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.

 
Here are our current prayer requests.

We would just like to thank you guys for praying for us. We have felt your prayers sustaining us through the storms. We are still here because of faithful prayer partners lifting us up.

We have a couple of new requests. Luciene's mom has been sick, we would like to ask for prayer for her health. We plan to travel to Santarém for the holidays. It will be the first time in ten years that Luciene has been able to spend Christmas with her family. We would like prayer for traveling mercies.

We would also like to ask for prayer in the area of finances. I tried to take money out of the auto teller at the bank, and got an error message. I tried again. And again. I kept getting error messages, stating that the transaction had been cancelled due to technical problems. Then I suddenly got a message that I had exceeded the daily amount for withdrawals. I called for someone who works at the bank, and they told me not to worry, that by the next morning, our bank would have received the notification that it had been cancelled. But our bank shows that there were repeated withdrawals, even though I never actually got any money.

I have the print outs, to prove that there was a technical problem, but if I can't get the problem resolved at the bank here in Brazil, I will have to fill out Affidavits, etc., and I don't know how long that might take to get it resolved. Please pray for a speedy resolution to this problem, and that the Grinch would not be able to steal Christmas again.

This morning, the smoke was so thick that it looked like fog. People are burning fields to clear them. This makes it really hard on anyone that has asthma. Pray for Raquel and I, that the asthma would not return.

Once again, a huge thank you to each and every one of you that are praying for us. It is so encouraging to know that so many of you pray regularly for us. May this holiday season be a blessing to you and your families, and may you move ever closer to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, December 08, 2003

 
I noticed something sore on my big toe. I looked at it, it looked like a splinter or something. It is what they call a "pulga", a flea. Luciene took care of it in the Brazilian way, took a pin, and dug the skin, and tried to remove it intact. It burst though, so we threw some hydrogen peroxide on it after she got done digging it all out. It will live under your skin, and just keep eating if you don't dig it out.

Zadok's paw is still hurting. We have had it sewn up twice now, but each time, the stitches just pull out. He has lost one nail so far, and another one is ready to fall off. I cleaned it up today, taped some gauze on it, and then taped a sock on his paw so he can't lick it any more. He will definitely be partly lame for the rest of his life, I am just hoping he doesn't loose the paw.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Saturday, December 06, 2003

 
Zadok, our big male Rottweiler, hurt his paw, and over the weekend, it swelled up really bad. It was full of maggots Monday, pretty ugly. My friend John Ene and I pulled maggots out for about three hours Monday. The vets cell phone was turned off all weekend, I finally reached him Tuesday, he came and sewed him up, medicated him and all, but he is really bad off. He had an IV. He seems to be getting better. I thought he wasn't going to make it there for a while.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Wednesday, November 26, 2003

 
The dogs were going crazy last night. I kept getting up, and walking out in the yard, trying to determine if someone was trying to rob us or what. All night, our dogs, and some of the neighbor dogs barking.

When I left this morning for a "Purpose Driven Brazilian Church" preaching conference, I noticed that there was a little wooden shack in a nearby field, where there wasn't one the day before. Which explained why the dogs were barking all night.

Caddy corner from our house, there is a nice little soccer field, and a wooded, shady area. The neighborhood kids play in that area, ride their bikes there. Or at least they did. As I got back from the conference for lunch, the whole area there was full of posts and barbed wire. One of the movements, I think it was "Sem Tetos" decided that the area lacked squatters, and staged an "invasion".

I was pretty upset at first, because there are a lot of bad characters, theives, cutthroats, and greedy rich fat cats involved, and they took the only place in our whole neighborhood that the kids had to play in. They also squatted in the area where the city had planned to put in a road, cutting off the only alternate exit route for our street.

After I had thought about it for a while though, I was trying to get God's perspective. And I realized that I now had more neighbors to win to the Lord. God had just allowed more fruit, ripe for the harvest, to accumulate practically at our door. I am excited about what God will do when we finish the construction of our house/team center/worship center. The prospective member base just increased.

God, increase our vision! God, increase our passion! God, move in power and provision! God of miracles, release us to become all that You have planned us to be!
posted by Eduardo Buck at Friday, November 21, 2003

 
Raquel and I are both doing better. Thanks so much to all who prayed for us. Raquel was playing today, so good to see here up and around again.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Thursday, November 20, 2003

 
I (Eduardo) have had a cough for about a month. It got worse and
worse, and when it got to the point that I was having difficulty
breathing and was nearly passing out with the violence of the coughs,
I went to the doctor and found out that I was having an asthma
attack. The medicine has helped.

Yesterday, Raquel was coughing really bad, and then began to have
trouble breathing. I took her to the emergency room at about
midnight, and she was having an asthma attack. We spent the night at
the hospital. God was so good to us. Raquel got a bed for part of
the night. We walked past kids and their parents sitting in the
chairs and laying on the floor in the corridor, and got a bed because
Raquel needed to be near the oxygen.

They poked her body with needles, gave her shots and oral medicine,
and x-rays. She vomited and cried, and began to breathe easier. She
has asthma, and is starting to show signs of pneumonia.

This time of year is really bad for asthma. It is in the dry season,
so there is a lot of dust. It is also the time that people burn
fields, and where we live has just been horrible with smoke lately.
Our whole yard is one big dust bowl. Please pray for us, especially
for Raquel, and her health.


posted by Eduardo Buck at Sunday, November 16, 2003

 
John Lieb, pastor of the Tuttle Crossing Vineyard in Dublin Ohio was
here in Brazil visiting us. Tony Pfarr, a pastor with the Marysville
Vineyard was also here. On Sunday, they called home and learned that
there was a car accident in Dublin involving 4 teenagers. The
driver, who died on impact, Josh Finney, was the son of Joe Finney,
youth pastor at the Tuttle Crossing Vineyard. The 4 were going to the
Finney's home after church. Please pray for the Finney family and for
the recovery of the other 3 teens.

John and Tony left as soon as they could, on Monday morning at 4 am.
Their stay was cut short, from the planned seven days to only three
days. We don't understand why accidents like this happen, but we
trust that God, in His wisdom, will somehow use this
tragic accident for His glory. Please pray for all the teens,
friends, and family members.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Tuesday, November 04, 2003

 
We have been so blessed! John Lieb, our pastor from the Tuttle Vineyard in Ohio, and Tony Pharr a pastor from the Marysville Vineyard got in on Thursday night. We have had the opportunity to take them around, ministering to people, and have seen God moving. We went to the prayer meeting on Friday, and John gave a short teaching, then prayed and ministered. The presence of God was so strong that many of us were crying as they were praying for other people.

We went to the restoration meeting at the Novo Horizonte church on Saturday night, and John and Tony gave a teaching on the Vineyard 5 step prayer model. We began to pray for people, and minister to people. Many that were sick were healed, and people were deeply touched by God, and encouraged.

