Anderson, Mo. ? More than 1,000 mourners packed a southwest Missouri funeral home Saturday to remember three leaders of a Pacific Islander community gunned down by a fellow Micronesian immigrant in church a week ago today.

Hundreds of Micronesians and other islanders from southwest Missouri and neighboring Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas poured into this small town south of Neosho, the scene of the shooting.

“This was a heart-rending shock for Micronesians everywhere,” said James Naich, acting ambassador of the Federated States of Micronesia, who flew in from Washington D.C.

Victims Kernal Rehobson, 43; his uncle, Intenson Rehobson, 44; and family friend Kuhpes Jesse Ikosia, 53, were remembered as leaders who helped a Micronesian community, many of whom arrived in the area in the 1980s and early 1990s looking for better education for their children and work in local poultry and other industries.

Naich said the local community of about 600 is part of an estimated 20,000 Micronesians in the continental United States.

All three men were pastors or associate pastors of the Micronesian congregation that met for services in their native languages in Neosho’s First Congregational Church.

“I think that they would ask you to pick up their standard and continue as standards have been picked up on battlefields where men are injured or fallen,” said the Rev. Tom Thorne, pastor of First Congregational Church, who presided at the funeral.

Hymns were in the victims’ native Pingelapese, with the service alternating between the island language and English.

Relatives who delivered eulogies repeatedly broke into tears and choked back sobs as they stood before the packed pews facing the three open caskets. Other mourners stood in the aisles or followed a broadcast of the service from other rooms in the funeral home.

“He was my brother but also our mentor and a father figure. He was the one who made the plans. He always had a smile on his face,” said Kernal Rehobson’s sister, Lou Rehobson-Manuel.

“But we know that if we all come and share our grief and sorrow, our grief and sorrow will get better day by day,” Rehobson-Manual said.

Eiken Elam Saimon, 52, stormed the sanctuary during last Sunday’s services, shooting the three men and briefly holding the congregation hostage until police entered the church and he surrendered.

Saimon is being held without bond in the Newton County Jail. He is charged with three counts of first-degree murder, four counts of assault and one count of felonious restraint.