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.

 

Merry Christmas!

God is so good. God is soooo good! God is so good to us! We would like to thank each one of you that prays for us. We know that people are praying for us, because God answers those prayers.

I was reminded in a recent congregational e-mail (I have included it below) from Rich Nathan, senior pastor of Vineyard Church of Columbus, that God will often answer our prayers, even long after we forget that we prayed them. Many years ago I had asked our prayer partners for prayer for a couple that were separated, my friend Valmir and his wife Ellen. There seemed to be no chance of reconciliation. Years went by, and I must confess that I had given up hope of them ever getting back together. They both moved to distant neighborhoods, and we lost contact. I ran into Ellen recently, and they have gotten back together! Even long after they have moved to another neighborhood and we have forgotten that we had even prayed, God is releasing His healing and reconciling Spirit.

We have asked for prayer that God would supply everything that we need to be able to begin construction again. Miraculously God has supplied, and we were able to begin getting materials, and began the construction again the week before Christmas. This Christmas, God has granted us abundance. We are still in awe at God’s goodness.

We are still trying to work through all of the paperwork for the car. We are getting close I think. The fact that I am an American is the hold up. Every time there is a new requirement, or they ask for more documents, it goes up the chain, from Macapá to Belém, then on to São Paulo, getting analyzed. Then it comes back the same route, requesting something else. Of the four co-signers that we have gotten so far, two have been provisionally accepted. But then they lost part of the application on the day that they were going to send it to headquarters, and in trying to track it down, and then redoing it, we have hit the holidays, so it will be a week or two until it is resolved. We bought an older used car to get around in for now, which is still much better than the Bug J

We were also reminded recently how blessed we are to have you, our faithful prayer warriors, praying for us. Hannah came in screaming that there was a snake under the mango tree. The mango tree is about three yards from our front door. I went out to take a look, and sure enough, there was a snake, bright red. Hannah had been very close to it when she saw it. I killed it, and asked the neighbors what it was. I had just killed a coral snake, which is highly venomous. We just can’t thank you enough, each one of you that lifts us up in prayer. Our ministry, indeed our very lives, depend so much on our faithful prayer partners. Thank you so much, and may God richly bless each one of you this Christmas season.

The Schmidt Family

Planting Churches in Brazil,

Eduardo (Buck) e Luciene Schmidt

http://www.holylamb.com

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Congregational Email - December 2004

By Rich Nathan

God's Delays Do Not Equal God's Denials

Over the last several months I've been meditating and teaching upon the subject of prayer. One of the great challenges in prayer is our experience of delays in God's answers. As I was preparing for the Advent Season, I came upon this verse in the book of Luke: But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John (Luke 1:13)."

As you may know, Zechariah (John the Baptist's father) had been selected to offer sacrifices in the Temple. It was a unique, once in a lifetime privilege for a priest to be selected for this task. While fulfilling that role, an angel told Zechariah that his prayers had been heard. Which prayer was the angel referring to?

I don't think that Zechariah was, at that moment, praying for a son to be born to him. Zechariah had a priestly role to fill and was almost certainly interceding for the Jewish nation, not for his own personal situation. In addition, Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, were past their childbearing years. In the history of Israel only one other couple, Abraham and Sarah, had given birth to children when they were past their childbearing years.

Which prayer was the angel of God referring to when he said: Your prayer has been heard, Zechariah? I believe the prayers that were heard were the prayers that Zechariah and Elizabeth had prayed years before and then forgot about or gave up on.

There are many prayers that you and I have forgotten about or have given up on. Perhaps you've prayed continually for a healing to take place, a loved one to be saved, a child to be born, a ministry door to be opened, a partner to marry, a person to be converted, but God didn't appear to answer your prayers. So you moved on. Many times, moving on is a very healthy thing to do. We cannot obsess about what we don't have. Sometimes we need to say: "Well, this one is just one of those answers that God, in his infinite wisdom and freedom, has chosen to withhold from me. I'm still called to love God anyway, to be content in all circumstances, and to love other people. Whether my prayer is answered, I'm still called to a place of meaningful service to God."

But God's delays do not necessarily mean God's denials. God sometimes answers prayers that you and I have stopped praying. In fact, God sometimes answers prayers that we have entirely forgotten about. God can dig out a prayer that you prayed 20, 30, or even 40 years ago and say to you: "Surprise! I'm now going to answer your prayer. You may have forgotten, but I haven't forgotten."

Have you ever been overwhelmed by the thought that a blessing has come into your life simply because another person prayed for that blessing years before? I personally believe that virtually every one of us is a follower of Jesus Christ right now because someone prayed us in-a mother, a father, a grandparent, a pastor, a friend, a spouse, a Sunday school teacher-someone else prayed us in!

I was raised in a Jewish family. I had no Christian contact. But I remember that when I was ten years old my parents went away on vacation for a couple of weeks. They left my sisters and me in the care of an elderly African American woman, who I just adored. Her name was Coretta. She was a great cook and a consistent disciplinarian.

There was one thing that stood out about Coretta-she was the first person I ever saw read the Bible. She read the Bible every morning and every night. She sat in her chair in her bedroom with her open bible, praying. One day I heard Coretta praying for me. Then seven or eight years later I met Marlene and she prayed for me every day for seven months until I came to Christ. God's delays are not his denials. God remembered Coretta's prayers in my life, and he remembered Marlene's prayers.

Several years ago an eighty year old grandmother came to Christ at the church. Her daughter beamed with excitement. She hugged me and said, "Rich, this is absolutely unbelievable!" I said to the daughter, "You've been asking the Lord for a long time for this, haven't you?" She said, "I can't tell you how many times I've prayed for this moment. And now, finally, I've gotten to see with my own eyes, my mother receiving Christ."

Let me share with you a note I recently received from a member of our congregation:

I was sitting in service a couple of weeks ago and as you were speaking you mentioned about how God answers prayers. For some reason my mind was caught on those words and I began to think of answered prayers in my life. God revealed an answered prayer of mine that I would like to share with you. I came from a broken home and I remember looking out the window in my room in the apartment I shared with my mother. I saw a dad and his son getting ready to go fishing. I had never been fishing before and I began to cry. As a small boy I asked God to take me fishing.

Well time went on. I grew up and got married and now have my own children - a daughter and a son. Three weeks ago I was driving to a football game with my son and he was talking about a fishing trip he and I had recently taken. He looked at me and said, "Dad, I want to go fishing with you again." I said, "Sure, son, we'll take another trip." But my son said, "But this time, Dad, let's just you and me go, OK?"

Sunday morning, in the worship service, God showed me that he answered the prayer I had prayed as a small boy through my own son 25 years later...

You may have forgotten a prayer that you prayed years ago. You may have given up about praying for something. But God does not forget any one of your prayers. God's delays do not mean God's denials.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, December 13, 2004