getting this Parse error: parse error, unexpected '<' in /homepages/1/d118328893/htdocs/adventistcafe/cache_builders/custom/portal_box_1.php on line 2

Can you post what you have inside your portal_box_1.php file? It sounds like a custom island was setup but doesn't contain valid php code.

ok, i found that, I had tried to put in a google adsense there. I take it that is not the place??

Yes, it does go inside of the custom islands, it just needs to be valid syntax as these are actual php blocks. So just changing what the default for one of the islands look likes an adsense ad might look like this:

I made this post of the exact syntax