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.

 
Marcos Gean Dias passed away this morning at 11 am. He was diagnosed with rheumatic fever, which results from strept throat that is not treated. He died of heart failure and kidney failure. According to http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4709, “Rheumatic fever begins with a strep throat from streptococcal infection.”

I met his dad, Adamar, at the hospital. We took care of the paper work, and then I took him to his house so he could tell the rest of the kids. The funeral truck dropped Marcos Gean's body off at his house, still in his adult diaper, draped inside the cheap plywood coffin only by a white cloth. We cleaned him up, cleaned the blood off of his teeth, cleaned the blood off of his ear and face and hair, dressed him, folded his hands.

Death is closer to the family than we are accustomed to in the States. It is not sanitized and commercialized, but close and intimate. As close as the front room, barely big enough for the coffin and nuclear family. The family, because they are poor, must clean him, must dress him, must sleep at night knowing that he is there in the front room. The funeral and burial will be tomorrow, Sunday morning.

This is the first death to hit our small congregation. This is the first death I have seen up close and personal here. I didn’t know that you have to put cotton in the nostrils and ears, so that things don’t leak out. I didn’t know so many things about death. These are things that they don’t teach you in church planting classes. This is stuff that you learn the hard way, with tears in your eyes and bloody cotton in your hands.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Saturday, August 28, 2004

 
Dear Prayer Partners,

This week has been so hectic. I don't think that there is one family in our small church that is not going through some kind of very intense struggle.

Members Adamar and Soccorro have a son, Marcos Jean, that fell down about three years ago and hurt his leg. There is something wrong in his hip joint now, and he only walks with crutches. He slipped this past week and wrenched his leg again, and has been in constant pain. They took him to the hospital on Sunday, and he was admitted, but there was no space, so they put him in the corridor. They suspect that he has pneumonia and the doctor just told them that he has heart problems. Jean is 18. He was finally moved to a community room, but was screaming and whimpering in pain last when I visited him. They moved him to intensive care as his breathing is so labored, and his kidneys are failing. Please remember them in prayer. Health care here is so precarious. It is not uncommon for poor people to die outside the hospital while waiting for care.

Another member had a blood pressure emergency, one was falsely accused of assault, one had to hide from her former husband because he was hitting her and treating the kids bad, some don't have enough to eat and are just really struggling. Our car has broken down three times past week, has been down for 6 days this week. Tuesday, after it seemed that everything was fixed and working ok, the tire flew off as we were driving down the street. Thank God we were driving very slow, and that no one was hurt.

We would really appreciate continued prayer for new transportation, and that we will be able to start the construction project again. It has been stopped for months now. I will be giving a talk at YWAM on Thursday evening, and would appreciate your prayers for that also. The devil is furious, because he knows that his time is short. Please continue to remember us and our small church plant in prayer

posted by Eduardo Buck at Wednesday, August 25, 2004

 
“Mom, they must be really rich. They have a special machine”, our six year old daughter Raquel told Luciene recently. “It’s like a box, and they put popcorn in, and push some buttons, and it comes out all done.”

“It’s called a microwave”, Luciene told her. “We used to have one in the United States, when you were younger.”

But she doesn’t remember.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Wednesday, August 18, 2004

 
God has opened the doors for a new church plant in Novo Horizonte, a neighborhood on the other side of town from the current plant in Marco Zero. We rented a house that has a big front room that used to be a bakery, and have one single worker living there to spearhead the evangelism and small groups.

It is definitely a humble beginning, and needs lots of work. We need to clean the weeds out, fix some of the structural problems, give it a good paint job, and fix the fence around it. It is encouraging to know that all through the Bible, God has used humble beginnings for His kingdom purposes, and used the foolish to confound the "wise".

The new church plant building in Novo Horizonte.

On Saturday, the 31st, we had a Sopão, which is a big pot of soup, and invited the neighborhood to come and eat, hear music, and play. We closed the street off and put the chairs outside.

Look at the size of that pan! We did a lot of soup. We cooked it over a fire right beside the church.

There were a lot of kids, Luciene and Jane did a little program for the kids beforehand that went really well.

We had a great time, and we learned a lot that will make the next time even better.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Sunday, August 01, 2004