– written by Shari Moberley, 1985

Several months ago, Terry was really seeking the Lord for wisdom and guidance about what His will for our lives was. One evening, while seeking the Lord in prayer, the word “Brazil” came strongly into his mind, and he felt it was from the Lord. At the same time he got a vision in his mind of a structure with wooden beams all around, a grass railing all along the sides and a grass or palm frond roof. It was an open-air structure. In the vision Terry was playing guitar, I was standing beside him, and we were leading worship.

After that happened, Terry put it on the back burner, although we did speak with the head of our missionary board at Vienna Christian Assembly in Vienna, Virginia, where we were attending church at the time. They encouraged Terry to not allow the vision to die, but to start praying for missions more and supporting them more, as well as to read a lot of books by missionaries. So both of us began to do that. About a month prior, my bosses told me that I was going to get a paid vacation, which was a pleasant surprise, as they never made that clear when I started there a year earlier.

Terry decided that he would also try to take a week off from work, so that we could travel somewhere together or go visit some relatives or friends. We couldn’t decide where to go, so we decided to pray about it, but neither of us sensed the Lord speaking to us about any place in particular. I jokingly suggested we put all our options into a hat and draw one. Terry thought it was a great idea, but instead of drawing it, he thought we should pray for the Lord’s guidance and then throw the papers all up in the air several feet out, and see if any of them landed in this little bowl we had. While Terry was tearing up the little pieces of paper he thought we should leave one blank in case the Lord didn’t want us to go to any of those places. Then all of a sudden he felt strongly impressed to write “Brazil” on one of the papers, as he was sure that God wanted us to go there. I was pretty skeptical, especially since we didn’t have the money to go to Brazil.

After crumpling all the papers into little paper balls, he prayed, “Lord, we commit this toss into your hands. We pray you guide the outcome of this toss. We bind Satan and every foul spirit from affecting the outcome of this toss in any way, in Jesus’ name, Amen”. Then he threw the papers (9 of them, the size of peas) up into the air and across the room. None of the papers fell directly into the bowl, however, one of them landed on the rug beside the bowl, and a second later “hopped” into the bowl. None of the other paper wads even bounced at all! It was very freaky looking! When we opened the paper, just as Terry knew it would be, “Brazil” was written on it. Wow! We had just witnessed a supernatural miracle!

The next morning Terry was praying about the situation, and asked the Lord to tell him the name of the city in Brazil that he wanted us to go to. After all, Brazil is as big as the U.S. Immediately the word “Porto” came into his mind, and he felt it was the Lord speaking it to him. We had never heard of Porto before, and didn’t know if it even existed.

That day I went to my parents and borrowed their huge world atlas. We looked at the index in the back, and we discovered that there were about 50 “Porto’s” in the world, many of which were in Brazil, but all of them were Porto something or other – none were just plain “Porto”. So Terry prayed some more, asking the Lord which Porto we were supposed to go to, but no second part of the name came into his mind. He suddenly felt led to trust the Lord to do something unusual like the night before. He put the atlas several feet away on the floor and opened it to South America (when open the atlas was about 2 feet square). He told me he was going to throw a tiny safety pin across the room onto the map, and whatever “Porto” it landed on, that would be the “Porto” we would go to.

Then he threw the safety pin high into the air and across the room in the direction of the atlas. It landed on the atlas, but it slid off onto the floor. Then Terry realized that he had forgotten to pray to ask the Lord to guide the outcome of the toss. So then he prayed, “Lord, we commit this toss into your hands. We pray you guide the outcome of this toss. We bind Satan and every foul spirit from affecting the outcome of this toss in any way, in Jesus’ name, Amen”. Then he picked up the safety pin and again tossed it up into the air and across the room towards the atlas on the floor.

Amazingly it landed on the atlas and stayed on it! When Terry walked over to see where it had landed, framed in the center of the safety pin was the name “Porto” – just plain Porto! Both of us were amazed!

As it turned out there had been a plain “Porto” in the index that Terry had overlooked. It is in the northern state of Piaui, Brazil. If he had seen it he would never have thrown the safety pin and seen God cause it to land on Porto! Wow! We had just witnessed another supernatural miracle! There was no doubt as to how the Lord was leading us. As further confirmation, a couple of hours later when we turned on the radio, the first thing we heard was someone talking about the need for missionaries in Brazil.

