Revival Sparks in Peru: A Legacy of Missions Rekindled
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
September 29, 2025
Dear Brethren,
Do you like good news? I thought so. So do I, so here goes.
In 1955 a preacher came to our house in Sanford, Florida and shared the gospel with my Dad. That preacher was Bruce Lunsford. The Good News transformed Dad’s life. Later it changed mine, too. Bruce went to Brazil as a missionary. Not long after, my Dad did the same. In 1961 the Lunsfords and Creiglows went to Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre on a paddle wheel steamboat.
A short time later Brother Lunsford went across the border to Peru where he visited a town called Pucalpa on the Amazon River. That town already had 50 thousand people. There was no church other than the Roman Catholic church at that time. Brother Lunsford saw a gaping door for the Gospel. He then decided to go to Iquitos, Peru (further down the Amazon River) and invite a new missionary to help him start the new mission in Pucalpa. That was missionary Del Mayfield.
Del and Ada Mayfield moved to Pucalpa. The Mayfields dug in and in a few short years the work was flourishing. In September 1967 the Iglesia Bautista da la Fé was organized with 34 members. That month the church averaged 101 in Sunday School. The week following the organization there were 10 more saved and 7 more baptized.
Brother Mayfield had a vision for what could be. He bought almost a full city block in the center of Pucalpa. There a church building was erected on the corner and a Baptist school was later built on the rest of the property. Brother Del also prepared a native pastor to carry on the work. His name: Pastor Abel.
I first met Pastor Abel in 1982. I had been in the States for a skin treatment and decided to make my return to Brazil into an adventure. For company I put 2 beagle puppies in portable kennels and bought a one-way ticket to Lima, Peru. The plane made a stop in Iquitos, Peru. I got off there and spent a couple of days. Then I bought a ticket to Pucalpa where I stayed for 3 days with Pastor Abel. By the way, Brother Mayfield had already gone to heaven. From there I hired a single engine plane to take me across the border to Cruzeiro do Sul. It is just a 1-hour flight and back then you didn’t have all the red tape to get around South America.
Now, fast forward to 2025. This year we sent our oldest missionary, José Maia, to Pucalpa. He has been with First Baptist Church for 33 years and had been working in Tipisca, Peru. His health is not what it used to be and needed to go to a field with less physical hardships. We prayed and talked and went through all the best options. We settled on Pucalpa. My only requirement for José and Silvânia was that they go help our church there.
When they arrived and presented themselves to Pastor Abel and the church, things were not well. The church had gone through multiple splits. The school was still functioning, but had some legal problems. Pastor Abel is now 83 years old and let’s just say sort of stuck in the past and “sot” in his ways. Attendance was less than 10 people. He knew he needed help and help arrived! Abel put José in charge of the youth (3 young adults!) and Silvânia the ladies group.
About 3 months ago we started working on putting a team and trip together for me to go over and encourage the struggling little church and her pastor. On September 16th the paperwork went through for our international flight from Cruzeiro to Pucalpa in the South America Mission plane.
I took 4 of my men with me. They helped me with the teaching and preaching for the 5 days we were there. My last lesson was on Sunday morning, a basic lesson on missions. Brother Abel gave an invitation. We had 11 people come forward yearning to get busy for the kingdom of Christ. Many tears were shed. Before the final prayer Pastor Abel pulled a picture out of his pocket. It was my 1982 prayer card that I had given him. He kept it for all these years having no idea that we would ever meet again.
We are very excited about what the Lord might do in Pucalpa. The city has grown more than I could imagine. Three other towns on the outskirts have grown into one big city of over 500 thousand people. The possibilities are infinite for the church there. In the coming months we have plans to bring some of their folks over here to see what God is doing on this side of the border. Then we plan to go there as often as possible to assist them. We are looking into a cheaper and less bureaucratic way over. Pray for us as we try to help them win souls with the good news of the gospel of Christ and the expansion of His kingdom.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
CONTACT INFO
Mike & Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
69980 Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre
Brasil, SA
mdcreig@hotmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click the yellow “Give” button on our homepage.
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Still Here, Still Serving: 65 Years of Faith, Family, & Flourishing
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971 (Mike has served in Brazil since 1960). In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
September 3, 2025
Dear Brethren,
Yes, we are still here. I know you probably thought that we were finally gone, but no, we are still here. Hoping for Christ to come and get us, but until then…..
