In that year, Ropati Uili, a medical doctor, returned to Tokelau after graduating from medical school in Fiji. Ropati’s wife, Emmau, was a baptized Witness, and he had studied with Jehovah’s Witnesses briefly in Fiji.f

In Tokelau, Ropati discovered that another doctor and his wife, Iona and Luisa Tinielu, were baptized Witnesses. He also met another interested person, Nanumea Foua, whose relatives were Jehovah’s Witnesses. The three men organized regular Bible meetings and public talks, and soon an average of 25 persons were attending. The three and their families also began to witness informally to others.

However, not everyone was pleased with this theocratic activity. At the instigation of a pastor of the London Missionary Society, the island’s council of elders summoned the three family heads. “They ordered us to stop our meetings,” recalls Ropati, “and said that if we disobeyed, they would burn us alive in our homes or cast us adrift on a raft. We tried to reason with them using the Scriptures, but they were adamant. They expected their authority to be respected at all costs.” After hearing this ultimatum, the families decided to hold their meetings discreetly to avoid attracting attention.

This opposition, however, was only the start of their troubles. Twelve years later, when Ropati’s sister and brother-in-law accepted the truth and resigned from their church, the village elders banished every Witness from the village. “That night,” writes Ropati, “each family gathered its personal belongings, loaded them onto small boats, and fled to the largest village on the island. Their homes and plantations were plundered by their former neighbors.”

Despite this persecution, the publishers courageously continued to meet together for worship. “Acting as if they were going on a weekend outing,” Ropati relates, “the families would paddle to an isolated islet on Saturday morning and return Sunday evening after holding their meeting.” At that time, several families also made the long and arduous boat trip from Tokelau to Samoa to attend annual district conventions.

The relentless opposition, however, eventually prompted these families to emigrate to New Zealand.