Thanks to everyone that has been praying! Please continue the prayers, that God would fall in power during the rest of their stay.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Sunday, November 02, 2003

 
I just got a prayer request from Advance (see subscription info below) about Brazil that is very interesting. Please pray for all of those in the vast Amazon that have not heard the gospel, that God would raise up a people that would take the gospel to everyone.

THE GOSPEL FOR EVERY PEOPLE

Brazil is home to 251 tribes -- about 315,000 people speaking more than
180 different languages -- that have little or no access to the good
news of salvation in Jesus Christ. None of them has a complete Bible in
their language; the New Testament has been translated into only 34 of
them. Only 129 have contact with evangelical missionaries. In most
cases, the tribes live in areas that are difficult to reach, and
political barriers prohibit foreigners from traveling among many of the
tribes. Intercede for hopeless souls who have never had an opportunity
to hear the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. Pray that the
workers God is calling to go to these peoples would obey him today. Ask
God to break down the barriers that prevent believers from taking the
gospel to these tribes.


----------

"Advance!" is offered free of charge. Please circulate it
freely.

To subscribe, send an e-mail to
subscribe-advance-newsletter@xc.org or visit
http://purcell.xc.org/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?join=advance-newsletter.


posted by Eduardo Buck at Friday, October 17, 2003

 
We are in our new digs. It is 12 x 15, with a little kithchen area outside. Even though it is a tight fit to get all five of us in the one room, we are so happy to be out of our rental house, and on our own land. It is such a joy for us, after ten years of being married and living in rental houses, to have some little plot of ground that is ours. Thank you to each one that prayed for us in this matter.

We have been facing some financial attacks. The rental company is trying to charge us unjustly and I had to open a claim in small claims court against them, the man that we bought the land from showed up after a year and wanted to see the receipts that prove the deposits were made and then wanted to take them with him (I did not let him have them of course), and now the IRS has conveniently lost some of the paperwork that was filed and has now put a levy against our donations. Even though we have seen incredible generosity of friends and family, there is a stranglehold on our finances, until this can be resolved.

Please pray with us about the financial situation, especially that the IRS mess can be resolved quickly, and that God would give wisdom to our accountant Chris, so that he would know the best way to resolve the situation.

We still don´t have internet access or phone service at the house, and that has been a little inconvenient to say the least. Please pray that this could be resolved quickly also.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Friday, October 10, 2003

 
I have not been very active in posting lately. We have been very busy.We are moving today into the little one room efficiency on the back of our property. It has been a lot of work, as moving always is. Our phone has not been transferred, so we may be out of touch for a week or so.

Thanks to everyone that has prayed for us, that the efficiency would be ready. Things have worked out beautifully.

Please join us in prayer that we would have favor with our new neighbors, and that we could win many of them for Christ.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Thursday, October 02, 2003

 
I just read a good article on the political situation in Brazil. If you want to know what is happening in Brazil right now, check it out at http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/9/12/95132.shtml
posted by Eduardo Buck at Saturday, September 13, 2003

 
Hey, just a quick reminder, my holylamb (at) bigfoot (dot) com e-mail address has been bouncing messages. The greedy fat cats at support@bigfoot.com have decided to charge like forty dollars a year if you want to get e-mail, the free account is only for 25 messages a day, and most of that is spam, since you have to pay the same amount to the greedy webmaster@bigfoot.com to get spam filtered out, according to emailtools@bigfoot.com or to help@bigfoot.com.

So, please use my holylamb (at) pobox (dot) com instead, and it helps to put something descriptive in the subject line. I get so much spam that I often just delete stuff that has any appearance as spam. Thanks!
posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, September 01, 2003

 
We worked at the church last night until almost midnight, getting things ready for the children's ministry. We put up new decorations. It is very time consuming. Thanks for your prayers, Nilton and his wife Angelica have been helping with things in the children's ministry, and they have been great. Things are really looking up.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Sunday, August 31, 2003

 
The water returned about 5pm. Man, funny how not having water all day increases your thankfulness for having it. Just being able to flush the toilet is such a blessing. Not to speak about washing hands, washing dishes, and washing bodies.


posted by Eduardo Buck at Sunday, August 31, 2003

 
Tadeu came to the house this morning. His mom is sick. It may be Dengue Fever, or malaria. He asked me to take her to the hospital. He said that he had tried to borrow a bicycle from the neighbors, but no one would even loan him one to take her to the hospital. I took them, and they put her on an IV, but I think she will need to return tomorrow for more exams. Please pray for this family.

We don't have water today, I think it is in the whole city. We saw that it was getting weak, and managed to fill a cooler and pans and whatever else we had, but that goes quick.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Sunday, August 31, 2003

 
This afternoon I visited a young man named Tadeu and his family. I have known them for a couple of years, they come and ask for food every once in a while. They had moved, and I wasn't sure where they were living, so when he came by today and asked for money for medicine, I went with him to his house. His mom has 8 kids, some of them are studying, but Tadeu isn't. They really have a difficult situation, and I am not even sure where to start to try to help them. Their well isn't done yet and they don't have the money to finish it, so they have to ask neighbors for water. They don't even have an outhouse, and have to go to the neighbor's house to use the bathroom for big jobs.

I mean, I can't even help them with seeds for a garden until they have water, and I couldn't think of helping them raise chickens because they don't have a wall up around their property and someone would steal all the chickens, or they would end up eating them more likely because they are hungry. It is a really desperate situation. I have been giving them fish, but have not taught them how to fish. I even loaned him a fishing pole once, but he took it and sold it. Lord, give me wisdom and discernment, so I could know how best to help those that are the poorest of the poor.

I went and visited Albino tonight. He said he hasn't been drinking at all, since last Sunday the 17th. That is really good news. He doesn't know how to read, but I gave him a Bible anyways, and suggested that he get someone to read to him. I also prayed that God would open his mind, that he could learn to read through studying the Bible. He said that he would be there at church this Sunday.

I visited Ronaldo too. He said that he is still reading his Bible every day. He was telling me that there was a shooting last night right in front of his house. He said that he would be at church also this Sunday.

My brother-in-law, Jó, has Dengue Fever, really got a bad case of it, I stopped by tonight to see how he was doing. It is pretty horrible. He is getting better though, now on day five or so. Should be up and around in a couple of days.

Last night, one street away from where we are building our house, eight armed men entered the Assembly of God church, put the people that live on the property on the ground, and stole everything.

Lord Jesus, release your Spirit here in this place, that Your word would go forth in power, and this city, this poor lost city, could be won for Christ! Come Lord!
posted by Eduardo Buck at Thursday, August 28, 2003

 
We need a miracle.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Wednesday, August 27, 2003

 
At church tonight, another drunk guy, Albino walked in. He was crying, and said that he wanted prayer. I sat with him, and prayed with him. He talked during the whole service, earning us some dirty looks. He kept saying that he wanted to leave this life of drinking. But at the end of the service, he wouldn't go up front for prayer. He said it wasn't his time yet. I think that there was something demonic holding him back. But he kept asking me not to abandon him. I took him home. A little wooden shack, small, close to church.

