On the 28th of February 2001, Buck and Luciene moved to the Amazon Basin of Brazil. We lived in Macapá, right on the equator. Why would a web designer give up his career and take his family from their comfortable life in Columbus, Ohio, USA, to live on the Amazon River? We came with a vision to save the Amazon, to tell people about Jesus, and plant a Vineyard church. We have planted a church, and we are turning it over to the national leaders, heading back to the States in Sept. 2009.

 

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posted by Eduardo Buck at Friday, April 30, 2010

 
The culture shock seems to be getting less intense. At least a little. There are so many things that I have to teach the kids for survival in the US. I had to show them to put their finger quickly through the water, to see if it was hot, so they didn't burn themselves. We didn't have hot water in Brazil, only cold water.

I have had to show them how to dress in layers to be able to survive the cold weather. When you live on the Amazon River, that is definitely not a concern. We are getting used to wearing all those clothes. Coming from the Amazon, shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops were great. Now we have to get used to wearing three shirts, two socks, long-johns, coats, hats and gloves. We walk around like the pillsbury dough boy or something.

We have had fun seeing the animals that are different than what we were used to in Brazil, squirrels, raccoons, deer, and chipmunks. In Brazil, we would stop and look at the monkey road kills, here it is usually possum or raccoon with the occasional deer. We are having fun with the differences as much as possible, and enjoying teaching the kids about this new culture.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, October 19, 2009

 
I have always thought of New Years as a time of refreshing a time of
renewal, a time of change and new commitments. This New Year is no
different.

The Vineyard Macapá church is going great. In fact, it really has
never been better. There is much excitement, and the church is
growing. God has blessed us with a great leadership team that has
been taking on more and more of the responsibilities. God has been
doing new and fresh things in all of us.

After much prayer, the counsel of our stateside leadership and
confirmation by Godly people that have prayed for us, we feel that it
is time for us to return to the United States. We came to plant a
Vineyard church. We planted the church, and can now turn it over to
the Brazilian leadership team that has been raised up. While they are
sad to see us go, they are excited by what God is doing and will
continue to do through them.

Please continue to pray for us, as we work through the details, the
permanent visas, selling the vehicle and the house, and the move back
to the US. It is a time of change, and though we know it is God's
will for us, it is still hard to leave the friends and the church that
has been our family and home for so many years.

Happy New Year, and may God bless you and yours this year.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Thursday, January 01, 2009

 
I am sure I will go to be with Jesus!
By Eduardo Buck Schmidt


Luana - Photo by Raquel Schmidt

Some people have a contagious spirit, they enter a room, and everything seems to get brighter. Luana is that kind of girl. Always happy, always smiling, a seven year old bundle of joy. She lived next door, studied English with Luciene, and faithfully attended the church. She accepted Christ at our Sunday school when Luciene explained the gospel to the children. When Luciene asked who was sure that they would go to be with Jesus in heaven when they died, Luana confidently raised her hand and said “I am sure I will go to be with Jesus!”

Two weeks later, she went to be with Jesus. She passed away the day before the “Day of the Child” here in Brazil, and two days before her eighth birthday.

I got to the hospital, and the family was crying out front. Nea, her mother, passed out numerous times. What can you say at such a time? I prayed silently, hugged them, and tried to offer support. I went to see Luana, up on the third floor, where they had tried to do an emergency operation to drain her lungs which had filled with fluid. They were just wheeling her out to the ramp, covered in a white cloth which was taped like a death shroud over her head. There was only one orderly, and he was having trouble on the curves, so I grabbed one end of the gurney. The wheels of the gurney on the anti-slip grooves of the ramp was a horrible sound, tck tck tck, down three floors, tck tck tck. Out the back, across the cobblestone courtyard, tock tock tock, to the morgue, and I helped lift her body to the marble top table, and opened up the shroud to reveal her face. She looked like she was napping, and that she would wake up any minute. The dark red on her neck and chest attested to the cardiac arrest from lack of oxygen. Cotton was stuffed in her nose, so that nothing could leak out. One of her aunts tried to hold her lips closed, so that as she stiffened she would look more natural.


A special presentation that the kids of the church put on, Luana is in the middle, with a red shirt and boots. Photo by Luciene Schmidt

I cried and prayed and cried some more. Family members came and went, smelling and crying into articles of Luana’s clothing, hospital workers came to stare through the open window. Death is horrible, but the death of a child is devastating.

Beside the morgue were broken beds, rusty gurneys, and old wheelchairs. Two large industrial trash containers were open, and another lay on it’s side. It was a place to discard things that were no longer useful. It seemed a sacrilege to put little Luana out there, so close to refuse.

