VMP: Bobby D. Creiglow
Bobby and Betty Creiglow served in partnership with BFM from May 1960 to May 1993. Bobby also served as Stateside Field Representative for BFM from 1998-2003.
Here is Bobby’s missionary service testimony: “We began our missionary service in Faith Baptist Church, Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil. This was our home base from 1961-1973. There were five other Baptist Churches in villages scattered up and down the various rivers, and only two had pastors. My service included visiting these churches on a regular basis holding evangelistic meetings, and many times conducting VBS. During the same time period, I was the founder of two new churches, along with another that was started, but not formally organized until some time after I left the area. I visited there several years later and preached to a thriving Church.
Here are some of the churches we either established or nurtured during our 33 years of missionary service:
STATE OF ACRE [Served among these churches already established before I arrived…]
- Faith of Cruzeiro do Sul
- Faith of Moura Piranga
- Faith of Japaim
- Faith of Barao
- Faith of Parana dos Mouras
- Faith of Campo de Santana
I established these two churches during my first term:
- Faith of Humaita (1962)
- Faith of Colonia de Japaim (1963)
CUIABA/VARZEA GRANDE – STATE OF MATO GROSSO
In 1974, I moved from Acre to Cuiaba, Mato Grosso to build a building and a congregation for fellow BFM Missionary Richard Turner, while he was on his first furlough. When he returned from furlough in 1975, I turned a congregation of thirty members over to him. I continued working with him on the building that was finished one year later. He organized that congregation into the Boa Esperanca Baptist Church in 1978.
In late 1976 or early 1977 I moved just across the river from Cuiaba to the city of Varzea Grande, where after a reasonable search, I found there was no Baptist Church, in the city of 40,000 people, where I set up shop once again. A church building was built for the new church that was organized in October 1978. I served as pastor of the church until 1983, at which time the congregation numbered around 130, and was turned over to a Brazilian Pastor. Two boys, one three years old, and his brother, seven years old, that were in Betty’s first Sunday School class, were years later called to preach and organized a daughter-church from the one I had organized.
NOVO DIAMANTINA
Upon an invitation buy a lady saved in the Boa Esperanca Baptist Church who had moved 130 miles miles away to a city called Diamantina, I agreed to start a church in an area on top of the mountain from the city. I started this work by building the church house before ever having a preaching service. In fact, the first service was the inauguration of the new building. One year later, the Novo Diamantina Baptist Church was organized with 20+ members.
Bobby will be 99 years old on 25 July. He is under constant medical monitoring and treatments. As he recently told one of his converts from years ago in an email exchange, “I’m living every day now between the doctors and Heaven.” He has been housebound for the past year, too weak to be out and about except to be taken to his numerous doctors’ appointments. Also, after suffering a fall in his home late last year, he was hospitalized, and it was discovered that he was acutely anemic. He received the first of what would be several subsequent blood transfusions to replenish his body’s blood supply. He was referred to a hematologist and was subsequently diagnosed with failure of his bone marrow to replenish his red blood cells. After other treatments were tried to rebuild and maintain his blood counts, his hematologist prescribed him to receive an injection that acts as a ‘booster’ to his bone marrow and his blood’s ability to carry oxygen to his body. He receives these injections weekly.
He is greatly encouraged also by numerous contacts that have been re-established over the recent years with friends, former church associates, and converts in Brazil who have ‘re-discovered’ and re-connected with him through Facebook. Some of these converts and former associates in the churches he ministered in go back forty or more years ago. He is overjoyed to correspond with them again and hear them tell their stories of how they are continuing to serve the Lord largely to the credit of his ministry and influence on their lives. One of them in particular has gone from Brazil to Mozambique, Africa to serve the Lord there. It fills his heart and these later years of his life with much gladness. As he said during a recent visit, “God is so good!” Please continue to pray that God will strengthen and encourage him as he remains faithful to Christ to the end – that he will finish well.
Pray for him! Reach out to him through every means you can (call, write, e-mail), and let him know you still appreciate him and his service. He would love to hear from you personally, or from your Sunday School class, or your church leadership. Reach out to Bro. Bobby via our Contact Page.
When you designate your offerings for ‘Veteran Missionaries Pension’ or for ‘Founder’s Month Offering’ [they are the same], they will be applied toward the continuing and on-going financial honor and support of these faithful life-long servants of Christ.
Click here to give now or you can mail your offering to:
BFM, c/o George Sledd
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
Join us at the Summer Conference in July where, Lord willing, Bro. Creiglow will be speaking on Tuesday, July 29, 2025!