Pastor Nilton, a Brazilian pastor, and Ronaldo, who was only mildly drunk, a huge improvement over last week, went with me. Ronaldo was funny, telling Albino that he was just as drunk as him the week before, but don't worry, we were cool, and God would help him. Ronaldo said that he has been reading his Bible every day.

Pastor Nilton and I plan to go back to Albino's house on Monday, when he gets off of work. He works for the city, doing asphalt, on the road crew.

Please join us in prayer for him, and his family. He told me that there are no Christians near where he lives, and that he was in a truck just driving by the church and told them to stop and let him out. He felt God calling to him. Pray for deliverance for him.

The accelerator cable of the Volkswagen Bug broke in front of Albino's house. I stuck the carburetor open to get back to the church, and then managed to rig up a wire to get home. We dropped some kids off on the way home, and I turned the car off. We couldn't get it started. The battery was dead for some reason.

So, we called to the kids, and had about 20 kids pushing us down the road. It took a long time, they pushed us almost a block, but it finally started, and I gunned it, and the gas cable came loose again. There was just enough power for us to putter home, and get the car in the garage. I'll have to get it looked at tomorrow.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, August 18, 2003

 
Here are our Current Prayer Requests (you can subscribe to our e-mail prayer letter by sending an e-mail to
Schmidt_Newsletter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com):

1. Please continue to pray for us, we seem to be in a time of
intense spiritual warfare, isolation, and trial.
2. Please pray for Ronaldo. He came drunk to the church Sunday
night. Near the end of the service, he grabbed a bike that was at
the back of the church and took off. We caught him, the mighty
Volkswagen Bug proving to be much faster than the bike, and through
that met his family. We have visited him and his family, and he says
he will come to church this Sunday. Please pray that God's will
be done in this family, and that the whole family would be won for
Christ. (There is a photo of Ronaldo below)
3. Please pray for our construction project (check out
http://www.holylamb.com/webalbums/constructionalbum/ for photos of
the construction). God has been so gracious to provide our every
need during construction. We are building our residence on the first
floor, and the second floor is mainly open, to receive teams, have
small groups, and hold church services. I'm sure this project
will prove very useful for the work of the Lord here in Macapá. We
have embarked on this journey in faith; please join us in praying
that every need will continue to be met.
4. Please pray for Eliseu. He was working with us on the
construction project, but became ill. We prayed for him, and he felt
much better. I took him to the hospital on Tuesday, but that
resolved nothing. His whole family is in need of healing. See below for a photo of him, and a little more
of the story.

Praise Items:
God has raised up people with a heart for children's ministry, and we
are putting together a great team!

God has been faithful to supply everything we need for the
construction, just what we need just when we need it!

God has been opening new doors for ministry- and we are believing for
many more open doors!

posted by Eduardo Buck at Thursday, August 14, 2003

 
A friend of mine, Eliseu, has been sick. He was working with us on the construction project, but became ill. Paulo, the foreman at the construction site, and I went and talked to him. He confessed that he has been backslidden, and that he had even turned to voodoo for healing, but that just seemed to make matters worse. He renounced the sin of voodoo, and rededicated his life to Jesus. We prayed for healing for Eliseu. He said that he feels much better.

I took him to the hospital on Tuesday. It was a painful experience. The machine needed to do some of the tests for him was broken, and would probably be down for another week or so. They only schedule X-Rays on Monday, and then only the first hundred get scheduled, so you have to go really early and wait in a long line. The pharmacy didn't have the medicine he needed. We spend nearly an hour walking around the hospital, between all the departments, to learn that they could do nothing for him.

He and his wife need to find healing in their marriage also. Please pray for them, that they could find forgiveness and that God would restore their marriage. I challenged them to begin to pray together and read the Bible together at least five minutes per day. Please pray that they would be able to learn and grow in God together, as a family.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Thursday, August 14, 2003

 
Last night, when church was nearing the end, I saw a bunch of people from the church running. I ran to see what had happened. There was a drunk guy in the church, and during the whole service, he was talking. It seems he decided to take someone's bike instead of walk home after the service.

Ormondo, the owner of the bike was desperate. I told him to jump in the car, and Eliseu joined us. We drove down the rode where he had gone, and Eliseu spotted him way down a side street. How he got as far as he did I don't know, must have been adrenaline. I cut him off, and we grabbed him. We ended up taking him back to the church.

His name is Ronaldo. I had the chance to talk to him, and confronted him with his sin. He said that he took the bike so he could get milk for his son. When I asked him if he wanted his son to grow up like him, he started crying. I told him I would buy the milk, but only if he would let me take him home to his house. I took him home and met his parents, so I know where he lives. Please pray for him, that he would repent, and accept Jesus. Pray that the whole family would be won for Christ.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, August 11, 2003

 
Commit yourself to bless me! Don’t let the proud oppress me! (Psalms 119:122 LB)

Lord, I long for the fulfillment of your promises. Rescue me Lord! Deal with me in lovingkindness, and teach me, your servant, to obey. Give me common sense to apply your rules to everything I do. Don’t leave me to the mercy of my enemies, it is time for you to act Lord, come and have mercy on me as is your way with those who love you.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, August 11, 2003

 
Check out the Moringa tree at http://www.treesforlife.org/moringa/

A friend of mine, a missionary in Haiti, is using a powder from this tree to treat people for worms. That alone would help take care of much of the malnourishment here on the Amazon. When you add in the nutritional value of the leaves, you have a powerhouse of a plant. I am very excited about the possibilities.

I am checking on getting some seeds here. If you have any info or experience with this, please drop me a message.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Sunday, August 10, 2003

 
We have found, that when we are going through difficult times, when we are in anguish, in pain, crying out to God, that we are almost always feeling very isolated also. We receive no e-mails other than a few one-liners. There is little or no communion with fellow believers.

I almost always have some health problem, usually some kind of allergic reaction, or skin problem like a rash covering my lower body (perhaps related to the stress?). The harder the test, the greater the feelings of isolation. The greater the feelings of isolation, the greater the need to completely throw yourself on God.

I think, looking at different characters in the Word, that it is common, it is part of the test. Isolation is part of the test, dependence on God the desired outcome. It all comes down to that- getting closer and more intimate with our Daddy.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Saturday, August 09, 2003

 
Man, I just ran across a Chinese photographer, Zhou Hai, really awesome images. He uses a Leica. I traded all my fancy Nikon equipment for one manual Leica, and I am still trying to figure out if that was a good move, or one of the stupidest things I have ever done :-) It is definately a change.

Zhou Hai's work kind of reminds me of one of my heroes, Sabastiao Salgado, a Brazilian photographer.