The funeral home came with an infant coffin that was too small, so they left to get another. They returned some time later, and they called the parents back in, but the second one was still too small, so they had to leave to get a different one. By this time, the family was ready to put the funeral home owner in one of the coffins. The third time they got it right, and the family wiped her face, and changed her clothes. They lifted her into the coffin, fixed up some frilly borders, and members of the family carried the coffin out and put it in the truck. They went to the funeral home where the family members stayed all night at her side, crying, wailing, and hugging one another, trying to come to grips with why such a cute, loving, little girl would die so quickly, so unexpectedly.

We took our kids to the funeral home, and there were probably thirty kids from the neighborhood there as well. I shared how Luana had accepted Christ, and that she knew that she was going to heaven. It was a tearful moment. The kids were crying as they said goodbye to their good friend. Any adult that still had dry eyes up to that point couldn’t resist seeing the kids crying.

Later that day, the family members and friends gathered at the funeral home, and then the long procession of cars proceeded to the cemetery for the funeral. At the funeral, I took my Bible, just in case they called me to say something. I had assumed that there would be a priest there, as the parents are catholic, but the family just stood around the coffin and cried, then they asked me to come and pray. I preached a short gospel message, and prayed. I tried to share hope, the hope that we have in Jesus, that one day we would see Luana again.



English class, Luana is in pink. Photo by Luciene Schmidt

We decided to do a service in her honor at the church, a memorial service to honor our young member. We invited the neighbors, and we invited her family. We had a full house. We invited the kids, her friends, and her family to come up and share a memory of Luana. Her cousin, who is a Christian, ministered grace. There were a couple of short messages that God laid on peoples hearts, mostly about God’s sovereignty and hope for the future. Her dad brought a photo slide show of Luana set to music, and the tears flowed freely. We ended by calling up the family members, and praying for them, and hugging them, trying to comfort them.

Please pray that the seeds that were planted would bear fruit, and that Luana’a family would come to know Jesus so that they can see her again one day, and dance with her on streets of gold.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Wednesday, October 22, 2008

 
May the grace of our Heavenly Father be upon you and your family! We want to thank you, our family for your prayers. It is so important to us to know that our Christian family is lifting us up in prayer.

The church has been growing, and things have been going very well. In July, we had a church retreat, played together and ate together, watched a movie about the plight of the Brazilian Indians (you can download it for free at www.hakani.org ), and prayed together. We also held a weekend retreat for the worship team that went very well.

In August we planned a party for Father’s Day (brazilian father’s day is in august), and we were reminded again of just how deep run the scars and pain of the fatherless here in Brazil. According to one survey, 37% of Brazilians don’t even have a father’s name on their birth certificate, and many many more know only their father’s name, but never or rarely see them. Our church is no different. Most have been raised by grandparents, or aunts and uncles, and most don’t have a stable home life. It has been difficult to minister about the Father Heart of God, when the majority have never experienced a father’s love. It is also a great opportunity, to be and show the love of the Father, and to minister healing to the brokenhearted. We have seen many set free from the feeling of abandonment, and the bitterness of past hurts.

One answer to prayer has been the situation with our internet. We went through a long time where we could barely read our e-mail. This has affected our site updates, our prayer letters, and all of our communication. We asked people to pray, and after being on a waiting list for over a year, were finally able to get a cell phone modem and internet connection that has been a real blessing. We are trying to get caught up on communication, and hope to be able to send out more regular updates.

Thanks again for your prayers, your support, and your notes of encouragement. May God bless each one of you.

Prayer Requests
• A team from Tuttle Vineyard that will be here in November, and the leadership conference that we will have here during their stay, and for safety for the whole team.
• We will have an all English service here on the 20th of September. Please pray that many non-Christians will come and will come to know Jesus.
• Please pray that the construction could go forward and that we could finish the bathrooms upstairs so we can receive teams with more comfort, that we could finish the kitchen and get a drinking fountain.
• That God could guide us in making faithful disciples, and that we could generate a place of real family for those that are hungry for family.
• That God would reveal to us how missions and business can complement one another, and tentmaking endeavors that we can undertake here to raise support for missions.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Tuesday, September 09, 2008

 
If you get a chance, check out this movie at http://hakani.org/en/. It is a powerful movie about the plight of the Indians in the Amazon. Please pray for the Indigenous people of the Amazon!

Labels: amazon jungle, indians, missionaries

posted by Eduardo Buck at Thursday, July 03, 2008

 
I have a bookmark in my Bible that helps me remember what the Christian life should be like. The bookmark didn’t some from a Christian source though. It came from the Writer’s of the Future, a science fiction writing contest. But if we as Christians would just learn to follow the advice on that bookmark, a lot of the problems we have reaching others would disappear, a lot of the problems we have retaining youth in the church would become ancient history, and the Kingdom of God would advance much faster.