We just got back from a month in the States. Some was the ordinary, such as a number of visits to doctors and clinics. The extraordinary was getting our last 3 grandkids naturalized as American citizens and special time with all 4 of our kids together in one place after over 11 years.
Before that though, I was able to squeeze in one more visit to our works on the Moa River. The river was already very low and perfect for my new boat and motor. This is my first ever shallow water with boat higher power tail motor – a 38HP Kawashima. We didn’t have time to do much testing, so I ended up having to fabricate a trim tab during the trip. Fortunately, I had taken the right tools and—along with some materials scrounged in one of the villages—I was able to keep the rig running. Since then, we have worked out the final kinks. It is a great piece of equipment. Our missionaries have used it for 2 more trips on the Liberdade and Boa Fé Rivers. Thanks to all who helped us build the boat and purchase the engine/materials.
Also, just before the trip to the US, our ladies held their 100th quarterly meeting. They shocked everybody, cramming 1603 ladies into our building on a Saturday afternoon. Not included in this number were the 30 plus men who performed the slave labor part. Proud of our faithful women.
While we were away our men had their camp with over 150 campers. Then the pre-teens had theirs with over 100 at Camp Salem, which is 25 miles down the TransAmazon Highway. Just before these activities we were able to finish putting up a new mess hall. This replaced the old wooden one that I had built over 40 years ago. The new one is a metal structure with concrete floor and is twice as big. We also built 2 new cabins just in time for these two retreats. Several more were saved through the evangelism that happens at camp.
Yes, I have been busy. And thanks to your prayers for me and God’s answer giving good health these several months, I have been able to keep up a brisk pace, to say the least.
Last Sunday we were back home at Primeira Igreja Batista. We had over 600 in the morning service. One of Pastor Pedro’s granddaughters made a profession of faith. 17 more were added to the church by baptism. We took a picture of the crowd out in front of our new building, which I will share with you.
Yesterday marked the 65 years since I first set foot in Brazil. It was September 2, 1960. I was 12 when my Dad moved us to another continent. I got to see my Dad several times last month while Stateside. He is now 99 and I am 77. Praise to our wonderful Lord for doing what He did with Dad and with me. All joy and no regrets.
Thanks for all your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
CONTACT INFO
Mike & Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
69980 Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre
Brasil, SA
mdcreig@hotmail.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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The Oldest New Believer: 109 Years in Darkness, Now a Child of Light!
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
May 8, 2025
Dear Brethren,
Lots of news. My problem is that I would rather be out making news than reporting the news. My last report was January and here we are in May!
Here at First Baptist Church things are moving along nicely. Attendance is moving up steadily. We are now well past pre-pandemic numbers. We have had several services with over 800. Sunday morning and Sunday night attendance are running neck and neck at 600 plus, which indicates to me a healthy church. We had 6 more saved last week and baptized 27 the week before.
Our missionaries are very active. We had 2 teams on the Boa Fé River last month. One team worked from Gama upstream. The other team worked from the mouth to Gama. We have nice size congregations at Gama and Generoso which are at about half the length of the river. We have a full-time missionary couple at Gama.
Last week we had 2 more teams working the Liberdade River. The Transamazon Highway crosses the Liberdade 82Km from Here. Our teams went house to house from the bridge to the mouth of the river. There were a number of professions of faith. The largest village, Santa Catarina, (over 300 people) had been closed to us until recently. One of our missionaries is José Rondisson. He won another José to Christ. That in and of itself is a big deal. But even bigger is that Sr. José is 109 years old! He lives by himself in a little house beside his daughter’s house. He gets around quite well and was sitting in his rocking chair when Rondisson came to share the gospel with him.
The river has been high for several months, so I have been out there taking advantage of the high water to visit churches and congregations. There is plenty to tell, but I will limit to just one visit.
On my last visit to the works along the Peruvian border I was at São José on the Breu River. The Breu River is the border between Peru and Brazil. The river runs from east to west and dumps into the Juruá River (our main river). I went in my larger boat. The river was high when I left, but very low when I arrived at the border. They had gone 8 days without a drop of rain. We took 5 canoes up the Breu River to get to São José which is a Hunikuim Indian reservation 35 miles upstream.