That same day Terry and I got together with some Christian friends and were sharing with them what had been happening about Brazil. As we were telling them the story, our friend David Maddox got really excited and said that as we were sharing he had gotten vision in his mind of the missionaries we would meet in Brazil. He said that they were Brazilian (not American as we had been assuming) and that they would not be able to speak English, but that God would make a way for us to be able to communicate with each other. Also, he said that the woman was around 40 pounds above average weight.

A couple of weeks earlier, Terry had asked his boss whether he was eligible for a vacation, and his boss said absolutely not! He said they were too short handed for him to take a week off, and they needed him to be working. So we knew that if God wanted us to go to Brazil He would have to change Terry’s boss’s heart. We prayed and asked God to change his heart. The next day Terry went and asked his boss if he could have that week off, and his boss said, “Sure, no problem!” God totally changed his heart, further confirming His leading and amazing us with another miracle!

Even though we did not have the finances for the trip, the Lord worked that out too. I unexpectedly became the owner of a life insurance policy on my 21st birthday that my dad had taken out on me when I was a child. The policy was worth $2,775 to us after being surrendered. As it turned out, it was exactly the amount needed for the trip. In fact, when we arrived back at Washington National Airport, we had only one quarter left, just what we needed to make the phone call we had to make to have someone come and pick us up! So God had provided perfectly down to the last cent!

Because the travel agent wasn’t able to find anything out about Porto, we only had our flight and travel plans figured out as far as Teresina, Brazil, which is the capital of Piaui. After that, it was up to us as to how to get ourselves to Porto, 180 kilometers (112 miles) north of Teresina. It was interesting to see how the Lord worked everything out, especially since we don’t know the Portuguese language at all, and had no idea where we would be staying. It was quite an adventure, but we were really looking forward to it. Porto is located in the upper northeastern part of Brazil near the Equator. Once we knew what the climate was like in that area, it seemed very likely that we would see structures like the one Terry saw in his vision, but of course only time would tell.

Terry and I left on our trip for Brazil on Sunday, the 18th of August, 1985. We got to Miami that afternoon and were scheduled to fly with Varig Brazilian Airlines to Belem that evening and then the next day from Belem to Teresina. However, after boarding our plane in Miami, we learned it was having engine problems, so we had to stay overnight in Miami. The next day, Monday, we were informed that the plane wasn’t going to be able to leave until Tuesday afternoon or later, because a part had to be flown up from Brazil. By this time we had missed our flight from Belem to Teresina and didn’t know when we would be able to get a connecting flight once we finally did get to Belem. So that night, Monday, Terry and I went to the airport and told them that we wanted them to put us on a Pan Am flight or else we wanted a refund, since we were only going to be in Brazil for a week anyway. Praise the Lord, they put us on a Pan Am flight that night at 11 p.m. that was leaving for Rio de Janeiro, and from there we were able to get a connecting flight to Teresina.

Although we didn’t get to do any sight seeing in Rio, we really did enjoy our flight, and the view we had from the airplane of Rio was very beautiful! In addition, we got to see a few of the major cities in Brazil along the coast as we were flying to Teresina, since the plane had about three other stops in between. As we approached Teresina, it was really exciting for us, because for the first time since we had left Rio we started to see structures like the one that Terry had envisioned several months earlier. None of the other places in Brazil that we had flown over had anything like them.

We arrived in Teresina Tuesday afternoon, having only lost one day in our schedule. Terry and I could not find anyone who spoke English at the Teresina Airport, and we had quite a time of it trying to communicate. Eventually we did manage to get a taxi to a hotel and exchange our money. At the hotel no one spoke English. It certainly was an interesting situation to be in! That night while Terry and I were in the hotel restaurant having dinner, a group of Brazilian businessmen walked in. Terry asked them if any of them spoke English, and it turned out that one of them did. The man who spoke English was very nice and helped us to rent a car so we could drive to Porto.

The next day, Wednesday, Terry and I set off for Porto. It took us five hours to drive the 112 miles, and the road was something else! Here is a map showing our route. There were lots of pot holes that we had to dodge on the first part of the trip. Upon leaving Barras (106 km up the road) we discovered that the remaining road was unpaved. It was gravel, bumpy and very rough with huge potholes so close together it was impossible to dodge them all. It was an interesting ride with little villages and many grass huts along the way. We learned later that the corrupt government at that time would divert the money designated for paving the roads to their own wants. Then they would require all the maps so show the roads as paved, in order to try to fool the public.