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VMP: Harold & Ursula Draper
“We served in Cuiaba, State of Mato Grosso from 1977-1979 in the Boa Esperanca Baptist Church.
We then went to Sao Luis, State of Maranhao for 8 years from 1980-1988.
Then, back to Mato Grosso for 21 years from 1988-2009.
Our ministry was in church planting, Bible teaching, and construction of church buildings.
Here are some of the churches we either started or nurtured:
In the State of Maranhao: Cruzeiro do Anil Baptist Church; Anajatuba Baptist Church; First Baptist Church, Sao Mateus.
In the State of Mato Grosso: Boa Esperanca Baptist Church; Primavera do Leste Baptist Church; Novo Diamantina Baptist Church; Altos do Coxipo Baptist Church; Jardim do Fortaleza Baptist Church; Characa dos Pinheiros Baptist Church.
We started or helped start at least 10 Baptist churches and preached in many public places during our time in Brazil. Most of these works are still doing well. Since we have left Brazil, two of them have merged and David Hatcher has assisted greatly with in the Novo Diamantina church.
We are presently pastoring Faith Baptist Church in Paducah, KY. We are both 80 years old now and slowing down just a little. We’re ready to go to Glory when the Master calls.”
Pray for them! Reach out to them through every means you can (call, write, e-mail), and let them know you still appreciate them and their service. They would love to hear from you personally, or from your Sunday School class, or your church leadership. Reach out to Harold and Ursula Draper via our Contact Page.
When you designate your offerings for ‘Veteran Missionaries Pension’ or for ‘Founder’s Month Offering’ [they are the same], they will be applied toward the continuing and on-going financial honor and support of these faithful life-long servants of Christ.
Click here to give now or you can mail your offering to:
BFM, c/o George Sledd
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
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MEET YOUR “VETERAN MISSIONARIES PENSIONERS” BENEFICIARIES OF YOUR “FOUNDERS DAY OFFERINGS”
We are frequently asked: “What are you doing to continue giving our Veteran Missionaries assistance, especially financial assistance, in their golden years? How do you assist them? Through what means do you assist them? How can I help assist them?”
The short answer to that question for those who served long enough to vest into our traditional retirement/pension plan is: “We continue to honor and assist them by giving them a monthly ‘service pension’ for the remainder of their lives – and for which spouse may outlive the other.”
This is just a small way we can honor them and show our love and appreciation to them for the years of service they gave to Christ in partnership with BFM.
Many of you have known our Veteran Missionary Pensioners for decades. You have not only known them, but you have loved them, fellowshipped with them, served with them, hosted them in your churches and in your homes, and have contributed to their missionary support.
We still have six current Veteran Missionary Pensioners to whom we are giving this honor:
- Louie Carver (Mary is with the Lord)
- Bobby Creiglow (Betty is with the Lord)
- Harold and Ursula Draper
- John A. Hatcher (Alta is with the Lord)
- Paul and Wanda Hatcher
- Wanda Turner (Richard is with the Lord)
[Click on their names to learn more about their missionary service and where they are now.]
The “Veteran Missionary Pensioner” account is not funded through the regular monthly offerings given to BFM, but rather through another account that is established for that purpose.
Would you like to help us with this expression of our love for them? When you designate your offerings for ‘’Veteran Missionaries Pension’ or for ‘Founder’s Month Offering’ [they are the same], they will be applied toward the continuing and on-going financial honor and support of these faithful life-long servants of Christ.
Your missionaries and their families have served and sacrificed greatly on your behalf during their productive years. Please make a small financial sacrifice for your missionaries in their senior years by giving to the Founders Day Fund.
And, there’s MORE you can do to encourage them! Pray for them! Reach out to them through every means you can (call, write, e-mail), and let them know you still appreciate them and their service. They would love to hear from you personally, or from your Sunday School class, or your church leadership.
Thank you for sharing with them!
Click here to give now or you can mail your offering to:
BFM, c/o George Sledd
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
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News & Reports – June 2019 Issue [Online Edition]
The Online Edition of June 2019 BFM News & Reports is available at the link below. Read how God is working through the lives of our faithful missionaries and continue to pray for them.
Click here to read the BFM News & Reports – June 2019 edition!
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H. H. OVERBEY SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT
Amy Tate is our latest recipient of the H. H. Overbey Scholarship for the upcoming 2019-20 academic year. Amy is the daughter of our missionaries, Roger and Julie Tate. She has served with her family in Kenya since her childhood and will be entering Cedarville University in August.
The HHO Scholarship awards each recipient $1000 per academic year to continue their post-secondary education in a field that will further train and develop them for Christian service.
