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.

 
I have found that it is so often the case, in the midst of the most intense battles, there is a sense of being alone, all alone, isolated from the rest of the world. I don’t know if this is exacerbated due to the fact that we live on the Amazon River. I suspect it is a common feeling. Checking e-mail, and there is nothing. Calling friends and family, getting only answering machines and voice mail messages.

One time our telephone system went down and it took a month for them to get it fixed. A whole month of feeling complete isolation, no phone, no internet except by going to one of the local cyber shops where I could share space with 20 kids yelling cuss words at each other and worry about how many worms and Trojans might be on the computers stealing my passwords every time I logged in to some account. As I write this, I cannot access the internet. There is some problem in the phone, or the access number of the internet provider. I’ll post it when I can connect again.

God wants to be our only source. Our source of satisfaction, our source of provision, our source of desire. Any time we look to something else to be our source, we will find disappointment, deception, and frustration. Whether it be a friend, a pastor, a family member, husband or wife- if we look to any human to fulfill what God alone can fulfill, we will be sadly disappointed. God wants to be our all, our goal, our deepest most passionate desire. We are His greatest goal, we are His deepest most passionate desire. Have you ever really stopped to think about that? That God is deeply, passionately in love with YOU? That God desires nothing else more in this whole universe than to have more intimacy with you and with me?

Sometimes it takes isolation to help us truly see how much we really depend on others, and on our own strength, instead of relying completely, wholly, and entirely on our Lord and Savior, Who alone is able to meet our needs. Sometimes it takes isolation to break us out of our codependent relationships.

If you find yourself feeling alone, lonely, desperate, without hope, completely isolated, call upon the name of the Lord. Seek the Lord with all of your heart, and He will answer. “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3 Let the Lord be your deepest, most passionate desire. You will never be disappointed in Him, for He is more than able to meet your every need.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Friday, June 29, 2007