It has kind of encouraged me, I am feeling my photography juices flowing again. I have been shooting with the digital some, but that is about it. I haven't really been shooting so much conventional, I have about 6 rolls to develop already. It is really hard to find the Black and White stuff here in Macapá. I may have to order it all from São Paulo or something.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, August 04, 2003

 
Check out the new album of the construction on our house. The last photo was just made today, oh the joys of digital photography!
http://www.holylamb.com/webalbums/constructionalbum/

Thanks to each one who is praying and giving to make this project a reality. We sure appreciate your continued prayers.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, August 04, 2003

 
I just saw a posting that I thought was hilarious from the G. Gordon Liddy website. This is a good start for anyone wanting to be a good democrat :-) All political differences aside, there are some really poignant and funny things here.


The Liddy File
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Favorite articles, listener submissions and more
Complete archives of all Liddy Files are available ...>>

How To Be A Good Democrat
Posted May, 2003


1. You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.

2. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.

3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans are more of a threat than U.S. nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese Communists.

4. You have to believe that there was no art before federal funding.

5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical, documented changes in the earth's climate, and more affected by liberal yuppies driving SUV's.

6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial, but being homosexual is natural.

7. You have to be against capital punishment, but in favor of abortion-on-demand.

8. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.

9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but loony activists who've never been outside of Seattle do.

10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important that actually doing something to earn it.

11. You have to believe that the military, not corrupt politicians, start wars.

12. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.

13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.

14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, General Robert E. Lee, or Thomas Edison.

15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides aren't.

16. You have to believe that Hillary Clinton is really a lady.

17. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried is because the right people haven't been in charge.

18. You have to believe conservatives telling the truth belong in jail, but a liar and sex-offender belong in the White House.

19. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag, transvestites, and bestiality should be constitutionally protected and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.

20. You have to believe that illegal Democratic funding by the Chinese Communists is somehow in the best interest of the United States.



posted by Eduardo Buck at Sunday, August 03, 2003

 
I was thinking about how countries do things differently. When I, an American, went to Canada, I thought that there wasn’t that much that was different. But when we had breakfast, I was surprised by their milk. It comes in plastic bags. They snip the corner off, and stick it in a specially made pitcher to hold the plastic bag.

Here in Brazil, at least here in the north, the most common way to have milk is powdered milk. Now, to Americans, that may sound pretty gross. But you really get used to it. In fact, after a while, it starts to seem like the real thing, and bottled milk has a weird taste.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Sunday, July 27, 2003

 
Here are our new prayer requests. If you don't receive these by e-mail, and would like to, just send subscribe to our e-mail prayer letter by sending an e-mail to Schmidt_Newsletter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com


Greetings from the Equatorial Amazon Dear Prayer partners!

Prayer Requests

1. We are in a season of intense spiritual warfare, and would like to ask your prayer covering, especially over relationships.
2. Please pray that our pastors from the States, John and Cathy Lieb, would be able to come down to visit soon and see the work here, that all of the needs would be met for that.
3. The foundation of the house is almost done. We have put a wall up around the land, dug a well, put the septic system in, built the water box that we need, built a storage shed to store the construction material, and put in the foundation. Please join us in prayer that the rest of the funds that we need to finish the house will be provided by God before we have to be out of our rental house in October.
4. Please pray that God would send people to work with the children’s ministry, people with a heart to evangelize and reach the lost youth.
5. Pray that God would open doors, that His hand would be on us supernaturally, and that we could grow in favor in the sight of God and man.
6. Please pray with us that God would bless our support team: every person who gives of their time to layout, fold, and send newsletters, everyone who prays for us, everyone that financially supports us, those that take care of our finances, our taxes, our mail. We couldn’t be here without heroes like you, praying for us, and supporting us. May God richly bless you, each and every one.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Sunday, July 20, 2003

 
Got some recent calls from friends and family that was really nice. Always good to hear from people back home. I also got on echolink, which is like ham radio over the internet. Connected right with Columbus, Ohio, talked to KG8FQ and N8QZG. Amazing, this technology. Changing so fast.
If there are any hams out there on echolink, drop me an e-mail, and let me know where to connect with you. I usually only connect on Saturdays and Sundays, because those are the only days that you don't have to pay to connect to the internet.



posted by Eduardo Buck at Saturday, July 12, 2003

 
There is a place downtown that seems like a magnet for birds. It is very freaky. There is one intersection that they seem to like. It doesn't happen anywhere else in the city that I know of. Any of you birdologists out there, I would love to hear an explanation for this, or to know if this is common.

Hannah and Raquel are doing very well in Brazilian school. This is Hannah studying before a big test.

Hannah and Raquel are on vacation for the month of July.

Josiah likes to get dressed up to go to church. It almost makes the girls faint when he walks in with a tie.

For those that may be thinking of moving to South America, and are worried about your water supply, here is what we have done. We have city water, which isn't really too healthy and can be a source of worms and ameoba, so we were buying mineral water, or boiling our water. Both of those options are pretty expensive in the long run. We ended up buying a Davnor water filter when we were last in the States.

That has been a great blessing for us. We now filter our water directly into a large 5 Gallon Igloo drinking water cooler that was given to us by a very good friend. We throw in a large block of ice (made from filtered water also), and it stays cold all day, and we don't have to open the refriderator all day to get our cold water. It has been a great blessing for us.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Saturday, July 05, 2003

 
Here are some important driving tips for Macapa. Indeed, most of these will apply for all of Brazil.

One thing that you really want to watch out for are manhole covers. Many are broken down, or gone completely. Sometimes concerned citizens put a stick or a piece of wood sticking up out of the ones with no cover, to keep people from hitting them. They can be fatal for people on a motorcycle.

Tcheco, a friend of mine, was driving his big Mercedes truck when he hit one without a manhole cover. Ripped his truck apart. And the police wanted to give him a ticket on top of it. In fact, if you notice when you are here, most people just completely avoid them altogether, even if they look ok, just as a matter of principle.

Another thing you really want to be careful with, especially if on a motorcycle, is kite string. In front of our house right now, there are the pieces of about four kites, broken skeletons flapping in the wind, wrapped around the electric lines. What looks like an innocent little kite string can kill you.

There is a sport here, of waging war with kites. The kids take glue, warm it up, and break and grind glass into little tiny pieces. From what they tell me, fluorescent lights work the best. They then mix it into the glue, and grab a handful, then run the string through their hands. They will sometimes wrap the string back and forth around some trees, or have a friend help them by pulling it and wrapping it around a can as they put the glue and glass, called serol, on the string. They repeat the process for the tail of the kite also.

When they are flying their kites, they will then try to either cross strings, and let the string out very fast if there is a strong wind, pull it in quickly, or do a sawing motion up and down very fast to try to cut the other persons string. Once the kite is cut, it is fair game, and you will see boys come from everywhere, each trying to claim the kite as their own, so that they can then put it up and join the battle.

It is a very addictive game, filled with suspense, and adrenaline. Making the kites is an art, and they often spend hours making the kites for the next day. The kids collect some kind of light wood, I think it is called balsam wood, and dry it out in the sun. They buy tissue paper to cover them in custom designs, gluing them together in strips. That is it, they use the balsam wood, tissue paper, glue, and tie the frame together with kite string.

