Missions

One Piece of Literature, 2,790 Baptisms

With God, the impossible becomes the possible.

Paul Damazo and Norma Winders

Share
Comments
One Piece of Literature, 2,790 Baptisms
Unsplash.com

Ma, look what I found in the garden,” cried 4-year-old Christina as she ran from the garden and burst into her ma’s kitchen. She handed her mama a small leaflet. Maria Cordeiro took the colorful piece of paper from her daughter and glanced at it briefly. The words immediately jumped off the page at her: “Confess your sins only to God.” She and her family were devout in their faith, and she considered that statement heresy. She could not be caught reading such literature. “We confess our sins only to the priest,” she said to herself. She quickly hid the pamphlet in a drawer and went about her tasks, trying to forget what she had just read.

It was 1899, in a town called Ponta Delgada on São Miguel Island in the Azores (Portugal), when little Christina found that pamphlet. The pamphlet remained concealed in its hiding place in Maria’s dresser drawer as they faithfully attended Mass each Sunday and confessed their sins to the priest. But the ideas Maria had tucked in the back of her mind from that pamphlet kept haunting her—confession and a seventh-day Sabbath.

In 1902 the ambitious Maria and her husband, Joseph, made plans to go to the United States, where they would have a chance of a better life for their family. Christina, now 7, found herself and her family settled in Taunton, Massachusetts. Everything was so different from her life in Ponta Delgado except for the fact that their family could continue worshiping in their faith community near their home.

One summer afternoon Joseph saw a big tent being erected across the street from their church. He couldn’t help watching and wondering. The priest was also watching and wondering. Joseph couldn’t wait to tell Maria. “I finally found out what is going on at the big tent,” he said excitedly. “They’re holding Bible meetings there.” Their priest would not look kindly on their attending, but when Maria received a postcard in the mail, she checked the dates. “Tonight is the first meeting,” she announced. “It starts at 7:00 p.m.”

With the children scrubbed and dressed, the family made their way to the first of 10 tent meetings. As they listened, it wasn’t long before Maria recognized that the “heresy” she had read about so long ago in that pamphlet sounded a lot like what she was hearing in these nightly meetings. The voice of the Holy Spirit was even stronger than the local priest’s warnings. At the conclusion of the tent meetings Joseph and Maria were baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As their family of five children grew, they too would be baptized.

At the age of 16, in 1911, Christina was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Taunton, Massachusetts. On one particular Sabbath Christina glanced across the aisle and took special notice of a lone young man. Christina quickly turned to her mother and whispered, “Ma, see that young man sitting over there? Could you invite him home for lunch?” Christina was always aware when visitors came to worship. It would turn out to be a very memorable afternoon. How memorable? Let’s digress for a moment as we find out more about this young man who seemed to have caught the eye of young Christina.

Christina’s first contact with Adventism was attributable to the efforts of someone who never saw the fruit of their labor. 

A Circuitous Route

Francisco de Souza Damazio was born on March 1, 1891, in the town of Agua de Pau on the island of São Miguel in the Azores of Portugal. His family was blessed with 15 children, Francisco being the oldest. At the age of 12 Francisco was placed under the guardianship of his uncle José, who would bring him to America, where he was to work and send his earnings back to his family in the Azores. Francisco tried to face his unknown future with maturity, even though he was but a child.

During the nine-day voyage across the Atlantic, Francisco learned he would be living with another uncle in Lodi, California, Uncle Luis. He was to work as a farmhand in exchange for his room and board and a small wage. There was excitement in the air the morning of their arrival at the New York harbor and ultimately at Ellis Island as Francisco and Uncle Luis squeezed and wiggled their way through the crowd to view the Statue of Liberty.

They spent their first night in New York, then boarded a train that would carry them across many miles to their final destination in California. It was not long before Francisco found himself under the taskmaster Uncle Luis, who had no compassion. Francisco would fall into bed at night, retrieve his rosary, and pray for a miracle. He became very ill from overwork and malnutrition and was desperate for relief.

The relief came in the form of the Meads, who lived on the neighboring farm and visited Luis regularly. It wasn’t long before it was clear to the Meads that Francisco was being mistreated and abused by his uncle Luis. A plan was made. Francisco put his meager belongings, along with his precious rosary, into a bag, climbed into Mr. Mead’s wagon, and never looked back.

He found the Mead family caring and nurturing. The routine at the Meads’ home was much different than what he had known growing up with his 14 siblings in a religiously devout home. The Meads, being Seventh-day Adventists, began each morning with prayer and ended the day with prayer and Bible stories. The prayers he heard from the family sounded more like a conversation with an unseen person. “Why don’t you pray with a rosary?” Francisco asked. That was only the first of many questions that poured from the lips and heart of young Francisco as he learned more and more about the Bible.

He worked hard that summer; mastered the English language; and began to use the American equivalent of his name—Damazo. He would now be proudly known as Frank Souza Damazo. At 16 he knew it was time to complete his education. The Meads had provided an excellent foundation for his future life.

In 1909, at the age of 17, Frank Souza Damazo enrolled in the Pacific Union College Academy. He learned how to farm, was taught the value of money, salesmanship, and the value of an honest day’s work. His work ethic and brilliant mind were noticed by the school faculty, so he was assigned the job of driving the school’s prestigious delivery wagon.

World War I broke out during the summer of 1914, and just after completing his college education, Frank was drafted. November 11, 1918, found him on a long train ride east to New York and the battlefield. At a stopover in Indiana, however, he received the excellent news that the war was over! Each of the men were given $200 to head back home.

Sabbath Afternoon Dinner

Frank took his $200 and caught a train to Bristol, Rhode Island, where he would surprise his two sisters with an unexpected visit. His sisters embraced him and his new Adventist beliefs. They helped him locate a Portuguese-speaking congregation, where that Sabbath morning he met Christina’s family!

It was around that Sabbath afternoon dinner table that young Frank and Christina shared their life stories, amazed at the similarities of their life journey up to that point. A friendship blossomed and grew into love and marriage. The Damazo family, including Pa and Ma, as their 10 children called them, would no more miss going to Sabbath School and church on time than they would miss breathing, eating, or sleeping.

Pa was a soul winner from day one. He started his own business and started witnessing to his customers. This, in turn, led to home small group meetings, during which he would study with a group of 10 to 20 of his customers. With the help of his boys, Pa conducted Bible studies, which, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, resulted in several hundred baptisms. Pa and Ma’s oldest son, Joseph, became a pastor, and he too rejoiced in witnessing more than 1,000 baptisms. Pa and Ma’s 10 children were all active in the church and in winning souls. There are now only four of the 10 children alive today. They all still share Pa’s love for soul winning.

Incredibly, there have been at least 2,790 countable baptisms as a result of that one piece of literature that Christina found in her garden so many decades ago.

Direct work in the Azores did not begin until 1931, when a colporteur sold Adventist literature there. By that time both Frank and Christina had left the island. Christina’s first contact with Adventism was attributable to the efforts of someone who never saw the fruit of their labor. “As early as 1892 G. R. Drew, of England, reported the sending of publications by ship to the island of São Miguel in the Azores. No results were known.”* Brother Drew will be surprised and blessed to learn the rest of the story when he gets to heaven. 


* Review and Herald, Apr. 12, 1892, p. 230.

Paul Damazo and Norma Winders

Paul Damazo, at age 96, still volunteers five hours per week.

Norma Winders worked as a senior executive assistant to numerous professionals of major corporations before her retirement.

Advertisement blank