing to his fleshly brothers, James Sopi and Drawman Alilvo, both schoolteachers, but they opposed his message. His brothers as well as others wanted to know why he had returned. He answered them directly and told them about his disappointment with the clergy. “They have lied to us all along,” he said, and he gave them examples. Remember, up to this time, John had never been taught how to give a tactful witness. One time, with ax in hand, he marched to the center of Malo village and chopped down its huge cross, dragged it along the ground, and threw it into the sea. No one dared lay a hand on him. Nevertheless, not only did his deed cost him a day in court but because he had cut down their holy symbol, religious leaders predicted that in eight days John would be struck dead.

Eight days later John was still alive. This marked the turning point for sheeplike ones. News of this spread like wildfire, and when John appeared in court, not only was the local courthouse packed out but all of Lata Station, the capital of Temotu Province, was swarming with people.

You could hear a pin drop in the courtroom when John stood to defend himself. He appealed to the conscience of the crowd as he spoke in detail about the origin of the cross, the hypocrisy of Christendom, and how the clergy had kept him and his people, spiritually, in the Dark Ages. In handing down his verdict, the judge said: “Charges dismissed. However, you must pay a fine of $20 for destroying private property.”

The clergy were defeated; they had wanted John sentenced to hard labor in prison. Quite a few people, including his brothers, James and Drawman, were affected by what they heard in court and later came into the truth.

The Peaceable Way to Preach

In 1981, Billy Kwalobili and Joe Kwasui arrived at Lata Airstrip in Temotu Province fresh from two years in branch construction. They looked forward to helping the truth grow in this new territory. Newly qualified publishers needed to learn that ‘a slave of the Lord does not need to fight but needs to be gentle toward all, keeping himself restrained under evil.’ (2 Tim. 2:24) For example, one day when a publisher group was out witnessing, a mob of irate Anglicans, urged on by the clergy, assaulted one of the publishers and ordered the rest not to preach in their village. The new publishers thought that the only way to get the witnessing work done was to remove the barrier by force. So they beat up the whole mob, breaking the leg of one of the opposers! Happily, as a result of instruction from the Society and the example of the pioneers, with some anxious moments along the way, the new publishers eventually learned the peaceable way to preach.

Billy and Joe faced other challenges too. The circuit and district overseers were due to arrive in three weeks to hold the very first circuit assembly in the Santa Cruz Islands. However, there was one big problem; they had no assembly site. Immediate efforts were made to obtain a piece of land for a Kingdom Hall. But where? Although there were many interested ones in Nemba, there was strong opposition from the Anglican Church. Unfortunately, the traditional landowners were all members of the church and very much against having any Kingdom Hall constructed in their vicinity. So the decision was made to build in John Mealue’s home village, on the island of Malo, a three-hour canoe ride from Nemba.

When the pioneers approached John with this suggestion, he replied: “This is exactly what I have wanted for a long time.” So that very same day, construction started at a frantic pace. Partway through the construction, the circuit overseer arrived for his regular visit to the congregation, and he too joined in the building work. Right on time, a neat, well-constructed leaf hall, with a roof, a platform, and three open sides, stood ready to house the crowd expected for the assembly program.

In time John, James, and Drawman, along with their wives, were baptized. These three fleshly brothers were highly valued by the Anglican Church, but after they accepted the truth, the clergy put pressure on education officers and had James and Drawman fired from their jobs. This did not deter the two brothers. They decided to live off the land and sea and use their time to preach from house to house about real treasures, the marvelous Kingdom truths. Soon many more joined them. Finally a Kingdom Hall was built at Nemba.

A “Different” Bite on the Reef Islands

Sometime after John Mealue accepted the truth, Michael Polesi of Gawa in the Reef Islands, in the eastern outer islands group, attended the College of Higher Education in Honiara. Michael was an Anglican. One morning, as he was walking by the market where Witnesses stand under the trees while engaged in street witnessing, he noticed that young boys were making fun of some of the older publishers. Their verbal barbs would often single out Benjamin Ru’u, a Witness with part of one of his legs amputated. As Michael saw him walking with the aid of a peg leg strapped to his knee joint, he felt sorry for Benjamin and obtained from him the book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life. He took it back with him to Malo in the Santa Cruz Islands, where he was teaching primary school.

There he was contacted by John Mealue’s brother Drawman, who was then still a primary-school teacher. Michael was happy that someone could help him understand the Bible. Unfortunately the school year was drawing to a close, and Michael would soon return to his home and family in the Reef Islands. By the time he was ready to return home, he had read only three chapters in the Truth book. However, in spite of such a limited understanding of the Scriptures, he began to preach back home.