They are phenomenal with the kites, and exercise an amazing control over them. I once saw my nephew Joao dive a kite down over electrical lines after a kite that was fleeing, wrap around the line of that other kite, and then bring it up fast to cut the line. I couldn’t believe it that he could pull that kind of stunt off with one string, on a kite that he made himself.

There are often competitions, and kids from one street will have ongoing and continuous battles with the kids from the next street, or even with kids from two or three blocks away. Often there will be five or ten kites in the air in a two or three block radius. Well, the fact that there is all of this string flying around, coated in glass, presents a real problem for public safety. There have been numerous cases of a motorcycle rider catching a kite string on the throat, because it really is so small that it is hard to see especially as you are flying down the street on your bike with your helmet on, they get it on the throat, and it cuts their jugular, or completely cuts their head off, and there is another dead motorist.

If you observe the motorcycles here, many of them will have big stiff antennas on the front of them. No, there are not a lot of hams on bikes, that is not for a CB, though it looks like a CB antenna, it is to keep the kite string from their necks. It is important on a bicycle also, to be very careful, as it can be almost as bad on a bicycle if you are going down hill or something, and can also be fatal.

HEADS UP: my holylamb (at) bigfoot.com address has been getting hit hard by spam, and has been going over the daily limit allowed by the greedy scumbags at bigfoot.com. Just so everyone knows how greedy those scumbags are at bigfoot.com, they want 9.95 per quarter to use their mail service, which is just forwarding. But with that outrageous price, you don't even get spam filtering. You have to pay extra for that. My advice- stay away from Bigfoot.com. The only thing big about them is the price for their services.

Please use my holylamb (at) pobox.com if you get a message that your e-mail was undeliverable.

For the spambots, please send your spam to help@bigfoot.com and abuse@bigfoot.com and stop sending it to me.



posted by Eduardo Buck at Thursday, June 26, 2003

 
About 1:30 AM, amidst the blaring music in celebration for some dead saint, I heard a loud BANG! “Now that sounded like a gunshot” I says to myself.

So, man of discernment that I am, I ran outside in front of the house to see what was going on. Police, guns drawn, have a man down. They cuff him, beat him up a little bit, slam his face into the wall a couple of times, beat him some more, and stuff him into the back of their little station wagon paddy wagon.

And they are looking at me, asking the guy where his friend is. I nonchalantly saunter back on in to my safe and dry house. They burn rubber out of there, in hot pursuit of another thug to beat up. Just another night of crime and passion in the big city of Macapá.

Yesterday, right at the gas station in front of our house, the cops had a guy down. He had stolen a bicycle. The owner of the bike ran out of the store he was in, and saw the guy pedaling up the street on his bike. He called a mototaxi (motorcycles that act as taxi’s) and went after the guy. He caught up to him right in front of the gas station, and proceeded to beat him with the motorcycle helmet. This thief was really having a bad day. It just so happened that a police car was filling up at the gas station at that very time. His day went from bad to worse. The police proceeded to beat him some more.

Having seen first hand how out of control the crime is in Brazil, it is really hard to get mad about police brutality. I remember one time during the festival of the flesh called Carnival, the police were in front of our house. They were there to get our next-door neighbor Jean, who is a bad news gang member.

They had two guys in the back of their little Volkswagen van, and they proceeded to hit them very hard in their shins and knees. As the guys cried out, they would mock them, and hit them some more. I was shocked, as it was really the first time I had seen the police doing that to someone firsthand, though I had heard about it a lot.

Someone asked what they had done. The cop said that their whole gang had raped a 13-year-old girl all night long. Suddenly, it didn’t seem so bad that they were hitting those guys. I was almost glad that the police were hitting them. In fact, I might have taken a few shots myself if the cops would have allowed me.

I knew that they wouldn’t do much time if they did any at all. This might be the sum of their justice. Our neighbor, Jean, because his dad is well known, a professor at one of the local colleges, never did any time at all.

I saw him stealing from the gas station last night. I tried to call the police. They put me on hold, then gave me a different number to call to report the theft in progress. The number was busy. I tried for half an hour. I looked up the number of the gas station, but it was busy too. I tried the police some more.

By that time, he was throwing all the stuff he had stolen over the wall that runs around the gas station, and I gave up and went to bed. I feel like maybe I should have done more, but I have to live next door to him. Someone told me that the police make it so the line rings busy, so that they can sleep all night. That they sleep their in their pajamas, no intention whatsoever of going out at night. Had it been a life and death situation, death would have reigned.

I am praying that God would restore a sense of justice to Brasil. That there would be a return of justice in the courts. That the injustice for the poor would be brought down, and that there would be justice for all, no matter their social class. That God would expose the crooked judges, cops, and politicians that pervert justice. And that God’s name would be glorified by those that once served the devil in unrighteous acts.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Sunday, June 15, 2003

 
My eyes are clearing, though they are still red. God has been so good to us. He has provided everything that we need. I have to sit down and write about all the blessings. Man, we can really tell that people are praying. We just heard from the rental place, they said we will be able to stay until October. That is a huge answer to prayer. A dear friend in Columbus sent a very generous gift that has enabled us to begin the process to build our own house. An architect friend of ours did up some plans, and they are really great. We should have the permission to build from the government in about a month or so.

Thanks so much to each of you that pray for us regularly! We really truly appreciate it! Eduardo Buck and Luciene

posted by Eduardo Buck at Saturday, June 07, 2003

 
The sun hurts. Any breeze hurts. Dust can just about bring you to your knees. There is an epidemic right now of conjunctivitis here in northern Brazil. At least I think that is what they call it in English. Red swollen eyes, very contagious, very painful. We all got it, but I got it the worst.



Only those that have had it can truly understand the pain. For those of you that don’t understand it, I hope you never do.



I went to the emergency room yesterday, on a Sunday. My eyes were so swollen and sore that I thought that they would burst. There was no eye doctor person on duty. So then I went to a local health clinic, so I could at least see a doctor. They gave me some really good injection for pain, gave me an emergency admittance for the public hospital for Monday, and sent me home.

I went to the public hospital today. They said it was full, to return after 7pm. And I got that quick response because I had an emergency admittance from the health clinic. So I decided to shell out the money, and went to a private eye doctor. She gave me some medicine, and wiped down everything I had touched with alcohol. Ten days she told me to be a hermit, to stay home, cancel all activities.

I have been told so many home remedies. Eye wash with water and lime. Now that hurt. One guy told me today to make a solution of laundry soap and water, and it will take care of it. Another guy told me that there is nothing better for this than a person's own urine, just splash it in your eyes. I have had my fill of home remedies, and I think I will pass on that advice and stick with what the expensive doctor told me. Have been through three different medicines. This last one was expensive, and seems to be helping. But what has seemed to help ease the pain the most, other than that shot of course, is cold compresses.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, June 02, 2003

 
I just saw something very interesting, called "A Dummies Guide to Chinagate", and it was nice, because it was short and sweet, and to the point. Just kind of laid it all out there. How Clinton was able to sell all of our secrets, and not face a firing squad as a traitor, is beyond me. We have just gotten so blind and complacent.

