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 am sure I will go to be with Jesus!
By Eduardo Buck Schmidt


Luana - Photo by Raquel Schmidt

Some people have a contagious spirit, they enter a room, and everything seems to get brighter. Luana is that kind of girl. Always happy, always smiling, a seven year old bundle of joy. She lived next door, studied English with Luciene, and faithfully attended the church. She accepted Christ at our Sunday school when Luciene explained the gospel to the children. When Luciene asked who was sure that they would go to be with Jesus in heaven when they died, Luana confidently raised her hand and said “I am sure I will go to be with Jesus!”

Two weeks later, she went to be with Jesus. She passed away the day before the “Day of the Child” here in Brazil, and two days before her eighth birthday.

I got to the hospital, and the family was crying out front. Nea, her mother, passed out numerous times. What can you say at such a time? I prayed silently, hugged them, and tried to offer support. I went to see Luana, up on the third floor, where they had tried to do an emergency operation to drain her lungs which had filled with fluid. They were just wheeling her out to the ramp, covered in a white cloth which was taped like a death shroud over her head. There was only one orderly, and he was having trouble on the curves, so I grabbed one end of the gurney. The wheels of the gurney on the anti-slip grooves of the ramp was a horrible sound, tck tck tck, down three floors, tck tck tck. Out the back, across the cobblestone courtyard, tock tock tock, to the morgue, and I helped lift her body to the marble top table, and opened up the shroud to reveal her face. She looked like she was napping, and that she would wake up any minute. The dark red on her neck and chest attested to the cardiac arrest from lack of oxygen. Cotton was stuffed in her nose, so that nothing could leak out. One of her aunts tried to hold her lips closed, so that as she stiffened she would look more natural.


A special presentation that the kids of the church put on, Luana is in the middle, with a red shirt and boots. Photo by Luciene Schmidt

I cried and prayed and cried some more. Family members came and went, smelling and crying into articles of Luana’s clothing, hospital workers came to stare through the open window. Death is horrible, but the death of a child is devastating.

Beside the morgue were broken beds, rusty gurneys, and old wheelchairs. Two large industrial trash containers were open, and another lay on it’s side. It was a place to discard things that were no longer useful. It seemed a sacrilege to put little Luana out there, so close to refuse.

The funeral home came with an infant coffin that was too small, so they left to get another. They returned some time later, and they called the parents back in, but the second one was still too small, so they had to leave to get a different one. By this time, the family was ready to put the funeral home owner in one of the coffins. The third time they got it right, and the family wiped her face, and changed her clothes. They lifted her into the coffin, fixed up some frilly borders, and members of the family carried the coffin out and put it in the truck. They went to the funeral home where the family members stayed all night at her side, crying, wailing, and hugging one another, trying to come to grips with why such a cute, loving, little girl would die so quickly, so unexpectedly.

We took our kids to the funeral home, and there were probably thirty kids from the neighborhood there as well. I shared how Luana had accepted Christ, and that she knew that she was going to heaven. It was a tearful moment. The kids were crying as they said goodbye to their good friend. Any adult that still had dry eyes up to that point couldn’t resist seeing the kids crying.

Later that day, the family members and friends gathered at the funeral home, and then the long procession of cars proceeded to the cemetery for the funeral. At the funeral, I took my Bible, just in case they called me to say something. I had assumed that there would be a priest there, as the parents are catholic, but the family just stood around the coffin and cried, then they asked me to come and pray. I preached a short gospel message, and prayed. I tried to share hope, the hope that we have in Jesus, that one day we would see Luana again.



English class, Luana is in pink. Photo by Luciene Schmidt

We decided to do a service in her honor at the church, a memorial service to honor our young member. We invited the neighbors, and we invited her family. We had a full house. We invited the kids, her friends, and her family to come up and share a memory of Luana. Her cousin, who is a Christian, ministered grace. There were a couple of short messages that God laid on peoples hearts, mostly about God’s sovereignty and hope for the future. Her dad brought a photo slide show of Luana set to music, and the tears flowed freely. We ended by calling up the family members, and praying for them, and hugging them, trying to comfort them.

Please pray that the seeds that were planted would bear fruit, and that Luana’a family would come to know Jesus so that they can see her again one day, and dance with her on streets of gold.
posted by Eduardo Buck at Wednesday, October 22, 2008