The canoe I was in had a top, so I was somewhat protected for the elements. When we reached the village, the natives were all decked out in their outfits and paint. They had their clubs and bows and arrows. They were dancing and singing on the riverbank. All friendly, by the way. It had started to drizzle a little bit, so I stayed in the canoe hoping that they would forget about me. I knew what was coming, but the chief came down and asked me if I could get out. So,alas. I had to face the inevitable! They grabbed me by both arms and paraded me around the grounds and up to the “great house”. This is a large thatch covered meeting hall with crude plank benches around the perimeter. They had planned to circle around the compound 3 times, but because of the rain they cut it back to one round. Once inside the great house they seated me in a hammock which was the white “chief’s” throne of honor. This is how they see and treat me, so that is what I have to put up with and go along with.
That night we dedicated the building that had just been finished. We gave them the zinc roofing last year. The Indians sawed the lumber (much of it mahogany!). They had to carry it piece by piece for over an hour and a half through the jungle. They had some 50 guys carrying the lumber for several days. We sent a carpenter with the plans to do the actual construction. The building was packed out for all services. I preached in Portuguese and the Hunikuim pastor, Brother Aldenir interpreted. Most of them understand Portuguese and many of them speak it, too. Their services are all in their native tongue using a translation of the Bible in Hunikuim. Many of their songs are from hymns or choruses that you would recognize. Others are their own compositions. It is an interesting situation to say the least.
These folks like to eat. Lots of food, just don’t ask questions! They have horn made out of a reed and the hollowed tail of a giant armadillo that they use to call everybody to the mess hall for meals.
On Sunday morning they blew the horn at 4:00AM. I didn’t get up. Later I asked the horn blower what that was all about. He said that was the special call to the women to get up and go to the kitchen to make breakfast. So, wake up the whole village so that 10 or 15 women can go fix breakfast!
Okay.
On Sunday morning I baptized 16 as the tribe sang “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus” in Hunikuim. Now I know that this letter is way too long already, but I can’t resist telling you 2 more things about my visit to the tribe. One is an oddity, the other is a miracle. Late on the first day there somebody informed me that the schoolteacher has a Starlink satellite antenna and if I wanted, I could get on the internet. So I went up the hillside behind the village to the teacher’s house. When I got there, I saw about 15 Indians with their cell phones surfing the world wide web! This is just crazy. I whipped out my phone, pulled up WhatsApp and made a video call to Beverly. Still crazy. Years ago Bev had no idea where I was or how I was while on these long mission trips. Now I am hundreds of miles out in the bush and can talk to here and see her beautiful face. That is not the miracle though.
It had now been 10 days without any real rain on the upper reaches of the Juruá River. The river is already critically low for my boat, and I am still 2 days away from time to return to Cruzeiro do Sul.
That means I might not be able to return, so I am a little concerned. After calling Bev I decided to take advantage of the teacher’s internet service to look up a site that shows satellite images of current weather conditions. Lo and behold there was one, just one giant rain cell in Peru over the headwaters of the Juruá River. This storm was just about 20 miles across the border and centered right over the main river. The rest of the region had not one little cloud in a radius of 600 or more miles. My next prayer was not, “Please Lord, send rain”, but rather, “Thank You, Lord, for the miracle”. That night the river was still going down. The next morning, I got up at 5:00 AM and went to the riverbank to see the effects of that miracle. The river had already come up 3 feet! The God who created everything created a downpour on one isolated place that had not had rain for many days and where there was no rain in the forecast for many more days. He did that. Not an accident. Not a fluke. He loves me that much. My team and I had a leisurely breakfast with our missionary at Foz do Breu then sailed easily back to our homes on Monday morning. He loves me beyond measure.
Thanks for all your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
CONTACT INFO
Mike & Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
69980 Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre
Brasil, SA
mdcreig@hotmail.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.
Read more
Visiting Church Plants + 8 Saved at Christmas Musical
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
January 23, 2025
Dear Brethren,
Well it’s about time! That slacker missionary of yours hasn’t reported to you since some time last
year. Here is a little bit of what has happened though, even if not in much detail.
In November, Bev and I went to Rio Branco (the state capital) to hold a meeting with our church there. The building was packed and folks were standing for every service. It had been quite a while
since we last visited them. Frankly, we were very concerned about their well-being. They have
turned the corner though and are growing again. They are still VERY slow at missions, but on
Sunday morning they got an ear full. Pray that they will get back on track. Great visit.
