New Boat for Itinerant Missionary
August 15, 2023
Dear Brethren,
Hello from perfect weather Cruzeiro do Sul. We just had a cold front come through. There were 3 days of rain and temperatures in the low 70’s. We had just come off a 30-day drought. Now the grass is green again and clear blue skies. So good to be home. Speaking of being home: Bev and I have been back for exactly one month.
The church has been taking advantage of my return and put me to work big time. I have been preaching or teaching at least 3 times a week. Sometimes more. Besides these messages in our regular services, I have also been in the studio recording videos and have visited one of our chapels, too. This month they asked me to prepare a series of lessons about some of the “One to another” texts. I singled out 8 in the book of Romans. Sunday morning, I taught about having the “same mind” from Romans 12:16. Each lesson is supposed to be 1 hour. Mine took an hour and a half. When I closed, they broke into applause. My hope is that they enjoyed the lesson. Of course, there is always the possibility that they were just glad I shut up!
Bev and I visited Cruzeirinho last Sunday night to help them celebrate the Brazilian Father’s Day. Although it was raining, they had a really good crowd, and one lady came back into fellowship after being away for 3 years.
This is church camp season. The preteens went to Camp Salém (our own 400 acre camp) three weekends ago. They had 55 kids. The next week was the men’s retreat. They had over 170. This past weekend was the youth group. Don’t know exactly how many went. I was up there yesterday, and I am sure they had well over 100.
The church bought a brand new aluminum boat and 23HP motor for our itinerant missionary Geverton. The boat and motor were unveiled in the church parking lot 2 Sundays ago. The boat will carry 12 people. He has been taking care of all the congregations and mission points between here and Porto Walter. His last trip covered Valparaiso, Nova Cintra, Valquiria, Profeta and Luzeiro.
Since my last letter our evangelists have been back to Gama and Ramal 7, plus Generoso on the Boa Fé River.
Besides all the meetings and work at church, I have been trying to squeeze in as much repair work as possible. It is unreal how many things broke down while I was away for 6 months. It seems like every day I find something else that needs to be fixed. I have started up some new building projects, too. Nothing major yet, but things are starting to get back into a rhythm.
My health has improved. I have lost 13lbs so far and am getting my exercise pretty regularly. The medical bills are still trickling in, but nothing big of late. Thanks to all who have prayed and given. 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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New Missionary & First Baptism Service of the Year
July 7, 2021
Dear Brethren,
Time flies when you are having fun. It has been a long time since I reported to you. For several months there wasn’t much positive to tell. For most of this year, it has been kinda rough. Things are improving a little though, so here goes.
After the last trip to the Moa the rivers went down quickly. Just as I was to go to the upper Juruá River the bottom dropped out and things opened up for us to start having public services again. For the first six weeks I put in a lot of long hours on the building and sermon/lesson prep. At first, we were having all the services streamed live until folks could get used to coming back to the in house services. Now we stream just the Sunday night service. Attendance has not yet gotten back to normal levels. However, we feel that things are looking pretty good, given the level of fear that so many people suffered. We have services on Wednesday, Sunday AM and Sunday PM. For the 2 months that we have been back there have been at least 300 people in every service.
We had our first baptism service of the year. There were 528 people present and 41 new members were baptized. Pastor Ezi baptized the adults, and I baptized the children. We also observed the Lord’s Supper.
Here is a little side story about this particular baptism. My granddaughter Kayla came to my office to talk to me. She had already requested baptism at church, but wanted to talk to me about her baptism. First she gave me a pretty good lesson on the doctrine of baptism. Not bad for an 8-year-old. Then she got down to talking to me about what she really wanted. She wanted to know if grandpa could “bapticize” her. Now I am not sure that I got the spelling right, but I got the meaning!
She is Crissy’s only girl. Later Andrew’s youngest came with the same request. So that is how I came to baptize (or “bapticize”) the 17 children, Kayla and Devin among them.