The H. H. Overbey Scholarship is named in the memory and honor of H. H. Overbey. Brother Overbey loved the children of our missionaries and contributed personally and generously to many of them for their Christian education and training – as well as others who are still today faithfully serving Jesus Christ. This is just one more way we can carry on his legacy of generosity.
Amy Tate with her parents, Roger & Julie
Amy Tate
We encourage you to pray for Amy and also for her parents and family as they are separated from one another.
And, if you wish to contribute to the H. H. Overbey Scholarship Fund to assist Amy and others of our missionaries’ children in future academic years, designate your contributions for “H. H. Overbey Scholarship Fund.” These funds are supplied only through your designated offerings.
You may read Amy’s personal salvation and service testimony here:
In a world so full of hate, is there room for love? In a world lost in darkness, is there a place for light? In a world consumed with affliction, are there moments of peace? In a world shattered by sorrow, is there hope?
I’ve been a pastor’s kid and a missionary my entire life, and yet I’ve been asking these questions for as long as I can remember. It’s too easy to look at the world and wonder where the beauty of life is. I didn’t have an easy life growing up, and I remember looking at my life and thinking, “There is no purpose.” Why was I still living through each and every day without reason, and why was I going through all of those hardships alone?
It wasn’t until God helped me really understand the joy and the hope that comes only from Him, that I was able to understand the light and the truth and the love and the joy in this world. The most spectacular thing, however, was when I finally understood the hope that was given to me, even in the darkness that I was enduring and living through at that time. I still lose sight of it sometimes, but that hope has, time and again, been a steady assurance to me, as I remember that things will not always be as they were, or even as they still are.
After that, I realized that as a follower of God, my calling- what God asks me to do- is to reach out to the people of this world and to serve them and love them. I want to show them, as God showed me, that there is more to life than just living through it, and there is more to life than the darkness that presents itself. There is more to life than the despair and the hopelessness that we daily feel when we don’t have anything better to look to. I realized that I didn’t want to hide that and keep it to myself, but I wanted to share it. I wanted to proclaim it, show it, and be an example of it. And that is still to this day what I want.
I will be entering and attending Cedarville University in Cedarville OH this fall of 2019. It is close to my home church, Emmanuel Baptist Church of Bellbrook, OH where Darrell Messer is my pastor.
I have no idea what my future will look like. I don’t quite know yet what I will major in, what kind of career I will have, or even where I will live. But what I do know is that it doesn’t matter, because wherever I am and whatever I’m doing,
I can always trust God with my life. What I believe He asks me to do stays the same, and that is to dedicate my life to bring glory to Him and to serve His people; the people that He loves, and the people that are still lost in darkness.
I want to serve. I want His light to be seen shining through me. And in this world of hate and darkness and affliction and sorrow, I want to bring God’s hope to the people of this world, by showing them His love. ~Amy Tate
Click here to make a donation to the HHO Scholarship Fund now.
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Four Seminary Classes in Three Weeks
The Hensleys have spent nearly 20 years serving in Brazil. They have established a church in Caraguatatuba and mission points throughout the city. They have also recently started a seminary to train pastors.
May 14, 2019
Dear friends and family,
In March and April, I was in Brazil taking Caragua Baptist Seminary to the Brazilian pastors and church workers. This is our concept of how to reach more Brazilian pastors and, through that, spread the gospel throughout Brazil.
In these three weeks four classes were taught: Systematic Theology, Survey of the Old Testament, Greek and Hebrew. Then the students have two months of work to be done for each class over the internet. This constitutes two semesters for those who complete all four classes. For these four classes, two pastors from the United States, Pastor Derek Coleman and Pastor Raymond Edge, gave two weeks of their time to go to Brazil and teach. Each pastor taught one course in Campinas, São Paulo and one in São Paulo, São Paulo.
Class in São Paulo
The class in Campinas was our first one in this location and we never know how many students we will have. We were told to expect 20-21 students, but we ended up with 17 students. These pastors have problems that we don’t even think about here in the States. There were some pastors that could not afford the gasoline to come to class, others could not get off in time to get to class, but the 17 that were able to come were very pleased with what they learned. I made many new pastor friends in this class and I expect to make many more.
Each time we go we have many students interested in the courses and this time was no different in that respect, but there was some hesitance or fear with the two language classes. One of the students said that he had taken two semesters of Hebrew and had not learned anything. After some assurance from me that these courses would be taught in a different manner and with a different approach, we had 33 students sign up for the classes. After the classes were taught, that same student told me that he was grateful to have had the opportunity to sit under our professors and that he had learned his Hebrew alphabet and how to do basic translations. AWESOME!!