In December, I held a meeting with Faith Baptist Church. Also an incredible reception. They asked
me to refresh them on Baptist heritage and doctrine. Did I have fun, or what? It has now been over
a month and the buzz is still happening all over town. Pray for Pastor Carlinhos. His wife is in very
poor health. Also, we had a long talk a few months ago about his future and the future of the
church. He has not prepared anyone to take over. He is ready to retire, but hasn’t done his
“homework”. The church is in good shape, but has suffered a number of splits in the past few
years. The church has several problematic members. Put them on your prayer list.
I also held a meeting for our chapel at Cruzeirinho. They are doing well and we had good crowds
and results from that meeting.
Thanksgiving was a huge success. We have had our Thanksgiving celebration in our small groups
for several years now. The last one that we held with the church all together on the third floor of
our annex we had 930 present. Since then, we had to go to smaller meetings in homes. Although
not all of our groups reported back, we still have well over one thousand members participating.
The group that Bev and I are part of had 14 couples.
You didn’t notice, but I had to stop to talk to the pastor of our church in the city of Thaumaturgo.
He wants me for a meeting in July. Talk about a missionary machine: First Baptist Church of
Thamauturgo is just that. We organized that church in 2008. They have started new works all
around and send out missionaries in a steady stream. Now back to the report.
Here at home we have had 2 more baptism services. I Baptized 31 in November and Pastor
Benjamim baptized 23 in December. We continue to have a constant flow of people being saved,
baptized and new members coming from other places. Also, newborns are being introduced to our
family almost weekly.
Our missionaries have been very active. We have been very busy on the Boa Fé River. Pastor Ezi
baptized several for our congregations at Gama and Generoso. We have 2 teams working to
share the gospel with every person along the river. One team is working from Gama downstream
to the where it flows into the Juruá river. The other team is working upstream from Gama to the
last house near the mountains in the far west of Brazil.
The Christmas Musical was just wonderful. My daughter Crissy, who writes the script and directs
the whole production, went way beyond the call of duty again. The theme was “Christmas: As told
by Jesus”. She even included the ascension of Jesus and the second coming. We had well over
1000 present every night, but one. At least 8 people were saved. I will include a picture of the cast,
217 people. This doesn’t include all the folks who work as ushers, parking lot, etc. Over 350 church
members participate directly. If you look closely at the lower left hand corner you might see the old
guy who preached 4 of the 6 nights.
Let me add a couple of things before I close. First, my health has been much better for the past
several months. I had surgery in the US in July to remove 2 squamous cell cancers from my head.
Two months ago, I had a non-malignant removed from my right arm. I finally found a cancer specialist in Rio Branco in November and he is a Baptist and ready to follow my case.
Then a word of thanks to those who have given toward the new canoe. Some have designated
funds and others gave to be used as needed. This has made it possible to purchase the motor and
the aluminum for the boat. We start the build next week! Thank you so much.
This report is way too long, but it had been so long since I wrote. I have been working long hours
and have not been in my office much at all for months, but no excuse. I must report more
regularly. My fault. Please forgive me.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
CONTACT INFO
Mike & Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
69980 Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre
Brasil, SA
mdcreig@hotmail.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.
Read more
31 Baptized, including Adriano from Florianópolis
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
September 30, 2024
Dear Brethren,
Hello from Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil. It has now been exactly 3 weeks since I arrived back home after a month in the States. While in the US I had 2 more malignant tumors removed from my head plus a couple of follow-up procedures on both eyes. I am feeling fine and went straight back to my usual work routine. I get up at about 5:00AM every day and turn in at about 11:00PM. I have been able to complete several catch up/maintenance projects and some new ones, too.
I haven’t made any mission trips yet. The river is at a record low level and only canoes are getting around. I have already installed an electric start kit on my 25HP engine and done all the maintenance before the rainy season comes around. I am also getting the new boat project organized. Andrew has finished the drawings and we are almost ready to start building. The engine and aluminum materials have already arrived. Hoping and praying that some of you can help me with this project.
Things are going very well at church even though we have had some major opposition in the last couple of weeks. Yesterday we had baptism and the Lord’s supper. I baptized 31. More people have been saved each week since my return. One of the ones who made a profession of faith was a young deaf woman. This ministry which finally launched a couple of year ago has grown steadily. We now have at least 5 who have been saved and 12 who attend services.
One of the men who I baptized yesterday has a unique story and was especially gratifying to me.