Because Michael would not stop speaking publicly about the truth, the clergy pressured the education officers at Lata Station to have him fired, just as they later had James and Drawman fired. Michael decided to live off the land. He and his wife, Naomi, along with their children, were finally forced to leave their village as outcasts. Far from the village, they built a new home and later a Kingdom Hall. When they left their village, they took with them a puppy named Different, since, as Michael put it, “This is a sign to show that we are certainly different from the world.” To this day, according to Michael, Different appears to know the difference too because “he bites the seat only of those who are not Jehovah’s Witnesses or interested ones.”

But back to our story. Later, James Sopi, Billy Kwalobili, and Joe Kwasui arrived by ship from the Santa Cruz Islands for seven days in order to give Michael spiritual encouragement and to help him care for the interested ones. Michael became a zealous publisher and was later baptized at a district convention in Honiara. The number of those who joined Michael as publishers in the Reef Islands kept increasing. So in 1984, David Kirite’e and Ben Ramo arrived as special pioneers. However, things did not go smoothly for them.

The Leaves Cry Out

One of the problems David and Ben experienced was caused in part by the enmity that exists between some Reef Islanders and Malaitans. This hostile attitude developed after a fight between rival Anglican factions in Honiara broke out around the time of the pioneers’ arrival. Thus it became difficult for these Malaitan special pioneers to go anywhere on their own to preach. To compound their problem, the people live in fear of their bishop and priests. The clergy would often visit the people to see if any of the Society’s literature was in their homes. If any was found, the homeowner was sure to receive a stiff dressing down and would be forced to hand over the literature so the priest could have it destroyed. Hence, it became extremely difficult to preach to anyone; people would run away as soon as they spotted the Witness coming.

The pioneers realized that they would have to use another way to preach. “We decided to use leaves,” they said. “We would go to a place where the bush tracks crossed and pull a large leaf off a nearby tree and write a scripture on it in big print and, in smaller print, an explanation of that scripture. Then in really small script, we would write: ‘Suppose you like for savvy more long this-fella scripture, please write go long all’gether Jehovah’s Witness long Solomon Islands, or askim any Witness where stop close up long you.’”b

David and Ben tell us another example of their leaf witnessing: “We would write a theme, ‘Kingdom belong God’ [The Kingdom of God], and then underneath, the first scripture, Matthew 24:14, with the words ‘Me-fella must preach about this-fella something.’ [We must preach about this one.] And then, underneath, a question, ‘Wanem now Kingdom belong God by-by doim?’ [What is this Kingdom of God going to do?] And then, the final scripture, Revelation 21:4.”

If the pioneers were witnessing in an area where people were strongly set against the truth, they would use Psalm 37:9 as the final scripture on the leaf: “Every bad-fella people by-by finish, but everyone where hope long Jehovah by-by stop long earth.”c They would then put the leaf in the middle of the most-traveled bush tracks and walk away. Did this method of preaching produce good results?

One day one of the pioneers wrote a sermon on a leaf with a ballpoint pen and carefully placed it right in the middle of a well-traveled roadway. He walked a short distance away and stood concealed among the trees. He waited, curious to see who would pick up the leaf. To his surprise a dog came wandering along the road and paused to sniff at the leaf. “I think the dog could read,” said the pioneer humorously, “because he started barking at the leaf. The dog became excited and made so much noise that a hunter in the bush nearby thought the dog had a possum or a lizard trapped up a tree. The hunter ran to the scene only to discover the dog barking and pawing at the leaf. He pushed the dog aside and carefully picked up the leaf. He spent a few moments reading the sermon on the leaf and then just as carefully replaced the leaf-message in the middle of the road.

The pioneer concludes the story: “Later as I passed this hunter’s house, he called out to me, ‘Did you put something on the road?’ We started a Scriptural discussion that soon became a regular Bible study. Now that man and his entire family are publishers of the good news.”

The Blind One Sees

Billy Kwalobili got married in 1986, and he and his bride, Lina, were assigned to the Reef Islands as special pioneers. One of their favorite Bible students was a young man, Eriki, who was blind. Eriki was fascinated with the sounds of birds and insects and could mimic them perfectly. By means of his Bible study with the Kwalobilis, he learned about the One who created all those creatures. He also learned why people are ill and why he was blind. Billy would read all the paragraphs of the study lessons out loud; Eriki would listen intently and then answer questions on those paragraphs in his own words. Eriki memorized more than 30 scriptures.