Pastor Thomas, Pastor Edge, and AJ with the Bibles
The retired pastor, Pastor Thomas, of our host church in São Paulo is the President of the Trinitarian Bible Society of Brazil. He called the Trinitarian Bible Society of England and told them about our classes in Hebrew and Trinitarian Bible Society of England wanted to be a part of the classes. So, they decided to send us Hebrew Bibles without cost. However, Satan saw an opportunity to interfere. When the Bibles arrived in Brazil, the customs charged 2,700.00 Reals to get them out of customs. So, Pastor Thomas and I talked it over and decided that we would pay the cost to liberate the Bibles, but God in His great wisdom had another plan. Pastor Thomas called his friends in England to thank them for the gift and in the conversation, he told them about the cost to liberate the Bibles. And wouldn’t you know that they would not let us pay anything. They also paid the customs charge. They wanted to bless the Brazilian students with a free Bible. Isn’t our God AWESOME!!!!!
Class in Campinas
As I look at these students in each of the four classes, I thank God—for through my cancer, He gave me another way to plant churches in Brazil, and I see in each of these pastors the opportunity for God to use them in a special way to further His kingdom.
I have a special prayer request for all of my prayer warriors out there. One of the students in our classes in São Paulo and a close friend of mine has a 19-year-old son, David, that has been in the hospital for over 120 days and there does not seem to be any improvement. So, when God brings David to mind pray for him and his parents please.
Also please pray for the students, the pastors in the seminary, and especially for the professors as they dedicate their time and money to teach these classes.
In His service,
Aj and Barbara
Aj and Barbara Hensley
ajcaragua[at]gmail.com
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For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online
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New Neighbor, Youth Meetings, & More
Missionaries John Mark and Judy Hatcher have been serving the Lord in Tournefeuille, France since 1999. They define their ministry as “disciple-making.”
May 10, 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I just finished reading the letters written by the missionary wives and thoroughly enjoyed them. Maybe the ladies should write our letters more often!
Yesterday, I was enjoying a great “down home” lunch of butter beans and corn bread and my thoughts turned to the excited way God has touched my life. Here I was eating a good old Kentucky meal, a reflection of my parents’ and wife’s roots and I began thinking of just how multicultural our weekly ministry is. Already this week we have had several Bible studies and prayer meetings in French, English and Portuguese. People in these meetings were from France, England, New Zealand, Brazil, Portugal, Central Africa, Germany, Switzerland, America and Algeria. All of that in just five days… Sunday through Thursday. The week is not yet over. Tomorrow we have a full day of cleaning house for church, counseling and Youth Meeting.
We love it!
There are always ups and downs. Sometimes what seems to be a down becomes an up. I will just give you a little illustration of something that happened a couple weeks ago. Judy and I returned from a visit and shopping and I could not locate the keys to get in the house. Having looked every in and out of the car and trying to contain my frustration, I decided that I might as well break in the house. As I was in the process of doing this, a lady walks up to our open front gate and says, “I live next door and I have been wanting to meet you. What are you doing?” I sheepishly explained the situation. She then looked down just under the front wheel of the car, picked up a set of keys and asked, “Are these what you are looking for?” We then spent a few minutes getting acquainted with this new neighbor who mentioned that one of the reasons she had anticipated moving in next door to us was that a person who used to live on the next street over told her how friendly we were and what great music came from our house.
We had been praying to meet these new neighbors, but our plan had fallen through. Judy usually makes “from scratch muffins with hand-picked blue berries” for new neighbors to break the ice. Just a week or so before she had mixed a batch, but for some reason (first time ever) when they came out of the oven, they were a flop. All along God had a plan and a way of saying, “I hear your prayers and I love you and your neighbors.”
We continue to be very encouraged by the commitment of members of the church. Tomorrow is youth meeting to be held and Philip and Amanda’s home. We usually alternate between our homes hosting these youth activities. Having 25 or so teenagers in your home for a meal, interactive games and Bible study requires a bit of work…before and after. One of our families asked if they could host the next one. Tomorrow, this same family is having the whole church and friends brought by members to their home after the morning service for a “potluck lunch” and viewing of the film, “A Case for Christ”, by Lee Strobel.
We hope this little tidbit of what God is doing in our corner will encourage each of you, our partners.
Rejoicing in France,
John and Judy
John Mark & Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher[at]aol.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online
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News & Reports – May 2019 Issue [Online Edition]
The Online Edition of our May 2019 BFM News & Reports is available at the link below. This special edition features letters from our missionary wives in celebration of Mother’s Day!
Click here to read the BFM News & Reports – May 2019 edition!
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