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Micronesia1997 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses
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Julian Aki and Melvin Ah You, both of them missionaries, joined the Mikkelsens there in 1965, and in just a few months, these enthusiastic brothers had learned enough Marshallese to present a simple sermon and had also constructed an A-frame missionary home.
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Micronesia1997 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses
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Islanders Impressed by New Missionaries
To begin the 1966 service year, Aki and Ah You decided it was time to become better acquainted with their territory, so they booked passage on an iron-hulled cargo ship that stopped at the outer atolls of the Marshall Islands. Also aboard for this 24-day field trip was a newly married Protestant minister who had been in the islands for three years. Radio announcements alerted each atoll that “the reverend” and his bride would soon be arriving. How disappointed the islanders were when this minister spoke through an interpreter! He had never bothered to learn Marshallese.
When this minister warned his listeners to avoid the “two false shepherds” on board, people became even more curious to see the missionaries of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were speaking their Marshallese language and relating marvelous things from the Bible. Time and again they would beg: “Stay here and teach us the Bible. We will care for your needs. Just stay with us until the next ship!”
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Micronesia1997 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses
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With such local brothers as William and Sailass assuming responsibility, Julian Aki and Donald Burgess, a newly arrived missionary, were able to move on to Ebeye, a tiny atoll in the western Marshall Islands.
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