A number of years ago, we needed to discover ways to expedite training and economize on travel time. One common technique was to buy all the software needed for Bible Translation here in the States and load it on a hard drive. The hard drive was brought to the field and carefully installed into a locally bought computer. Then, the translators were trained how to use that software.

This is exactly what I did just before one of my trips to Brazil. I had only 5 days to both install the hard drive and start training people how to use it.

However, at this very point in time, in an effort to protect the national industry, Brazil created a law that did not permit computers or computer parts, to be brought from the United States into the country. I only learned about this new restriction at Immigration at the Rio de Janeiro airport!

In Rio de Janeiro, they had an interesting system at the Customs gate. You have to punch a big button. If the light on top of the button turns green, you are then free to enter with all your bags into the waiting area for arrivals.

If the light turns red, then you needed to go into an enclosed area for a Customs inspection. You had to open all your bags for them to be checked.

In front of the button, I started praying very hard. I told the Lord exactly what had happened and that I was not informed of the situation before arriving to the airport. Then I hit the button.

My heart sank, the light turned… RED!

So, I carefully loaded all my bags into a rolling cart and headed toward the inspection area, preparing myself for a long manual check. There were no X-rays machines yet in those days in Brazil.

The area was completely full of people. They formed four lines in front of four large thin tables. Several fans were blowing in the hot room. The noise of the fans and loud voices complaining about things being confiscated did not put my heart at ease at all, but I continued praying.

At the other end of the lines, in the waiting area, I could see the person waiting for me. He was peeking through the exit and making gestures showing great concern.

Asking the Lord for protection, I chose one of the four lines without putting much thought into who was in front of me. I was too busy trying to open the small locks in the three bags I was carrying.

Once I’d finished opening the locks, I took a good look at who was actually in the line in front of me. There were at least five people and they all were carrying, not only bags, but also big heavy boxes! Three of them were speaking Portuguese and seemed to be together.

Finally, the inspector who was obviously very tired and hot called the group of three men next. They started to open one bag and box after another. Before examining all those boxes that group had, the inspector saw my three little bags and signaled me to just go ahead. “Vá, vá embora,” (go, go ahead) he said.

As I passed, I suddenly found myself amazed, because what all those bags and boxes were actually filled with were… Bibles!

You will be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8