Last Saturday we had an activity here at the house. Occasionally we have what we call “Breakfast with the Pastors”. It is an opportunity for people to have some casual time with the 7 pastors. About 80 people showed up at 7:00AM. We spent a great couple of hours together. We had a surprise announcement during the gathering. One of our evangelists, who works at our chapel at Cruzeirinho, announced that he was going into full time mission work. His name is Jeverton. The pastor of the chapel and he had met with me 3 other times over the past few weeks to talk about the fields that are ready and waiting. He is going to be our itinerant missionary on the Juruá River from Ipixuna to the border. He will be checking in on all of our congregations and preaching the gospel house to house. Next, we need those other 2 missionaries, for those 2 other fields!
There have been one or more saved on all weekends since we started services again. Also, our youth (15-24) and Youth+ (25 and older) have started back. The nursery is also back. We are still not able to have our children’s programs, but hope to begin soon. The lockdown here has been severe, to say the least, but we are getting things back as soon as possible, trying not to have the authorities breathing down our necks. We still have whistle blowers reporting us all the time. We are doing our best at trying to be bold and wise at the same time.
Well, that is pretty much what is going on. Busy, tired and happy. Hope you are, too.
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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Missionaries Sent to Santa Rosa do Purús; Performing for the President
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.
August 28, 2019
Dear Brethren,
We have just completed our first month back from our trip to the States. It has been wonderful. We have had 3 cold fronts come through. The temps have been in the mid-sixties. The skies have been bright blue and clear as can be. By the way, don’t believe a word of what you hear about the Amazon rain forest going up in flames and smoke. It is more left-wing hype and hatred to try to give our wonderful president, Jair Bolsonaro a black eye. NASA’s images and data show that there is much less deforestation and burning this year than in the past. Yes, southern Brazil had some dark, smoky days, but the burning was happening in Bolivia and Paraguay, not the Amazon basin. Wow, now that I have got that off my chest, let’s get down to what really counts.
I have taught and preached several times at our home church, First Baptist, with very good results. We had several professions of faith, 3 requests for church letters and a number of requests for baptism. I have also done a few little jobs on the building, but since we don’t have any cash right now and are still paying off a few bills from the last round of construction, I am limited as to how much can be done right now.
One week I was with the chapel at Cruzeirão for 2 visits. They have finally found a lot in the right location. They have been meeting in a tiny rental property (store front) that only seats about 100 people. Their location is not ideal as far as our church strategy for Cruzeiro do Sul is concerned. The property that they have found is in the exact area that our plan had targeted. We are working out the details for the purchase. My last visit was to inform the congregation that the home church approves and will help them make the transition.
Earlier this week I visited and taught at the chapel at Cruzeirinho. I know that I have been mentioning too many “Cruzeiros”, but it just so happens that inside the city of Cruzeiro do Sul there are 2 big neighborhoods on opposite sides of town. One is called big Cruzeiro and the other is little Cruzeiro. Anyway, Pastor Francimir asked me to bring a lesson on tithing. They have built a nice big building, but still needs a lot of finish work. Their offerings are less than half of what they should be for the size of the congregation. We shall see.
This month we sent out another couple to the mission field at Santa Rosa do Purús. Lucas, Diana and their baby girl Esther arrived in the town just yesterday. It took their furniture and personal belongings 2 weeks to get there.
One of our church members, Iverson Bueno, who is a district attorney, started a musical conservatory about 5 years ago. The local army base has been his biggest helper. Several teens from our church and our school are enrolled. They have developed a great choir and orchestra. They selected 75 of the students to go to the federal capital, Brasília, to perform. Their first of several performances was for President Jair Bolsonaro and several of his cabinet members. Andrew’s oldest son Alec and Crissy’s oldest son Caleb are there. Caleb sang a solo part during one of the songs. They have also performed at the Congress and the Supreme Court. Boy are we proud of this bunch. Both of my grandsons got to meet and take a picture with the president. The president held one of little girls in his arms during a group picture. This little girl is a student at our school, Colégio Cristão Cruzeiro.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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God is at Work in Cruzeirão, Cruzeirinho, Cruzeiro do Sul, & Assis!
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.
November 23, 2018
Dear Brethren,
Last month Beverly and I went to Assis, Brasil, for the ordination service of Pastor Eliésio De Oliviera. He has been pastor at First Baptist Church for over 16 years. When he was in high school, he was a member of our church and after graduation he went to seminary in Belém, Pará. When he returned he went straight into the pastorate. He has been on many mission trips with me and has been a great colleague in the Kingdom. The church asked me to perform his ordination. Four other pastors helped out.
