Missionaries In
p. 51 · Read in the full issue
Samoan
Papua
“John Williams” Brings Long- Awaited Relief
From Our Own Correspondent Apia. October 20.
THE well-known LMS Mission vessel John Williams V, an auxiliary schooner which has been servicing LMS stations in the Ellice. Gilbert and Tokelau groups since about 1931, has been far off her beaten track. She has just returned to Apia after travelling as far west as Daru in Papua.
The John Williams, under Captain Stanton Page, sailed from Apia on July 22. Her accommodation was crowded
with 14 Samoan missionaries and their wives, who were en route to relieve the Samoan teachers and missionaries in Papua, where —owing to wartime condi tions—they had had up to eight years of constant service.
It took 13 days for the ship to reach Samarai. Thence she went to Suau Island, Fife Bay (where she loaded timber for a new mission station at Mailu), Hula, Kapakapa, Port Moresby, Delena, Moru, Orokolo and Daru.
In all these places she dropped the new missionaries and picked up the old; and when she left Samarai, for Apia, on September 4, she carried nine Samoan missionaries, with their wives, one wid ower, two widows, and 21 children. They had head-winds and rough seas; but the whole 42 arrived in Apia safely on Octo ber 1, wild with excitement to see again their beloved homeland.
The leader of the returning party is Pastor V. Ekeroma, a splendid type of intelligent and well-educated young Samoan, speaking fluent and excellent English. He stated that the Samoan missionaries were working in the South- Eastern division of Papua and that he himself was stationed not far away from the scene of the fighting at Milne Bay.
Lawes College, where Rev. Nixon was in charge, is only about 40 miles from Milne Bay. None of the mission stations in charge of Samoans was damaged or in the battle zone. The Papuans were steadfastly loyal to the Allied cause and hated the invading Japanese.
The splendid work of the Samoan mis sionaries in Papua during the war years was commended by the Head of the London Missionary Society in London, who expressed appreciation in a special lettter to them.
A photograph of Pastors of the LMS and their families, taken recently in Suva, by Caines’ Studios. They have only recently returned home after serving in the mission fields in Papua and the Ellice Islands. Pastors, standing from left to right, are: Maeli (Ellice), Sepania (Papua), Iate (Ellice), Siu (Ellice), Rev. S. V. Wightman (Suva), Josefa (Ellice), Founuku (Ellice), Tanila (Papua), Matatia (Papua).