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.

 
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