China has already said that they know they will go to war with the US (there is a quote in the article mentioned above, but I have seen it elsewhere also.) In fact, you can see a book called "Unrestricted Warfare", written by two people in the China military, detailing ways to attack the US. One of the ways mentioned was using hijacked airplanes. On 9/11, they were hailed as heroes.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, May 26, 2003

 
I just got some disturbing news from www.crosswalk.com, they do daily religion news summaries from around the world. Today, there was one about Brazil, charging evangelicals with "hate crimes" for evangelizing in public, being charged by those that practice voodoo, or candomble. This is a disturbing trend, and one of the problems with any "hate crimes" kind of legislation. (see the article below) Christians, stop being complacent, sit up and take notice. It can not be long before they are dragging Christians from their homes, and killing them for being "hateful". They do it in many countries already. They just killed four people in Columbia, because they were Christians.

In fact, there are more Christians being put to death now for their belief in God, right now in our time, than at any other time in the history of our civilization. And some still cling to the hope, or is it the hype? that we are in some kind of age of enlightenment. Check any reputable site that concerns religious freedoms, and you will see that the numbers are striking and horrific. Men tortured and killed, their women and children raped right in front of them.

Look for more of this kind of "hate crime" thing, especially against Christians, both in Brazil and in the US. Please join me in prayer, that some sense of justice would be restored to a judicial system run amok. I just read in the "Cutting Edge", the church planting mag of the Vineyard, about how Christians should really have a sense of social justice. It should grieve us when we see the judicial system not working. I have seen so much injustice. Murder going unpunished, because it is just poor people killing poor people. Those that defend themselves against thieves and murderers being prosecuted- by the criminals no less! The rich just running over the poor, and a sense of despair from the poor, because they could never afford the high-powered lawyers that the rich people that are ripping them off could afford. And lest you think that I am talking only about Brasil, these very same injustices are taking place in the United States also. These types of things should grieve the Christians heart. God cares as much about social justice as He does about anything else. He hates injustice, because He is Just. One of His names in the Bible is Justice. Justice- that gives comfort to me somehow.

>> Evangelicals Tried For ‘Hate Crime’ Violation
Compass News Service

Umbanda and Candomble spiritist groups in Brazil are pressing a lawsuit
against Baptist pastor Joaquim de Andrade, 41, and Aldo dos Santos
Menezes, 33, a deacon of the Anglican Church, in connection with an
annual evangelistic outreach on the beaches of Sao Paulo state.
Spiritists accuse the two men of violating Brazil’s “hate crime” law by
distributing evangelistic tracts that, they say, disparage the African
goddess Iemanja. They charge Andrade and Menezes with “inciting
evangelicals to commit acts contrary to the liberty of religious
belief.” At a hearing on April 16, a Sao Paulo judge found Andrade and
Menezes guilty and fined them each 1,000 reais (about $300). The judge
warned that if they did not stop proselytizing spiritists, they would
face stiffer consequences next time. “This is a precedent-setting case,”
said former Brazilian resident Paul Carden, director of the Centers for
Apologetics Research. “If Christians cannot freely share their faith
with interested bystanders in a public place without the potential of
some punishment under the pretext of having committed a hate crime, then
this profoundly alters the spiritual equation in that country.”

posted by Eduardo Buck at Saturday, May 24, 2003

 
20 May 2003
As I am sitting here, writing this, I am being eaten alive by mosquitoes. I have to put on Off™ just to sit in my office to type on the computer in my shorts, with a fan, in the tropical heat. Well, it is actually cooled down right now, it is probably about 80º degrees F (25º C), at ten PM at night.

We just finished putting screens on the whole house. So this is a huge improvement since we got to this house. We still have to spray poison all the time. And we still always have a horrible amount of mosquitoes.

The house right behind us has an open cesspool in their back yard. It is literally their septic tank, that just kind of overflows all over their back yard, especially when it rains. It is the ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes. The city tries to combat Dengue Fever, and Malaria, and other mosquito born illnesses. They send people house to house to check. But no one ever seems to notice this neighbor. I don’t know why. Maybe it is dry when they come. The last time the inspectors came around, we told them to check that house. The owner lives in Germany I think, studying there. It is rented out to another family. This needs to be denounced, because it is a Dengue outbreak waiting to happen.

As I said, the whole house has screens. The master suite also has a screen door on it, from the hallway. We all sleep in the master bedroom. It is the only room where we can get a night’s sleep. The mosquitoes almost lift you off of the beds in the other rooms.

We tried putting the kids in their own room with mosquito nets, but one of the kids always throws a leg out, and leaves space for the mosquitoes to come in. In the morning, the kids are full of mosquito bites, and there are like ten fat, happy mosquitoes that have gorged all night, but couldn’t find the way back out. Those mosquitoes usually die horrible deaths at my bloody hands.

One thing that did seem to work, we put a tent up in the living room. The kids loved it, the fact that they got to sleep in a little house, and it has screens on it, so they didn’t have a problem. But daddy wasn’t real keen about putting a tent up every night, and taking it down every morning. We have considered taking their bed apart, because that would give us room for the tent, and then just making the tent their bed. The mattress fits in there fine. I think I will go ahead and do that in the next couple of days.

It looks like we have to move, so I will have to tear the bed down in any case at some point. The landlord said he is not interested in renewing the contract. (see our prayer requests- you can subscribe to our e-mail prayer letter by sending an e-mail to Schmidt_Newsletter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com) So maybe the place we go won’t have so many mosquitoes, and the problem will take care of itself.

You know, five people between one bed and one hammock is not easy. I guess we could just put them in their own room, but with the risk of malaria and dengue fever, we just can’t bring ourselves to do that.

Of course, if you come to visit, don’t worry about the mosquitoes. We’ll set you up with some Off™, a strong fan (if you put a fan at your feet, blowing the length of your body, it is also one way to reduce attacks from mosquitoes), a sheet, and weights, or a rope so that you can tie yourself to the bed and not be carried away while you sleep. Come visit, we would love to have you!!!!

posted by Eduardo Buck at Tuesday, May 20, 2003

 
19 May 2003 – I couldn’t get online.

I had a little emergency while working out at our land today.

We are putting a wall up around our land. There is no building, no bathroom, nothing. Then along comes a case of the Amazon Revenge. There is no way that I can make it back to our house in time. I run to the neighbor’s house. He is a good friend of mine. His name is Piauí. That is what everyone calls him anyway, because that is the state he is from. I think his name is Raimundo or something, but no one would even know who you were talking about if you called him that. So I ran to his house, and asked him if I could use his bathroom.

I almost messed myself while he looked for a piece of paper or something I could use. They didn’t have any toilet paper. They struggle everyday for their food. Toilet paper is a luxury. It was a stark reminder of the struggle that so many people go through everyday, just to have the basics, just to have their daily bread, and a bit of butter. Of people who put toilet paper at the bottom of the grocery list.

