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.

 
Thank God that Carnival is over. We live right near the monument for the equator, very close to the Sambódromo where the carnival celebration takes place here in Macapá. The noise was just incredible. We shut all the windows, turned on the fan, and still the booming just penetrated the walls. The first night we only slept fitfully, and from 3 AM until 7 AM music about Macumba, the Brazilian word for voodoo, just boomed on and on. After that first night, we wised up, and put some praise music on, so that we could at least be hearing worship instead of glorification of demons.

The next morning, at about 10 AM, we saw a guy lying alongside the road, in only his underwear, passed out from too much drinking. Someone stole everything from him, and left the poor guy with only his underwear. There were like 90 cases of people injured that they went to the emergency room, and two deaths that same night. That was just one night.

Tonight, for Ash Wednesday they all go to church, to show some repentance for the wrongs that they have done for the last five days in their "Festival of the Flesh", and get some ashes on their forehead. Nine months from now there will be a large slew of "Carnival babies" born. Lord, help us to reach these poor, lost people with the Good News.

The construction has been going forward. The wooden support for the concrete is done, they started putting the steel up this week. We may be able to pour the concrete next week if all goes well.

Here you can see Antonio putting down plastic over the wooden supports. After that, they will put down the steel and tie the whole thing together.

I recently got the tower painted, the kids like the colors.

The cockroaches have been horrible. They are big for one thing. Huge. And they are venemous, someone told me that they can kill a person. I haven't had to find out if that is the truth or not thank goodness. I have been killing a couple of them a day. The city has had like an infestation of the things. Here Hannah is holding one that I stabbed after we found it in the kitchen sink.

Here are a couple of things I have been playing with, having fun creating.

Hannah and Raquel showing off the new clothes they just got from Grandma

Thanks for your prayers!

posted by Eduardo Buck at Wednesday, February 25, 2004