Connecting the Dots

Prior to moving to Guam, we read the 1997 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, which contains accounts and experiences about how Jehovah's Witnesses first came to Micronesia.  Recently, I've taken a second look at those accounts and discovered that many of the same people are still here.  For example, here are a few excerpts:

Early in the 1980’s, Jim Persinger, in the United States, decided that his cement plant was taking up too much of his time, so he and his wife, Jene, chose to simplify their lives. They built a 50-foot [15 m] concrete sailboat, named it Petra, and set sail for Guam. The Persingers’ boat proved invaluable on construction projects.

Between 1982 and 1991, missionary homes and Kingdom Halls were built on six of the Micronesian islands. Lack of materials made construction a challenge. On some building projects, the brothers had to make their own concrete blocks by hand. They would pour cement into a small mold and let it set. They made their own gravel by smashing coral, and they had to provide their own sand. To transport supplies and workers from one island to another, the Petra was often used. “When we were building the Kingdom Hall in Chuuk, you couldn’t buy sand on the island,” Jim Persinger explains, “so we would sail out to a small island where nobody lived, and we would shovel sand from the beach into bags. Then we would load it onto the boat and sail back to the construction site.”

Ray Scholze, who had military engineering experience, was overseer for most of the Micronesian construction projects. At the core of his work crew were Calvin Arii, Avery Teeple, and Miles Inouye, who had come from Hawaii to help build the new branch and then made Guam their home. Together, they often improvised to get a job done.

Jim and Jene Persinger and Calvin Arii are in our congregation.  And I think some of you know Ray Sholze and his wife, Diane (now in Monmouth).

We went to dinner with the Persingers one evening and learned some details of their trip over to the islands.  They brought with them three teenagers, their own children and Barak Bowman who is now on the Branch Committee.  Here's another exerpt about Barak:

Missionaries throughout Micronesia routinely use their cars or pickup trucks to help people get to meetings, but there is a form of transportation that perhaps only Barak Bowman has tried. When the failing health of a heavyset 70-year-old sister prevented her from walking the two miles [3 km] to the Kingdom Hall, Barak tried to figure out a way to help her. “I would like to pick you up for the meeting,” he said, “but I only have a wheelbarrow that I can use.” To his surprise, she replied, “OK, I don’t mind.”

You can imagine the sight as they rolled along the trail en route to the meeting—also the effort that was required on Barak’s part. He would leave home at 7:00 a.m. with an empty wheelbarrow and arrive back at the hall with our sister aboard just in time for the 9:30 a.m. program.

Barak spent many years in Chuuk as a missionary. This account is just like the man we know today.  He's always bending over backwards to help people.  Also mentioned in the Yearbook are Roger Konno, who took care of our housing needs when we first arrived here.  He was a missionary in Palau for 30 years or so before coming to the Guam Branch.  Here's a blurb about the Gabriels, who we lived with for two weeks:

For 14 years (now 27 years) Ernesto and Gloria Gabriel have been witnessing to the Filipino community, which accounts for one fourth (maybe more now) of Guam’s population. Together, the Tagalog and Iloko congregations are larger than any of the island’s five English congregations.

It's a privilege to know so many who are willing to make such huge sacrifices to help others.

Photo: traditional sailboat, called a proa