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.

 
We took an exploratory trip to Villa Nova this week, to see what doors God may be opening up for river evangelism and work among unreached people groups along the rivers.  Please pray for us, that God would continue to open doors for further ministry among the unreached, and that the Lord of the Harvest would send workers into His harvest field.

This girl is 19, mute, and pregnant.  She would not let us pray for her.  Her brother is also mute.  There are some spiritual strongholds in the family.  Her dad (behind her) is an alchoholic.

Some of the kids got all dressed up when they saw that we were taking pictures.

God, be merciful, and help these precious children escape the spiritual darkness and live free.

This is the church that has just started in Villa Nova.  It is up on stilts because it floods during rainy season when it is high tide.  Even though it is fresh water, at this point the Amazon River has tides because it is right at the mouth of the ocean.

This is Vermelho (Red).  He fishes, harvests Açai, and relies heavily on shrimp.

Lord Jesus, be merciful and compassionate to the children and unreached people along the rivers.  Raise up workers for the harvest Lord! 

Playing in the water.  Luciene asked which way the river flowed, and they replied, both ways!  The current was going one way, downstream to the ocean, and the current was very strong.  Then the water started flowing the other way when the tide started coming in, and it was just as strong.

In front of the church at Villa Nova.

In front of the river at Villa Nova as night falls.

Luciene and Raquel recently made some awesome cinnamon rolls together.

Raquel just lost her two front teeth.

Rafael Guerra, Newton's son.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, July 26, 2004

 
Our lab is having puppies!  It is a happy day.  So far there were nine born, but three were dead, there are six healthy ones.  Three chocolate, two white, and one black one.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, July 19, 2004

 
Our telephone went down again, a couple of times, for days at a time.  So frustrating.  I have been working on the new site for the church, and hope to have that up in the next couple of days.  If our phone keeps working for a couple of days that is.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Friday, July 16, 2004

 
The kids just love our Roy Gernhardt CD, "Altar of Innocence". I tried to put something else on, but the kids changed it back. This is his first CD I believe. I think that he put out a worship CD also. He is a worship leader at the Tuttle Crossing Vineyard (hey guys, are you ever going to finish that darn site? It has always been under construction.). Can't wait to get my hands on something else of his.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, July 12, 2004

 
A good friend of ours just sent this to us, sad statistics about child abuse in Brasil. I would say that the stats may be low, and shocking as they are.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Sunday, July 11, 2004

 
During times of trial, during times of walking through the fire, that seems to be when there are feelings of isolation of being all alone. The phone stops working. The car breaks down. The doorbell breaks and we don’t know it. Friends stop by, ring the doorbell that is not working and leave, while we are at home, alone.

God uses those times, of trial, of isolation, to form us, to mold us. I know that this may come as a shocker, but God’s goal is not our comfort and satisfaction. His goal is that we grow and mature, until we become more like Jesus.

Jesus was many times alone. Often he prayed alone, early in the morning, or all night long. During the most trying time in his life, as he prayed and sweat blood in the garden, his friends slept, and he prayed and cried out alone. As he was beaten and scourged, he suffered alone. As he carried his cross through the streets, collapsing under the weight of our sin, he suffered alone. As they nailed him to the cross, he suffered alone.

I don’t understand why it is that God allows us to suffer, except that it must in some way, do in us what years of comfort could not do: make us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Friday, July 09, 2004

 
Our phone has had problems again. I mean, we do live on the Amazon and all, but it is still really nice to have a working phone. For the last week, we would have problems and the phone would not be working for days, then the technicians would come, and it would work for a little while, then suddenly stop working again. I would just go dead, but people trying to call, it would just ring and ring, so people would think that we weren't home.

Then, about 4am this morning, the phone starts ringing. Just ringing, and then it would stop, then it would ring again. I unplugged it finally, and then plugged it back in this morning, and it promptly started ringing again. Of course, when I called about getting it fixed, they said that it was a problem with our phone or our internal wiring. Bologney.

The good thing is, they finally just pulled a new line from the main box which is quite far away, so instead of getting 28.8 or 26 K on the modem (click walk away and eat breakfast and brush your teeth and come back to see if at least the text has loaded speed), I am now getting a blazing 48 K (and to think that there was a time that I thought cable modem was slow, after working on a T-1 all day at work :-) I am pumped. This is just such good news. Thanks to everyone that has prayed for us in this area.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Thursday, July 08, 2004

 
Thanks for your prayers for Suzana. Last we heard, she is still in intensive care, but they are very optimistic about her condition, and it looks like she will make it ok. Thanks so much for your prayers, this was a battle won in heaven by faithful prayer warriors.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Sunday, July 04, 2004