Ordained as a Congregationalist minister in 1906, he worked for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) and what is now the United Church of Christ – Congregational in the Marshall Islands.
[1] Heine first arrived in the Marshall Islands in 1890 – then a German protectorate – as a sailor on the merchant barque George Noble.
He was nursed back to health by two Marshallese sisters, Arbella and Nenij, who were teachers in the local Sunday school.
The organisation met every two years, with Marshallese evangelists given the opportunity to participate in framing mission policy.
The meetings were banned by the Japanese during World War II but were revived in 1946 and ultimately developed into the United Church of Christ – Congregational in the Marshall Islands (UCCCMI).
Heine and other ABCFM missionaries, including Jessie Hoppin, visited Japan on a number of occasions, and he had contacts in the Imperial Japanese Navy.
[7][8] Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the outbreak of the War in the Pacific, most Americans withdrew from the Marshall Islands leaving Heine in charge of ABCFM activities.