Adriano is from Florianópolis in southern Brazil. He manages a firm that operates here in Cruzeiro do Sul. Before he was transferred here, he had a spiritual shake up. He was Roman Catholic, but feeling empty and desperate. On a rainy day he “randomly” stopped into a Baptist church there in Florianópolis. A pastor talked to him about Christ and told him that as soon as he got to Cruzeiro do Sul to find a church. He came to our Sunday evening service here at First Baptist. He heard me preach the gospel. That was my last time in the pulpit just before my trip to the States. After the invitation and after the service he came and told me his story. I shared the gospel with him. He trusted in Christ that very night. After my one month absence, I was back in the pulpit on Sunday night, September 22. He made his public profession of faith that night. On Thursday night he attended a one-night course for candidates for baptism. Yesterday I was privileged to baptize him and 30 other new believers.
Some of those who were baptized are from our congregations out of town. Some of them came from our congregation in Guajará, state of Amazonas.
Our camp, Salém, has been busy all summer. There were 2 more retreats just since my return. The youth had one with 4 teens getting saved. Pastor Ezi who takes care of our older members also had a retreat for them. The women’s retreat was the weekend that I was headed back home. They always have about 250 ladies even though the camp only has room for about 150! Friday, I laid out the markings of a new 2,600 square foot metal structure. Saturday was the groundbreaking. We hope to have this building under roof in time for the first big youth camp next February.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
CONTACT INFO
Mike & Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
69980 Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre
Brasil, SA
mdcreig@hotmail.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.
Read more
Boat Trips Building Dedication, & Baptisms at Nukini Indian Reservation
August 22, 2024
Dear Brethren,
Greetings from….Lexington, Kentucky? That’s right. I am back in the States for more cancer surgery. Was under the knife for 4 and a half hours a few days ago. All is well and I am recovering nicely. Hope you will be patient with me and continue to pray. One extra blessing is that I get to go over and see Dad every day. He just turned 98 and is in pretty good shape. Also, I am getting rested up and I am already desperate to get home and back to work. Patience is needed though as I still have 2 weeks of recovery before I can go back home.
Just before coming Stateside I was able to get one more river trip in. Missionary Geverton used our latest addition of boats to take me to the Nukini Indian reservation. Francisco (our canoe builder) just finished a new 8-meter aluminum canoe for the church. We took the 22HP Honda tail motor off of the much bigger 10-meter canoe and put it on the brand new boat for this trip. The river is at record low, so this new boat was just what we needed. It took us just 10 hours to get to the reservation.
We were there for just 4 days. We did a special service to dedicate the new building. It was full for all services and people who could not get in were standing outside. They are getting ready to do a 10-foot extension to their brand-new building. Rather than interpret this as lack of vision, I prefer to see it as “surprise” growth!
For the regular Sunday morning service Pastor Amós preached. He is pastor at the Poyanawa reservation at Barão. He brought a nice group of the church members from Barão for the weekend. While he was preaching, I taught a group of 9 candidates about what scriptural baptism is. Right after all of this I performed the baptism in a little creek down the hill from the new church building. We had a cold front come through a couple of days earlier and the water was COLD. The candidates were all young. The youngest was 8 and the oldest 13. It is still a thrill to be able to go to these places and serve these wonderful people.
You know that I don’t do this often, but I have a couple of projects that I need your help with. Of my 5 long river trips this year I have had to pull people, resources and equipment from the church here for 4 of these trips. Our missionary Geverton has taken time from his busy schedule to take me to places that I needed to go. He has been a huge help and made my life, in old age, much easier. He has been a God send. Hopefully this arrangement will last for a long time. However, I don’t like to take the church’s boats off their regular trips to cater to me. I am buying a 35HP tail motor and am ordering the materials to build a 20-foot jon boat for these hard-to-reach places. The motor costs just over $1,500.00 and the aluminum also costs $1,500.00. Andrew is going to help me with the plans. Francisco will help me with construction. I will build the tail and cover paint, labor, prop and whatever other expenses come along. I need your help with the engine and the aluminum. Please pray and give as He leads.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
CONTACT INFO
Mike & Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
69980 Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre
Brasil, SA
mdcreig@hotmail.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.
Read more
3 in Brazil Surrender to the Call to Serve as Missionaries
July 2, 2024
Dear Brethren,
It has been a long time since I reported to you. News I have a plenty, but I have not stopped long enough to report it to you.
