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.

 
It’s like a national holiday. The banks shut down. The schools close. Brazilian flags are everywhere. The streets are painted. There are balloons. Everyone has a Brazilian shirt on. It is harder to find a store open than it is on Independence Day.

I can’t think of anything like it in the United States. There is nothing that I can think of that brings Americans together like this brings Brazilians together. The Brazilian soccer team played Tuesday in the World Cup, against Ghana. (That is the biggest world event for soccer for you Americans reading this that may not know what it is.) The country shuts down to watch and support their team.

The whole world cup plays on TV here in Brazil. Most Brazilians have strong opinions about the Brazilian team, their favorite player, why so and so on the bench should be starting. But they don’t just know their own team. Most Brazilians can speak intelligently about the other teams and the other players, their strengths, their weaknesses. I would venture to guess that half of Americans don’t even know what the World Cup is.

This is not some simple game of soccer. This is not just a game for Brazilians. It is the game. It is a matter of national pride. Brazilians are the best in the world, and they know it. After winning the World Cup five times, everyone else in the world knows it too.

There is nothing that I can think of that unites Americans in this way. There is no one sport that could bring the nation to a standstill, that could shut down the grocery stores, the banks, all government offices, shut down the schools, and turn the commercial sectors into a virtual ghost town. I have never seen anything like it except here in Brazil- every World Cup is like this. The more games that they win, the more fevered becomes the support, bigger are the fireworks and bombs blowing up at every Brazilian goal, and the more of the city gets painted in yellow and green. Friends and family meet together to scream and yell at the TV screen, and set off enough firecrackers to blow up a small country.

We invited some people over Tuesday to watch the game together. We had a great time. It ended up turning into an improvised worship service. Nice to see God getting more glory than the soccer team.


posted by Eduardo Buck at Thursday, June 29, 2006