In fact, the majority of us Christians could do with a big dose of this- we would probably all be a lot happier.

Ok, I don’t want to drag on the suspense any longer. The bookmark says:

Imagine a Place
Where anything is possible,
Nothing is beyond reason,
And everything is an adventure.

Get into their worlds…..

Now, anyone that has spent much time reading the Bible knows a lot of the stories, fantastic stories many of them almost unbelievable. They paint a picture of a God Who is actively involved in human events, a God that moves mountains and the hearts of kings to achieve His purposes, a God that works miracles through simple, devote followers, and changes history through the plea of one person who dares to pray.

Now this whole scenario is a lot different than the reality of Christianity that most people experience. Most see the Christian walk as a staying pattern, living life pretty much “as I please” with the occasional token prayer to God to “bless my plans”, and trying not to fall into “serious sin”, putting up with the weekly church meeting to fulfill the duty of “not neglecting the fellowshipping together of the saints”.

What would happen if every Christian began to live their lives as if anything were possible? If we could just learn to listen and discern the will of God, and then walk out our lives as if anything, anything at all really was possible? That nothing that God showed us to do is beyond reason? Where every day, our Christian walk is an adventure? Man, I get excited just thinking of the possibilities.

I really think that God is doing something new, that He is starting to shake up the status quo and the entrenched religious thinking of what constitutes “His body”. I am not sure what it will look like yet, but I have some ideas about what I think God is doing. I think God desires to use the creative force that is latent within us all. I think that God is raising up a generation that will be passionate about creative expression, art, theatre, media and video, music and music video, creative writing and poetry, film making and dance, and that this explosion in creative expression will fuel the revival among the youth that will spread all over the world.

What will happen when the little David’s of the world realize that they can, with a little pebble, bring down Goliath and take Goliath’s own sword from him to win the victory? When thousands of Christians, passionate about truth, begin to create videos that are seen my millions all over the world? When thousands of David’s, worshipping God, singing His praises, creating new songs and new forms of expression are released on the world, what will be the impact in the heavenlies?

Truly, we should begin to imagine a place where anything is possible, nothing is beyond reason, and everything is an adventure. We serve a big God, and our lives should be a reflection of His glory, bringing His kingdom and His rule to this earth.

Lord Jesus, open our eyes to see the impossible that you want to make reality in our generation! Help us, as Your body, learn to recognize what You are doing, even when it is different from what we have previously known. Help us, as Your body, learn to nurture, train, and release the creative genius in this generation, and put power on it that it might become a wave of revival that rocks the entire world! Help us dream big dreams, and live even bigger realities!

Labels: creative arts, new things, new wine skins

posted by Eduardo Buck at Tuesday, June 17, 2008

 
Photography Questions

My dream used to be to go to art school, study to become an artist and a photographer, and move to the mountains in isolation to do my art. I pursued all the training I could get, I was an artist and photographer in the army which I joined to get the money for college, and visited art schools to decide which one to go to. God had other plans though. He called me to “Go” to the mission field. I laid those dreams on the altar, and went to Brazil. Of course, I continued taking photos, my artistic bent never changed, but I feel like I buried it somewhat. Ok, a lot.

About eight years ago, when I knew for certain that we were going to be moving to the Amazon River to live, I took all of my camera equipment to the local used camera store in Columbus, Ohio. At the time, I was working as a photographer’s assistant when I wasn’t doing web design, doing wedding photography, interior, product shots, whatever came up. I learned a lot. I had also shot a couple of weddings for friends. Man shooting weddings is a lot of pressure. Before the age of digital really took off, you couldn’t see the results until you got the film developed. Does anybody remember that time?

Well, I had asked around, to find out what equipment would hold up to the extreme conditions of a tropical rain forest. Humidity, heat, mold, and lack of technical help were serious considerations. A friend of mine told me that I should just go with a Leica manual camera. No moving parts, not even a battery. So I loaded up all my equipment, which was considerable.

Three Nikon bodies including the N90 which I just loved, a slew of lenses, filters, everything, I just made a big pile with it, and along with some of the dark room equipment that they were still accepting at the time, and traded it all for one Leica M2 body and one lens. And I still had to pay the difference for the Leica.

Now, at the time, it may have been a good choice. I don’t really regret it. I love that little Leica. But I used to be able to get black and white film, and get it developed. I can’t find it anymore, and someone even gave me some, but I can’t find anyplace that will develop it. I would have to import chemicals to develop it myself, if I can even remember how to do it after all of these years.