After about 5 hours, we finally arrived in Porto! When we got there, Terry and I drove around trying to find someone who spoke English. We also wanted to see if we could find the structure that Terry had envisioned several months earlier. We did see several that looked similar but none that were exactly like it. After several hours, we still hadn’t found anyone who spoke English. Some of the people did try to help us, and we managed to communicate somewhat with them using mostly hand signals and an English/Portuguese dictionary. Unfortunately, we discovered upon our arrival in Brazil that all of the pages with the “W’s” (who, what, why, where and when) were missing. It was a used dictionary we were borrowing. Apparently someone had previously removed said pages for quick and easy reference. Eventually, we did manage to convince them that we were not lost but did indeed wish to stay in Porto, much to their surprise.

Some people indicated that there was a place down the road where we could pitch our tent, so Terry and I set off to make camp. It was a little field at the edge of town near the river. While we were putting up our tent there were about 100 people standing around watching us. It was something I had never experienced before, and yet it turned out to be the norm of our whole stay in Porto. We always had large crowds surrounding us or following us wherever we went. We later found out that we were the first Americans to ever come to Porto, and only the second foreigners since the original Catholic mission was founded there 300 years ago!

That first night was somewhat discouraging for us. We had hoped that we would meet the missionaries right away or at least find someone who spoke English, but that didn’t happen. Our first night in the tent was very strange. People and animals were creeping around our tent all night. We had pigs coming up to our tent and grunting all night long. In Porto all the animals just roam the streets freely. There were voodoo drums booming out from across the river late into the night, and then roosters started crowing ceaselessly at about 3 a.m.

The next morning, having gotten little sleep, Terry and I decided to wander around Porto to see what we could find. During that time we met a girl around 12 years old named Angelita (with the red baseball cap) who befriended us and decided to show us around the town. We continued to communicate by looking up words in our little dictionary and using sign language. That morning, Terry played a game of billiards with one of the locals, and found out afterwards that he had just gambled away his watch. It turned out that the same word in Portuguese that means “to play” also means “to gamble”, and billiards is only played for gambling in Porto. Fortunately, the man was kind enough to return the watch to Terry, after he realized that Terry hadn’t meant to gamble and that the watch wasn’t real gold anyway.

While Terry was cooking our lunch that day, we had about 75-100 people standing around watching us. One of the ladies who lived in the house across from our tent brought us out a couple of chairs and a table and insisted that I sit down. Then she started rearranging Terry’s fire and showed him the “proper” way to cook over it. She also brought some coals from her house and a fan to help the fire along. Terry and I were so overwhelmed by how kind the people were. Later, while we were eating, a guy Terry’s age came walking up to us and welcomed us in English, which he spoke fairly well. He said that his name was Padua (Pah-dwa) and that he would love the opportunity to speak with us. He also invited us to come to his house to cook our meals on the following days.

Later that day, while Terry and I were walking down to the river with Padua to go swimming, he asked us if we wanted to see the places of sorcery and explained that they had two places of voodoo there in Porto. Terry and I said no. Padua then said “Why, are you Protestant”? We told him yes, while thinking that it was very interesting that he had asked us that question. In Porto, and in much of Brazil, most of the people are professed Catholics, but many of them still practice or believe in voodoo and have actually merely transferred Biblical names onto their voodoo gods. The Protestants in Brazil take a serious stand against voodoo. Then we asked Padua if there were any Protestant churches in Porto. We already knew that there were two Catholic churches. He said that there was one, and he agreed to show us where it was after dinner. In the meantime, Terry told him our whole story of how and why we came to Porto.

Padua was really amazed at our story, and to add to it he told us that he was only visiting his mother in Porto for two weeks for the first time in a year and that he wasn’t planning on coming back anymore. He also told us that he had almost left a day or two before, but then had decided to stay the whole two weeks after all. He was the only person in all of Porto that spoke English. We were convinced that it was a miracle of God that he was there in Porto at the same time that we were there! Padua went with us everywhere and was our constant companion and interpreter for the next few days.

That evening Padua took us to meet the Protestant pastor and his wife. They were indeed Brazilian missionaries and his wife was approximately 40 lbs. above average weight, and they didn’t speak any English, just as had been foretold to us by Dave Maddox after he saw it in the vision! Padua interpreted for us and told them who we were and why we had come to Porto. They were very excited after hearing our story and started asking us all kinds of questions. It was really neat because it turned out that theirs is an “Assembly of God” church, and we share many of the same beliefs. Their names are Manuel and Maria Oliveira.

