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Assemblies of God personnel in the Azores, Portugal, John and Beccy Rodli share this
testimony of Paulo and Nancy Maia who have arrived to help in the planting of a new church
and the ministries that will be developed through it. They are adapting to the island culture
and have come with a desire to reach people for Jesus.
 Paulo was born near Lisbon, Portugal in l976 into a dysfunctional home which brought
instability to his life. He would be home alone after school, watching TV until his mother and brother
returned home in the evening. At ten years of age, he saw a movie about Jesus on TV during the Easter
season. Paulo remembers crying a lot through it, and began a relationship with God, praying and
reading the Bible. He attended all the rituals and activities of his traditional church but eventually
became disappointed and felt deceived, giving up godly ways. But his initial experience with
God never left his subconscious.
Paulo himself continues with his life testimony. "I always enjoyed reading and at fourteen I got caught up with
atheism, existentialism and worldly thought of modern philosophers. I continued to do very well in school,
but began to smoke and became an extremely rebellious teenager. At fifteen, I began smoking marihuana and hashish
and I began to experiment with LSD, cocaine and alcohol mixed with downers.
At sixteen, even though I was getting excellent grades, I started shooting heroin and quit school to earn
money for drugs. My downward spiral continued with robbery, violence, arrests, court hearings, shame and
despair.
I tried everything I could to get off drugs: prescription drugs, psychologists,
clinics and farm programs for addicts, even turning to cults and spiritual mediums.
Nothing worked. My condition worsened and I was seriously considering suicide.
At seventeen I began to hear a message of hope from an elderly woman who was a street
evangelist. Almost daily she would find me and tell me that Jesus loved me, wanted to complete something He
had begun in me years before and had a purpose for my life to bring Him glory.
By 23 my life was a wreck. Demonic oppression pushed me towards suicide. I wept in helplessness until I
remembered the peace I had found in Jesus thirteen years earlier. I recalled the words of the woman evangelist
and I cried out to the Lord to help me. My mother also found Christ at that time, and we began to attend
church and Teen Challenge meetings together. I was able to reduce my consumption of heroin, but was
dependent on replacement drugs to remain calm. My thirst for God and His Word grew.
A year later I joined the Teen Challenge (drug rehabilitation) program and was able to end all drug dependency and enter into
intensive discipleship for new believers. The center was located in the same village as the Assemblies of
God World Missions Bible college campus, Mount Hope, where I attended church and conferences.
Following completion of the program I served in the ministry of Teen Challenge in a newly opened center
in northern Portugal. It was a time of growing in faith and fellowship, but my hunger for Bible knowledge
intensified. My pastor encouraged me to enter ministerial training at Mount Hope.
It was at the Bible school that I met my wife, Nancy. We graduated in 2005. We believe God wants to use
us in the Azores, but even more, He wants to continue to daily change us into His image until He returns."
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