It made me more thankful, as we prayed for our supper, and thanked God for our daily bread, which He provides without fail for us. And it made me more thankful as I ran to our own bathroom for an encore of the Amazon Revenge.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Tuesday, May 20, 2003

 
I didn’t even know what lice looked like until I came to Brazil. Oh, I had heard stories growing up in rural Ohio, corn country USA. I saw kids with their heads shaved, and the ominous whispers behind cupped hands explaining that they had lice. I dreaded getting lice. I thought that it must be one of the most horrible things, to get lice, get shaved, and everyone at school would talk about how your family must be very dirty, and how sick it is to have lice.

Whenever my head would itch, I wondered if it might be lice. Any flake that I pulled from my head, I would scrutinize, to see if it moved, which would thus prove that it was a head louse. As far as I remember, I never got lice. Mom, can you fill in any details? Did I ever have lice?

Lice are much different than I first supposed. I first saw a louse when I came to Brazil. They are black, the adult ones, at least the varieties I have seen. Lice are something that we have had to become accustomed to.

Jesus commanded us to visit the afflicted, to provide for the orphans and widows, to preach the gospel to the poor. I think it is because he knew that it is difficult, and with the additional trials and tribulations people would give up and decide to work only with wealthier people in more affluent neighborhoods. Working with the poor has many trials, things that sometimes makes working with the poor more difficult than working with those from the upper classes. One of them is lice. These parasites seem to prefer heads of the poor. Every Sunday, after church, when we get home, if we see one of the girls itching their heads, we get the lice comb, and a white cloth, and brush out their hair.

Through trial and error, we have found the kind of lice comb that we prefer, of the four or five different models that we have, a metal one of good quality. Almost every day and certainly any time anyone is itching excessively, just as a part of daily routine, we break out the white cloth and the lice comb. It is one of the hurdles that we have had to get past, something that we must accept as a cost of working with the poor, part of the cross that we must bear if you will.

It is not something that I had ever read about in books about being a missionary. It is not something that I ever imagined would be a problem. I never got lice as a single missionary. In fact, it is very difficult for me to get lice even now. We joke about the lice trying to crawl on my head, and then hitting the bald spot, slipping and falling off, plunging to their death on the ground far below.

Things change though with kids. Kids like to hug their friends. Kids walk arm in arm, hold hands, exchange hats, and hug some more. Kids are a lice’s greatest ally.

In reflecting on lice, and the fact that I don’t get them, I wonder, am I doing like Jesus said, and becoming like a child? Perhaps I, as an adult, would get more lice if I did like Jesus said, and become like a little child. Perhaps I need to hug my friends more, hold hands more, exhange hats, and hug some more. And buy another comb.




posted by Eduardo Buck at Friday, May 16, 2003

 
I have not been able to get online except at night, if at all. I have some kind of weird radio interference with my telephone line. I have tried everything that I can think of, changed all the wiring in my house, bought a telephone line filter, I've had the phone people here and the ISP people here, and they all just wring their hands, and say that yep, it seems like there is some kind of radio interference. I wondered if it may be shortwave, but I think it is just conventional radio.

I can usually get online if I try before 7:30 am, and at night, sometimes after 7pm, sometimes not until 10pm, or midnight, or later. There are times when I cannot connect for days at a time, one time I went four days not being able to get online. Needless to say, this has been a real pain.

If any of you ham/computerhead gurus has any ideas about this problem, please share them with me, at holylamb(at)pobox.com.

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, about missions, about what missionaries do, how to plant churches. I just recently read “The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church” by Roland Allen. It was just what I needed, at the time I needed it. I would highly recommend it, especially to anyone that is involved in missions. I am still waiting for the boxes of books that I sent from the States to arrive.

I have been trying to form a philosophy of ministry and church planting. Things like what is really necessary and what are things that are maybe imposed from our western culture, establishing rules as opposed to letting the Holy Spirit be the guide, money and who controls it, how much control or freedom should a new church plant have, should a national church planter have a salary or work in a secular job until the church is established enough to pay his wages, etc.

I have also been reading about house churches at sites like http://www.house2house.tv and trying to think through the whole building rental thing, instruments, etc.

I mean, what is really essential to plant a church? If we need huge amounts of money to be invested, then how transferable is that? I want to develop a model of church planting that does not require huge sums of money from North America to fund church plants in South America. It seems to me that starting a church that reproduces is much more efficient and economical, like the difference of planting something that seeds, and the next year expands all on its own, and something that is grafted, and can never expand unless a branch is cut from it and grafted into another plant. Thousands of seeds with one plant, or one graft from the mother plant, do the math. If the goal is expansion and growth, the seeds are much more efficient. They will grow and adapt to the environment, and many of the plants will look much different than the mother plant due to their surroundings. Adaptation and expansion

If the goal on the other hand is cookie cutter Christians that all mumble the same slogans and agree completely with the head pastor, and churches that are exact clones of the mother plant, then the only way is grafting.

Our goal, our vision is to reach the vast reaches of the Amazon with the gospel, but just how in the world will that happen? What does it look like? It can never truly reach every tributary of the Amazon, as well as expand throughout the world if it is dependant on American dollars, like most missionary models I have seen in Brazil. An umbilical chord is useful for a season, but there is a point when it must be cut, and the baby must grow, and mature, and reproduce without it. Then another baby can be formed and birthed somewhere else by that mother church.

There are also issues such as the local church spending large sums on the rent of a building, instead of really doing the kingdom work of feeding the hungry, and taking care of the widows. Starting house churches may free up the resources for the church to carry out ministry to the surrounding communities. But I know from experience that people eventually want a building to meet in, and bring all the little churches together for a weekly celebration. There is something to the dynamic of corporate worship that is vital to our growth.

Anyways, there are a lot of issues to work through. This business of saving the Amazon can get messy sometimes :-) Share your ideas with me at holylamb(at)pobox.com, would love to discuss these issues further.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Thursday, May 15, 2003

 
I finally was able to upload the photo album, check it out at http://www.holylamb.com/webalbums/album1-MarchApril2003/
posted by Eduardo Buck at Thursday, April 24, 2003

 
24 April 2003
I haven’t been able to get online all day. Very frustrating.

I finally got the thank you’s mailed today. What a relief. Very late, almost time to start the ones for April.

I have been working on an online photo album. I was working on it last night at about 1 am, had it almost done, tweaked it a little bit and wiped out all the work I had just done, had to redo it today. That was a real bummer. It turned out better though, I think. I just wish I could get online to upload it.

I am so grateful to C & E, who made it possible for us to have a good digital camera, and have these digital images to share with everyone. I am starting to get the hang of the digital world. I have lost some images, I guess in the transfer they got truncated or something, and I am still playing around with the image size, etc. It is fun though, I have started taking more photos again. C & E, you glacier loving snowbirds, thank you from the hot tropical Amazon, and God bless!