When a traveling overseer visited Eriki, he recommended: “Don’t hold him back. Let him preach.” That very weekend Eriki joined eight publishers as they trekked through dense bush to the territory. The traveling overseer held one end of an umbrella and Eriki held the other end, quickly following along. Every now and then, a cry would ring out: “Log coming up!” or, “Watch out for the rock on your left!” and then Eriki would raise his leg and climb over the log or do a side step to avoid the rock. Many of the people listened to Eriki as he told of his hope, and when he quoted scriptures from memory, they shook their heads in amazement as they followed along in their Bible.

At the end of the visit, Eriki said to the traveling overseer: “There are three things that I would love to have if only I could get them.” When asked what these things were, he replied: “A Bible, a songbook, and a witnessing bag!”

“But why would you need those things, Eriki?” asked the overseer. Eriki answered: “So that when I go to the Kingdom Hall or out in the field, I can be one with my brothers and sisters. When I go witnessing, people may not believe what I say, but when I show them those words in my Bible, they can follow along. And in order to carry my Bible and songbook, I need a bag.” Soon after, Eriki was presented two gifts​—a new Bible and a songbook. Since the brothers do not have leather bags, they cut rice bags in half and sew shoulder straps to them. Eriki was presented with his own witnessing ‘rice bag’ too. It was like a dream come true for him. All the congregation shared his joy!

The Good News Reaches Makira Province

In 1984 a territory that had not before been explored by any Witnesses opened up. It was the island of San Cristobal, where tribal village areas were still dominant. It was difficult to assign pioneers to preach on the island because the tribal way of life made no provision for visitors. However, things began to look brighter when a brother who was a heavy equipment machine operator was sent to San Cristobal by his company. The branch quickly took advantage of this and dispatched James Ronomaelana, a special pioneer and now a member of the Branch Committee, to San Cristobal to evaluate the possibilities of opening up the work.

While witnessing on the island, James endured much opposition initially, and one day he was surprised to come across a sign that warned: “People of Jehovah! Do not trespass without permission to enter.” Many such discouraging moments, though, did not dampen his zeal, for which he was blessed with a thrilling experience. He relates: “In one village, I came to a large house. The man of the house owned a coconut plantation and cattle and was obviously much wealthier than his neighbors. So I turned away from this house, thinking that this man would not have the time for the truth. As I walked away, I began to judge my timid actions. I sternly asked, ‘Why am I turning away from this place?’ and then courageously answered, ‘Jehovah sent me here, and maybe it is the last time I will be here. I must go and talk to the man!’”

When he reached the house, he met the owners, Oswald and Rachel Oli. James enthusiastically opened the discussion by pointing out that God has a name, and he has a purpose for the earth. The couple were elated to learn that God will restore the earth to a paradise. On the second visit, a Bible study was started. Oswald and Rachel quickly began to conform their lives to Jehovah’s righteous principles. Since Oswald was a big contributor to the church, it was no surprise when fiery opposition from the Anglican Church was hurled against him. At that time also, special pioneers were assigned to open up the territory further, which added to the anger of the local pastors, so much so that they even instructed their members to use violence to silence the pioneers.

Neither the pioneers nor Oswald and his family were deterred. For example, when Hankton Salatalau, a special pioneer, was witnessing to an interested man, a member of the Anglican Church began screaming abuses at Hankton. When Hankton respectfully walked away, the man viciously attacked Hankton from behind and knocked him down onto sharp coral rocks, mercilessly kicking his body for more than 15 minutes. The village people were shocked as they looked on in horror. However, their great fear of their pastors prevented them from coming to his aid. Hankton lay helplessly on the ground defending his head and body with his arms. His blood-covered back looked like a piece of raw meat from being cut by the rocks. Finally, some villagers mustered up enough courage to intervene. They grabbed the attacker and held him back while Hankton, badly battered, made his way home.

It is too bad that many islanders are still caught within the church’s cobweb of fear. Nevertheless, some are beginning to see the distinction between true Christianity and Christendom. In the meantime the endurance of the four special pioneers has been rewarded. Two hardworking, happy congregations flourish on San Cristobal. Oswald, Rachel, and their children, as well as Rachel’s family, are now fearless publishers of the good news too.

[Picture on page 227]

Taro leaves are used as umbrellas. Messages can also be written on the leaves