While talking with Pastor Oliveira and Maria, we found out that their church building had collapsed during the last rainy season. They told us that they had plans for building a new church whenever they were able to get the necessary money for it. We showed them the picture I had drawn from the vision and asked them if it meant anything to them. They said, “Yes, this was our church before it collapsed”! Wow! We were so amazed! The vision Terry had gotten while sitting on the bed in our apartment in Fairfax, Virginia was a vision of the very church God was taking us to, thousands of miles away in another continent!

Their church had services every Friday and Saturday night and Sunday morning, so Terry and I went to all three of those services while we were there. Someone managed to round up a guitar (which was believed to be the only one in all of Porto) so Terry could play for them at the services. That was really terrific, because they didn’t have any instruments in the church for the worship, and they really loved it. Everyone wanted us to sing some songs, so we sang several at each service. We even got to teach them one song after, Padua had translated it from English into Portuguese for us. It was really a blessing, and the people were all so loving. It was an incredible experience for us to see how the love of God just shined from our brothers and sisters in Christ there in Porto. They were some of the most joyful people we have ever met.

One really exciting thing about our visit was that a large crowd of people who had never been to church before followed us to the services, out of curiosity, and heard the Gospel for the first time! Padua said that even he would probably become a Christian by the time we left! Until then he basically believed that all religions had the same god.

Most of our days in Porto were just spent getting to know the people and their lifestyles, having a good time and swimming in the river. The water was very warm and it was a lot of fun. We also went out on a little boat a couple of times. On the last day, after we had been swimming several times, they told us that there were alligators and piranhas in the river, but not to worry, they mostly stayed out in the deeper water away from shore! Every day there were women down at the river washing clothes. It was very interesting to watch, because after they washed each item they would put it on their head and pretty soon they had a whole stack of clothes on their head. Then they would walk home with their laundry on their heads.

One morning Terry went fishing with Padua and a little boy who had been begging Terry to go fishing with him since we had first gotten there. It was so funny because Padua had to speak to the boy’s teacher and get permission for him to miss class. His teacher said it was all right because it was a special occasion. They had a good time and caught several small fish. We took the fish back to Padua’s house and they fried them up for us, heads and all! To reciprocate, Terry offered them some Campbell’s Chunky Beef soup. We had brought along enough food for ourselves for a week. I told them that in America we didn’t eat the fish heads, and that was O.K. with them, because they didn’t like my soup either.

We spent a good bit of time over at Padua’s house. His mother was very warm and hospitable and insisted on cooking our meals. They had a stone stove that uses coal and they washed all of our dishes with water from a hose outside. One afternoon I took a nap in a hammock in their home. In Porto most of the people sleep in hammocks so the poisonous snakes can’t get to them while they are sleeping.

Terry and I left to drive back to Teresina Sunday afternoon. Before we left Porto, however, several people showered us with little gifts of fruit and handmade dolls for our baby. It was really touching, and both Terry and I were extremely blessed by their abundant love and kindness towards us. When we were leaving there was a large crowd of people gathered around us, and many of them had tears in their eyes. Padua told us that the people said they loved us and wanted us to come back again some day.

Padua was also heading back to Teresina on the same day that we were, so he went with us in our rent-a-car. Padua was going to the university in Teresina. When we first drove into Porto we had assumed that there would be a gas station there. There had been gas stations in all of the other towns along the way. As it turned out there weren’t any gas stations in Porto and only about four families in Porto had cars, and our gas tank was just about on empty. Padua came to the rescue for us as usual. He managed to round up a few bottles of gas for us from some locals – enough to get us to the next town. He had to round up more bottles of gas for us in each town that we came to, because all of the gas stations were closed on Sunday. Padua was a terrific friend to us!

Once we got to Teresina, we discovered that Padua’s uncle’s house (where he was staying) was just down the street from where our hotel was! That was really terrific, because we were able to spend a lot more time with Padua before our plane left on Tuesday. Monday, Padua showed us around the city, and we got to go shopping for souvenirs in the local markets. We also went to the beach in the afternoon and had a good time.

The hotel in Teresina that we stayed in was the called the “Luxor Hotel”. It was nice and incredibly low priced, and they treated us like royalty there! Terry and I were really blessed. It was like an early anniversary celebration for us.

Well, that’s the rundown on our trip to Porto. I know this letter has gotten to be really long, but it really doesn’t even begin to convey what Porto was like or half of the things that happened while we were there.