So much has changed in 8 or nine short years. I used to say that I would never go digital, that the quality just wasn’t there, I would always be a film man. What a laugh now, huh? Well, at the time, I was probably right about the quality part anyways. But no more. Digital is here to stay. Film on the other hand, is simply on it’s way out it seems.

So I finally got a digital when a friend of mine decided that I needed one- he believed in my photography and wanted to invest in it. And after intensive research, I settled on the Leica Digilux 1. It is a great little camera. I have been very pleased with the results I have gotten from it, and having a digital camera was revolutionary to my photography. I felt more free to experiment, since I didn’t have to develop expensive film. And it really helped us keep more in touch back home too, being able to upload photos right away.

But about a year ago, a part fell off, and I wasn’t able to use the Leica Digilux. I sent it in to get serviced, but the full service to adjust and clean everything was more than I had, and before I could get it all together, they sent the camera back, unfixed. (Not their fault, they were very patient with me.) I am currently using a little Samsung point and shoot that was graciously given to me, or I wouldn’t be taking any pictures.

So, here are some options I have considered.
1. just fix the Digilux and keep it going for another year or two
2. try to get another Leica
3. go with like the Canon EOS or Rebel
4. some other option?

Photographer friends, I seek your counsel! What do you think? What is your counsel?

Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.
Proverbs 15:22 (NIV)

Labels: canon, leica, photography

posted by Eduardo Buck at Saturday, May 31, 2008

 
We recently baptized four people. We also were able to organize and legalize the church under Brazilian law. This is a huge blessing. Thanks so much for your prayers.

We have had some very close calls in the vehicle, people almost hitting us, which always makes me grateful to know that people are praying for us and our safety.

On a recent trip to Cutias, a four hour drive which was an exhilarating four wheel driving experience through mud and water, we encountered a village full of children near Cutias. Luciene asked them if there was any church in their village. There once had been a Catholic church, but a tornado destroyed it they replied. A whole village full of people without one church. Please pray with us that God will raise up workers for the harvest!

We just got back from a week of traveling to InterVinha, the national meeting of Vineyard leaders from all over Brazil, which was held in Altamira this year. It was so good to see old friends, and make new friends. For the first time I was able to take the whole family, and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely. The kids were excited to be speaking English and playing with so many other children.

One bittersweet thing that has happened recently is that we sent out our first missionary out from Vineyard Macapá. Mayla Andrade went to YWAM about four months ago, and will be finishing up her training next month. She feels lead to follow her lifelong dream of missions. While it is hard to see one your best leave, it is such a blessing to see the kingdom of God going forth. Please pray for her, that she could raise the support she needs to continue serving God on the mission field. And please pray that this would be the first of many, that many others would be sent out from here to serve the Lord all over the world!

Prayer Requests
1. That God would raise up workers for the harvest (Luke 10:2b).
2. That Vineyard Macapá would have an eternal impact in advancing the Kingdom of God.
3. That our health and dental needs would be met.
4. That God would provide the finances we need to pay the vehicle off. We only owe 10 more payments but are in danger of loosing it because we are behind.
5. That Mayla would be able to raise the monthly support she needs to continue serving God on the mission field.
6. Blessings for those that pray for us and support us.


InterVinha 2008 in Altamira


We saw old friends...


...and made new friends.


The place was surrounded by beautiful flowers.


We took a cattle barge, which was a new experience for us. (Please, if you are a social worker, please don't write about how dangerous this was, especially if you are my mom or one of my sisters :-)


The kids liked to watch the cattle.


Manga helping to do worship. Manga is a famous singer here in Brazil, as well as a Vineyard pastor.


Eduardo, Luciene, and Nicolas with our friend Manga.


The place, Recanto Cardoso, was beautiful, but not as beautiful as Luciene.


Praying for the leaders of the Vineyard in Brazil.


The kids had a blast. Mud, swimming, slides, various ponds and pools, good food, speaking English- they just loved it.


Josiah, full of mud.

Labels: cattle barges on the Amazon, InterVinha, prayer requests, sending out missionaries

posted by Eduardo Buck at Tuesday, May 27, 2008

 
We have a company that does translation work, interpretation, and language courses. We have done many projects. I am currently working on a translation for the Governor to take to the United States, and to England. I have been doing voice over on videos and such also, just finished one. It made me remember some other stuff that I had translated, and never put up. There is an investment guide, that tells a lot about Amapá, and has some good information. You can check it out here. You have to download the english, french, and spanish versions, but they aren´t too big.

Labels: Investment Guide Macapá Amapá portuguese to english translation

posted by Eduardo Buck at Friday, April 25, 2008