After the long trip to Peru and the big flood it was time to go back up the Moa River to finish some work on the building at the mountains. I had intended to go in my boat, but the bottom dropped out of the river and I had to get our itinerant missionary, Geverton, to take me in his canoe. It took us 12 hours as opposed to 5 hours, but it was pretty nice to have somebody else at the helm for a change. I loaded up the little Honda generator and a bunch of power tools and in 3 days was able to finish up the windows in the front of the building. We also held services with the congregation there.
Shortly after that we had the huge privilege to have Pastor Mark Pyles and wife Valarie with us for a far too short visit. We were able to let them get a little sample of what the Lord is doing here in Cruzeiro do Sul. Perhaps the neatest thing we were able to do was visit our work at Gama. We all piled into my Jeep and went out there for an afternoon baptism service and the regular service at night. The folks there treated us royally including a great meal. We don’t get many visits out here in the middle of nowhere, so it was such a blessing to have the Pyles with us.
Our church celebrated her 95th anniversary on May 12th. We also had our missions conference at that time. We had all our missionaries come in from the bush for this major event. We treated all the missionaries and their wives to 2 days at a local resort before the conference. Many of them had never had this experience. Of course, we had some good teaching and sharing during those 2 days. Our guest speaker was Pastor Edward Luz who is also president of New Tribes Missions Brazil. The preaching was great and our people responded well. The crowds were really big for all three nights. The last night we had 850 people at First Baptist Church. That was all home folks since it was a Sunday night and people from other churches were at their own churches. We had 3 more people called to serve as missionaries. On Saturday morning we had our annual pastor/missionary meeting for fellowship and training. There were over 200 workers present for that event and lunch.
Many more people have been saved and added to the church over these last 3 months since my last report. We have had 2 baptisms. 38 baptized and then last week another 23. We have also added several by church letter. I have intensified my teaching at the home church. One highlight was our last membership course. We graduated just under 150 new members. That coursed is 8 lessons, which I taught over 2 weeks. Sunday night they received their certificates.
Bev has been with me as I have visited several of our works. I held meetings for our churches at São Pedro and Santa Rosa. These are both “First Baptists” organized out of our church. We have also visited our congregations at Cruzeirinho and Guajará for either morning or night services, multiple times.
I have much more to report, but this report is already too long. I will send more news soon. Just so you know, I work long hours all day every day building “stuff” and almost every night teaching or preaching. It just seems so hard to “stop” to send you the reports that I know you all deserve. Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
CONTACT INFO
Mike & Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
69980 Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre
Brasil, SA
mdcreig@hotmail.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.
Read more
53 Years in Cruziero do Sul
April 9, 2024
Hello from Cruzeiro do Sul, the furthest northwest city in Brazil.
First of all, I am not good at writing this kind of letter. It is very hot right now, probably the hottest it has been in a long time. We do not run our air conditioning all the time either, mostly just at night. I run a fan most of the daytime.
Mike and I are the oldest active missionaries right now and he is very active! We have spent almost 53 years together in Cruzeiro do Sul. Most of what I do is scheduled around whatever he is doing. As age creeps on me, I am slower and do not travel very far with him, especially on river trips.
We recently had a visit from Mark and Valerie Pyles, from Grace Baptist Church in Fairborn, Ohio. It was a very enjoyable time. We were able to show them our lifestyle, the city and many congregations in and around town. Mike took them on a boat ride. They got to see our camp that has many retreats during the year. They also visited our wonderful church. I do not think I have ever been part of a church like Primeira Igreja Batista (First Baptist Church). It is like no other I have ever visited. It is very mission-minded, lots of missionaries, solid Bible teaching and our members love to praise the Lord. You should hear them sing! Just ask Mark and Valerie. There are many souls saved, people coming to our church from other churches, and every couple of months baptizing an average of 15 plus. Mark and Valerie got to see Mike baptizing at a mission point called Gama.
Last month we celebrated Jesus My King—the whole month dedicated to Him as our King. All the lessons, sermons, songs, Bible-reading and memorization were with this theme, Jesus My King. Love my church!
I enjoy doing all kinds of crafts, besides it is therapeutic for me. I have done macramé, costume jewelry, decorative bottles and boxes, plus several other crafts. I decided since I am not getting any younger, I would try as many crafts as possible. I either sell them or give as gifts.
Love to all,
Beverly
You can read letters from the Creiglows’ first years in Brazil in our Legacy Library.
CONTACT INFO
Mike & Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
69980 Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre
Brasil, SA
mdcreig@hotmail.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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