“For Korea and Japan, the Pantanal is at the other end of the pole. The Pantanal is at the end of the earth. But the Original Holy Ground, Root Holy Ground, and Holy Ground of Victory can all be found there. This is something tremendous. The Original Holy Ground is set up in our hotel in the Pantanal.” (Rev. Sun Myung Moon 304-110, 1999.9.10)
There is a story in the Pantanal of a historical meeting between God and Lucifer. It is the story of the Second Coming who opened the gates of hell through endless love and forgiveness and completed the Providence of Restoration, culminating with Satan’s natural surrender in 1999.
It is told by our Brazilian brother, Peter Paulo Alves Pinheiro, who was the main witness of the historic meeting of God, True Father and Lucifer on May 14, 1999 in room 14 of the Hotel Americano in Nabileque, and of the events at Salobra that led to this meeting.
Paulo had met True Father when he was a young boat captain at the age of 21 at Salobra Hotel, the first property that True Father purchased in the Pantanal wetlands. Paulo was the boat captain that served True Father for all of the fishing trips in Pantanal. Although he was not then a church member and was not educated in Divine Principle, Paulo saw and experienced the actual spiritual activities of True Father in Pantanal. He was the main witness appointed by True Father.
Through Paulo’s testimony, we can understand why True Father called these undeveloped wetlands the Original Holy Ground, Root Holy Ground, and Victorious Holy Ground.
OHS, June 4, 2021
(The original testimony was recorded in Portuguese in May and June of 2021. It was transcribed then translated to English with the approval of the author. Some of the events described may seem hard to follow or understand but other spiritually open members have also testified to seeing Father deal with spiritual events of great magnitude during the course of True Parents’ providential work. This is the sincere testimony of one such person.)
By Peter Paulo Alves Pinheiro
Part 4 (final) Click to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
The Meeting of God and Lucifer
On May 13, 1999, we were fishing in Nabileque. At dusk, on the way back to Fuerte Olimpo, we passed in front of Hotel Americano. As we passed, I felt a bad atmosphere there, and it seemed that Satan was there. Satan, who had fallen in Salobra, walked 55 days to Nabileque. True Father looked at Hotel Americano, and then looked at me. Then He lowered his head quietly. We passed the hotel and went down the Paraguay River, fishing near Fuerte Olimpo.
The next day, May 14, at 5:40am, True Father came to the boat docked at Fuerte Olimpo. He had a formal suit on that day. That was the only day I saw True Father in a suit on a boat in Pantanal. We had a wooden ladder that True Father used to climb up on the boat. While He was on the ladder, I felt an evil angel descend. I knew that it was evil because of its smell and a bad, strange feeling. When it descended, I felt the wind. Then True Father leaned towards this being and looked into its eyes. The angel lowered his head and kept its head down so as not to look at True Father’s face. True Father tried to look into the angel’s eyes even more. The angel then stood up and I could then see that he had red, evil and angry eyes that were not human. When True Father stopped leaning over and straightened His posture, another angel descended. This angel had a tool in his hand, which he used to strike the first angel, as if the second angel was trying to protect True Father. Then True Father looked at me and raised His eyebrow, as if saying “look who’s here.” True Father finished climbing into the boat and then asked me immediately if we could arrive at Hotel Americano by 6am because there was an important ceremony to do there. As I drove the boat away from the land, the angels were no longer there.
When we arrived at Nabileque at the Hotel Americano before 6am, True Father said “Paulo, chair.”
I said “Ok, Abonim, leave it to me.” I saw a white chair under room number 14. I thought this chair was to be taken to him. True Father went up the stairs and I followed Him and I saw a lot of chairs. So I understood then that True Father wanted me to sit in the chair under room 14, and I sensed that being on the boat was dangerous, especially because of what I saw that morning in Fuerte Olimpo. So I sat down on the chair and already something strange was happening around 6 o’clock. I saw the boat from the chair and said to myself “No, I will not abandon the boat because if the evil angel comes, the only protection is me.” I forced myself to get up from the chair to go towards the boat—but then I was [suddenly] in another place, in another environment. I did not see anything around me, only my body and the chair. I was in despair and was about to scream. Then I saw True Father. I told myself, “Rev. Moon is here, so that is good” and I calmed down a little.
