By Andrew McChesney

One of the most perplexing questions that people ask is how to choose the right spouse.

For Mario Brito, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Inter-European Division, it was simple: He asked God two seemingly impossible things.

Image © Pacific Press

Mario remembered Maria while praying for a mission-minded wife as a third-year theology student at the Adventist University of France in Collonges, France. The two had met the previous year as students at the Spanish Adventist Seminary (now Spanish Adventist College) in Sagunto, Spain.

Mario had the strong impression that Maria might be the one. But he wasn’t completely certain, so he prayed, “God, if You see that Maria should be my wife, put it in her heart to write me a letter.”

This an impossible request at a time when women never took the initiative in a dating relationship.

To Mario’s surprise, he received a friendly letter about a week later. He wrote a warm letter to Maria and made the second impossible prayer request.

“Lord, the normal thing would be for Maria to answer”, he said. “But if she is to be my wife, make it happen in such a way that she doesn’t answer.”

Weeks passed, and no letter came. The two didn’t communicate again until the next school year when Maria moved to the Adventist University of France for her third year of studies. Soon, Mario and Maria were dating.

One day, Mario curiously asked Maria why she hadn’t replied.

“I felt it was a cold and very formal letter, so I decided not to answer”, she said.

Mario couldn’t believe her description and asked whether she still had the letter. Maria retrieved the letter from her room, and the couple read it together. It was as warm as Mario remembered.

“What was wrong with it so you didn’t answer?” Mario asked again.

Maria didn’t know what to say. Mario then told her about his two prayers.

Maria smiled. “Now you have the explanation!” she said.

The couple married the next year.

Thirty-nine years later, Mario remains confident that he chose the right wife. The couple served as frontline missionaries planting churches in unreached areas of Portugal for more than a decade. Mario went on to become president of the Adventist Church in Portugal and, in 2015, he was elected president of the Inter-European Division.

Mario and Maria’s home is also a mission field. They raised a daughter, who is married to an Adventist pastor, and are the adoptive parents of 12 teenagers.

“Maria has a heart for mission”, Mario said. “Yes, I believe it was the right match.”

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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