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 did the ultrasound yesterday, everything is fine, all the organs are normal, but there was one kidney stone. We will get the last of the test results back today and we will see the doctor later today. Will keep you posted on what we find out. Thanks so much for your prayers, we really appreciate them, and have felt them sustaining us.

Meanwhile, here is a post that I had been working on before all of this happened, and just never posted with all of the excitement.

For a couple of weeks, we have been feasting on macaroni and cheese, and having pancakes with real maple syrup. It just amazes me how God is so good to us. A vineyard church in Marysville sent us some boxes, man what a blessing. It is amazing how you miss the little things from home. One of the things that I miss the most is maple syrup. You just can’t buy that stuff at your corner store here on the Amazon J

Every year my dad would get us a Sam’s Club membership, and that is when we really started doing the real maple syrup instead of the corn syrup with fake maple syrup flavoring. We could get a whole jug of 100% Real Maple Syrup (I think it was like half a gallon) for US$6, which made it cheaper than the fake stuff at the local Kroger’s. And once you start eating the real thing, it is almost impossible to go back to the fake stuff. It was just a regular part of our diet, and our routine, making pancakes or French, oh, excuse me, Freedom toast on the weekends.

We can get M&M’s, I’ve seen Doritos, though they are hit and miss, mostly miss, but there are some things that you just can’t get in Macapa. One of them is 100% Real Maple Syrup, another is Jones Potato Chips that I used to eat in Mansfield, Ohio. I can do without the chips, since I have been struggling with high blood pressure I can’t have the salt anyway, but the maple syrup, that is one thing that is hard to go without. It makes me want to start an import/export company just to be able to import syrup.

Anyways, I said all of that to get to the point of how good God is to us, that here, in the midst of the Amazon Rainforest, God provides us with what is good, and what our heart desires. He is concerned, even about the little things, things that probably seem pretty insignificant. I mean, when you are omniscient and omnipresent, and you have to hold the whole universe together and keep everything running smoothly, it seems like such a small thing to worry about providing a balding transplanted corn-fed Ohio boy something so trivial as maple syrup. But that is the kind of God we serve, that is the kind of Daddy we have, that provides not only everything we need, but also provides many little things that we want, just because we want it and it pleases His heart to see us happy. It is easy to sing praises to God. He is so Good!
posted by Eduardo Buck at Tuesday, October 04, 2005