I saw True Father calling out Satan from the bathroom of the hotel. True Father opened the door, and the smell was everywhere. Then True Father called God. I saw a light that arrived. True Father spoke to God, “Please” in a very humble voice, calling to God who could turn away at any moment. True Father spoke very carefully to Satan. Satan did not seem to want to hear it but True Father’s voice managed to break through the barriers of Satan and accessed Lucifer who was inside. So after a great hesitation, Lucifer managed to tilt and lower his head with regret and cried. When he lowered his head, I felt a very big explosion and the whole planet crying in pain. When he started to cry with regret, the dirty pieces of him started to spill out of him and then he started to shine and it was unimaginably beautiful. He started to get up, and he talked to True Father, who in turn spoke to God. Lucifer was communicating with God through True Father. God also appeared as a stronger light than the small light that first appeared. Lucifer lowered himself again now towards True Father, and there was another explosion. This explosion was not of sadness but of joy. Everything on the planet was making a noise of joy. At this time True Father said something, and everything ended. The ceremony ended.
This happened on the May 14, 1999. True Father was wearing a suit and a necktie to welcome God to meet the angel. For the first time in history, God came to meet the angel. Since the Fall of Adam and Eve, it was the first time that God had come to meet the angel and it had happened here in Nabileque. True Father gave the instruction after this ceremony to purchase the Hotel Americano because it was a precious place. True Father said that both Salobra and Nabileque are sacred locations but Nabileque is more precious because God met with Lucifer there.
This is the story of Salobra and Nabileque and how Lucifer surrendered naturally.
True Father later spoke to me for about 4 hours, directly to me, while fishing. He spoke continuously, only stopping when we caught fish. He told me to study the story and told me to ask Him questions if I had any. He asked me 3 times to make a promise never to leave these lands even if I lost my life. He said: “Stay in these lands. Don’t give up. Do you promise me that you won’t leave? Will you stay here?” I replied, “Yes, Father, I promise.” Then He asked, “You won’t leave even at the risk of your life? You will not leave? Will you stay here?” I replied again, “Yes, I will stay.” He asked me to promise three times. Last time He asked me, He was very serious and I was even scared of Him. Then I realized that many who promised Him to stay had left Him because one would need to go beyond a normal level of faith to stay in a place like this. True Father said: “When I came to Pantanal, God came with me.” He did not say God left from Pantanal.
In 2012, three days before True Father went to the spiritual world, all three days True Father was spiritually on the boat and got off the boat and walked in these lands. I know where He walked. We have to save these holy grounds, especially Salobra and Nabileque. Because they are in the wetlands, they belong in the Ocean Providence. These are very precious lands in many aspects. Imagine if these places are lost.
The Weeping King
There were many other things that happened here in Pantanal. True Father was crowned King in the lands of Pantanal. He told me that He arrived here as a servant of servants, but achieved all the victories and left as a King. I felt this of my own free will. Nobody told me to believe in this. One day, as I saw Him sitting on the boat, I decided to bow to Him as a King. I decided, because He asked me to take care of these lands, I will take care of them as His sovereignty and I will be the most loyal to Him. So I knelt down on the boat to bow to Him. And when I did that, True Father cried. You cannot imagine how much He cried that day. He got up and told me to get up too. I said “my king, my king, my king.” True Father wept a lot that day and asked me to never leave these lands, and predicted that great things will happen here some day. I replied, “That’s right.”
The story of our True Father is here, in these lands.
I am Peter Paulo Alves Pinheiro, the guardian of the sacred lands of Salobra and Nabileque, and an active member of the Ocean Providence. Aju, aju.*
Excerpt from True Father’s prayer at the Hotel Americano, May 14, 1999:
“By leading this son, You wanted to liberate every fact that has been connected to hell, to the middle spirit world, and all of the spirit world’s paradise of the New Testament Age that is centered on Jesus. For I carry Your heart in the name of True Parents; I am grateful for Your permission to hold this, the mission of the ideal of the Second Advent. To do the mission, You have sought this son, You have sought Mother, and have established the family foundation. With that foundation, You have developed the Blessing as a ceremony on the international level and blessed the saints of providential history…. Based on the number 4, this became the foundation of all indemnity. On this foundation, You could liberate earth and the spirit world. With True Parents’ authority from the reality of victory, True Parents were able to bring Satan to surrender and liberate God, allow God and Satan to resolve their rift, and establish the place of peace through permitting the selection of True Family on earth. Thank you for this grace.”
The full text of the prayer can be found in Today’s World Magazine, June 1999 issue on page 11.
Paulo Alves Pinheiro is currently working on a project to preserve the history of True Parents’ work in the Pantanal, especially in Salobra and Nabileque. The following is a link:
http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Talks/Inoue/Inoue-210716.pdf