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.

 

This is something I have been trying to hammer out, trying to refine. This is the short, condensed version. If you have any ideas or comments, I would love to hear them. Drop me a line at holylamb (at) yahoo (dot) com, but make sure to put something relevant in the subject line so that I actually see it.

Plan for expansion of the Vineyard Church in Macapá, and in Brazil

1. 
   Plant churches- plant viable servant led churches that are teaching the Word of God with faithfulness, and modeling a life of worship.
2. 
   Evangelize- spread the Good News, reach children, restore families, and call people to a place of repentance where God can begin to bless them.
3. 
   Establish businesses- start businesses to battle poverty and provide a fair wage and restore dignity to the poor and underprivileged.
4. 
   Establish social welfare institutions. Establish projects where Christians can model servant warfare and find a place of service in the body of Christ while reaching out to those that are most needy in the community.
5. 
   Establish schools- start Christian schools to train up children in the way they should go, and provide a well balanced quality education.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, November 19, 2007

 
Of course, as soon as I said that I could get back on, I couldn't get back on any more. Our connection of late has been soooooo very slow and tedious that it is difficult just to get e-mail and post text on the site. This should have been up weeks ago, but I simply couldn't get on blogger to put it up.

Why I came to Macapa Now, in 2007
Written by Connie Wragge
Ministry Leader
PhotoMission
www.photomission.com

During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Acts 16:9-10

Why I came to Macapá Now, in 2007:
After spending months in prayer, I believed God was asking me “to go”.
I know Eduardo through an online ministry we are both part of, PhotoMission.com.
What has God shown me about the church planting work Eduardo and Luciene are doing in Macapá:
It is a minute-by-minute walk of faith.
The enemy tries to break their zeal all the time.
This family needs the prayers of God’s people, all the time.
The church here has vibrancy for Christ and a desire to serve Him.
The church here has a median chronological age of 17. The oldest worship team leader at a Thursday night small group Bible study I attended was 14 years old. On Sunday night, the church listened attentively as Eduardo taught from Joshua 5-6 and followed along in their Portuguese Bibles.
Due to the social culture in warm climates, people are always phoning the Schmidts and stopping by to visit. While we all understand the nature of ministry is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, two people (Eduardo and Luciene) are doing the work of 20 people. This affects the amount of personal time the Schmidts get to spend with their four children, and the amount of time they get to spend with each other.
Internet connections are very slow, making it difficult to stay connected with the outside world on a regular basis. My experience: most often, it took 15-20 minutes to get connected to the internet on a dial-up modem.
Often, new ministry ideas are put on hold.
Satan uses various methods to keep help from arriving in the form of short-term mission teams and pastors who could help implement new ministry ideas and in general just offer encouragement to this couple by helping them to press on, and press forward.
In closing, this must be one of the toughest mission fields on the planet. There are a few other Christians here, who are doing Kingdom-building work. There are even more people here who are part of cults and various false faiths who are doing creative things with far more funds than the Schmidts have, to entice the people in the city of Macapá to “enter through the wide gate”.
How anyone reading this story of the work in Macapá can help:
Write the names of Eduardo and Luciene Schmidt in your prayer journal, and pray regularly for this family.
As God leads you, come here and serve Christ.
Give to the financial cost of stabilizing Vineyard Church of Macapá. Here’s where you can mail a gift of any amount:

Buck or Luciene Schmidt
C/O Vineyard Tuttle Crossing
5400 Avery Road
Dublin, OH 43016

Gifts made out to Vineyard Tuttle Crossing, and earmarked for the Schmidt’s may be tax deductible, check with your tax preparer for more information.

posted by Eduardo Buck at Sunday, November 18, 2007

 
I can't believe I am finally able to get on to blogger.com so I can update the site. It has been over a week that I just couldn't get on. Our internet access has been horrible the last week, maybe monkeys are playing on the wires :-)
posted by Eduardo Buck at Saturday, November 17, 2007

 
We are hosting Connie of PhotoMission.com in our home right now, we are having a great time, sharing good food and good photo opportunities too. If you are a Christian photographer, consider joining photomission. If you need photography for your business or ministry, check out photomission.com, there is talent from all over the world.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Monday, November 05, 2007