23 April 2003

It rained today, like it can only rain in a tropical rainforest area. Buckets, like three gallons to the square inch per minute it seems like sometimes. Makes it hard to drive, or to walk, because with that much water laying everywhere, you can’t tell where the potholes are, or how deep they are. I saw a man almost fall down, fell into a hole, he was just walking along the side of the street, and it looked like a shallow puddle, then boom, he’s going in, and stumbling.

My brother-in-law was riding his motorcycle one time, right after a hard rain, and right at an intersection, as he was slowing almost to a stop, going through a big puddle, bang, he and the bike are in the hole, literally, the hole was that big. It was very fortunate that he was going slow, or it could have been fatal. We all laugh about it now, but if he had been going fast, the story may have ended much differently.

I worked hard on doing thank you’s for our supporters the last couple of days, and was very happy that they were done, so I could take them to the post office and get them sent out. I also had two bills that had to be paid at different banks.

Here, a wait in a line at the bank can mean hours. The girls were in school so Luciene, Josiah, and I, as well as a friend named Luciana, went so that she could wait in one line at one bank, and Luciene and I could wait in the other. We were so fortunate, because of the hard rain people didn’t go out, so the wait was only about 15 minutes. That is really unusual, really a blessing.

Afterward we went to the post office to mail the thank you’s, only to be told that they couldn’t accept them, because they were too small. I had brought some boxes of thank you’s from the States, but they don’t meet Brazilian postal code. So, we had to do all the addresses again, and I went and ordered a rubber stamp, so I don’t have to hand write our return address on all of them again. It will be handy in the future also. So it will be another day or two until the thank you’s go out. Then another two weeks until people get them.

Xexel is still telling people that he plans to steal our dog. I found myself getting very angry at him, very frustrated that there was nothing that I can do. I started thinking about giving him a good butt whooping, but then caught myself. I mean, that is not usually the best way to win someone to the Lord J I plan to go to his house, and talk to his parents. I talked to someone today that said that they would take me there, and show me where he lives. I have tried to reach out to him, but he takes it as further weakness. He feels like he can get away with anything now, since I didn’t call the police, or beat him up. He said that his dream, what he wants to be when he grows up is a policeman.




posted by Eduardo Buck at Thursday, April 24, 2003

 
Once again, someone tried to rob us, and got nothing. A gang of
boys, all of them about 14 years old managed to lure Zadok, our large
Rottweiler into the back yard, and shut the gate (I fixed that so I
can lock it open, so they can't do that again). They got the girls
bike out and hid it in some bushes down the street (we were able to
recover it), but they were really after our new Rottweiler puppy so
they could sell her and get some money. They almost got her, but
they didn't realize that there was a second gate on the other side of
the house that was open, and Zadok almost got them :-) We came home
right at that moment, just at the right time to foil them. They have
been going by the house, eyeing it, just waiting for a chance to
strike again.

The leader is Xexel, along with his friend Raium. They carry knives,
have said that they have killed people, they fight with other rival
gangs, and have been terrorizing some of the kids we work with. They
have been in and out of jail, and they just keep getting worse.
Please pray for them, that they would be saved, and become leaders in
the Kingdom of God. The neighbors keep saying that there is no hope
for them, and I keep saying that there is hope, and His name is
Jesus!

There was an armed robbery just two blocks away from us yesterday.
Two armed men on a motorcycle robbed our neighbor that had just come
home from the bank. This is where these young boys are heading in a
couple of years if they aren't reached for Christ. There is such a
need for the young people of Brazil. Please pray with us that God
would raise up workers for the harvest. The fruit is just rotting on
the trees.

Thank you so much for your prayers. Truly, your prayers have kept us
safe from harm, and will continue to open doors to spread the
kingdom. God bless you.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Friday, April 18, 2003

 
I have had a headache constantly for about five days now. I’m not sure what it is from. Could be from Dengue fever, could be the flu, or could be from high blood pressure. I forgot my blood pressure medicine in the States. I guess I should probably go to the doctor, but the doctor here has never even taken my blood pressure that I can remember. I think I need a new doctor.

When I think about death, my death, I wonder, if I die, who will go? Who will go to the poor, who will be the hands of Jesus to the people of the Amazon? Who will have the compassion on those that are suffering, who will burn with a desire to create a model creating jobs for those that are going hungry, provide training for the kids that are at risk on the streets, who will hug the children that know no love at home?

You must be out there, somewhere. Everyone must die, eventually. One thing that we all have in common is that we are all dying. Every day brings us one step closer to death. I do not want to die, and leave no one to continue the work. I want to hear the Lord say “Well done.” Part of that is preparing those that will come after. Part of that is leaving a legacy of leadership to take up the banner, to stand in the gap for the lost, to be the hands of grace to the multitudes that are like sheep without a shepherd.

Lord, send faithful workers, people that can be raised up to harvest the fields that are white, rotting on the trees. Give me wisdom Lord, that I may lead your people with compassion, with vision, and with the love of God. Help me to walk in humility, to make known your wonderful grace, to reflect your unity, to accept your diversity, to embrace your suffering, and to spread your love throughout history. Help me to plant seeds in good soil, and bring forth much fruit.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Tuesday, April 15, 2003

 
I have been having a lot of problems getting online. Sometimes I try all day just to get my e-mail. I'm not sure if this blogging will be the best option for me, can't use it if I can't get online. I may have to write stuff in word, and paste it in. Sometimes I get a really cool idea on something to write about, but after spending a couple of hours trying to get online, I forget what was so great. They have high-speed connections here, but I am leary about signing up with a regular expense like that, when we never really know what our support is going to be like.

We would really like to start some kind of tentmaking business, something that we can have to supplement our support, and also to train others in, to support their families, and for pastors to have a trade, so that when they plant a church, they have a means of support. If you have experience with something, especially something that would work in the Amazon region of Brazil, please let us know. We are working on a couple of ideas. If you have business expertise, or any grant writing experience, and would be willing to help out, please contact us as well.

I came up with a cool game you can play the next time you are going to take a trip on the Amazon. Challenge someone to see who can catch the most mosquitoes in say 10 minutes. Let them go first. When they are done with their 10 minutes, wet your hands, and then have a go at it. You'll find that wetting your hands will increase your mosquito catching abilities by about 50%. All you have to do is touch them and they get stuck to your hands. You'll win for sure. We have screens on our windows, and we spray regularly in our room, but we still seem to get a lot of them in our room with us, so we sometimes make a game of it with the family, and see who can catch the most. Besides being fun, it helps us all sleep better :-)


posted by Eduardo Buck at Saturday, April 05, 2003

 
We are in Macapá, which is on the northern mouth of the Amazon, where the Equator crosses the Amazon. Our goal is to spread the love of Jesus Christ by reaching the whole person, body, soul and spirit. We are exploring different ways to help socially, such as cottage industries, a training center, and medical outreach. We sure appreciate your help and support!
posted by Eduardo Buck at Saturday, March 22, 2003

 
this is a test of the international blogging system. This is only a test.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Tuesday, February 18, 2003