We went back 2 more times to Assis, Brasil, to attend their 56th anniversary conference. I spoke at the opening then closed out the meeting on a Sunday night. This conference was really special as the church had just moved into their new building and I was honored to do the dedication. They had huge crowds all 4 nights. I don’t know how many people the building will seat, but it is several hundred. There was one profession of faith and a number of other decisions.
We had our last baptism of the year here at First Baptist in Cruzeiro do Sul. We added 31 new members. This month we lost 2 more really faithful families who were transferred to other cities. We did gain 2 more families though. Our growth is very slow because of all the folks who move away. We are grateful for the growth we have though.
Bev and I also visited the work at Cruzeirão. They are in a small building that seats about 150 people. They had to have most of the members go outside to free up seats for visitors. I closed out a month of lessons on the family with them. I shared the gospel, too. There were a couple of professions of faith.
I made a visit to Cruzeirinho, also. We had our first big rain that night, so the crowd was down a little, but still they had over 100 people.
If you are confused about all this “Cruzeiro” stuff, here is a quick explanation. The name of our city is Cruzeiro do Sul which means Southern Cross. Most people in the region just call it Cruzeiro. Then Cruzeirão means “big Cruzeiro”, but not because it is bigger than Cruzeiro do Sul. Rather it is near our soccer stadium, which is called Cruzeirão. Cruzeirinho means “little Cruzeiro” and it really is little!
Our church has had to celebrate Thanksgiving in our small groups for the past several years. Years ago, we tried to find places to have the whole church together, but it was just too big and even expensive. My small group, which is way overdue for what we call multiplication, had 51 people for our dinner.
On November 27th I will be taking my son Andrew to Manaus for yet another surgery. He has been really ill and the doctors discovered that he has several stones in his liver. One of these is 3/8th of an inch in diameter and has caused excruciating pain and other symptoms. We have been able to see doctors and get some basic tests done, although the local hospital is basically shut down right now. The state has not paid doctors, nurses or other help for the last few months. Andrew does not have any kind of insurance, so we will be paying everything out of pocket. Please pray for him and the procedures.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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Open Door at Katukina Reservation; Hearts Hungry for the Word
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.
March 13, 2018
Dear Brethren,
More great news. A door has opened for us to share the gospel at the Katukina reservation. There are 8 Katukina villages along the Transamazon. The tribal leader of the very last of these was saved a few months ago. His name is Raimundão. He invited us to start teaching and preaching to them. The adults speak and understand Portuguese pretty well. The children only speak Katukina. There are only 54 people in this village. We have made 3 visits so far and each time we had just under 50 people present. We meet with them in a spacious, open thatch covered area. The floor is just bare dirt. As is often the case, this area is also their community kitchen. These “services” are far from conventional. During my lesson on the second trip a rooster stood on the clay stove and crowed the whole time. This didn’t seem to bother the locals a bit. Our team could not run it off and it was really distracting to us. On the last trip one little kid (about 3 years old) took off running, fell and smacked his face real hard on the hard clay. He stayed sprawled on the ground and wailed for about 5 minutes. None of the adults even looked! We still have no idea who that little boy’s mom is. If one of our kids scrapes a knee, the mom rushes in and another 10 moms and dads, too. So far I have been taking my small group members on these trips. They have been enjoying it, but I have to keep them under control. They see all those dirty little kids and want to take candy and food to give away. We will be taking food to eat with them in the near future, but must be cautious about the handouts. These tribes are so used to all kinds of government handouts that it is easy for them to expect outsiders to take care of their every need. I did take 6 New Testaments and a dozen Gospels of John to give to those who know how to read. Pray that we will have the patience and wisdom needed to continue serving them.
A couple of weeks ago I visited our work at Cruzeirinho. They were showing off the 30 new pews that they just built. Their new building, which seats 200+, was almost full. Bev went with me for this visit.
We have continued to make progress at First Baptist Church. There have been several requests for baptism and a few more saved. Others have been added by letter. One whole family of 7 came by letter, in fact.
Last night we had our first general meeting of this year with our small group leaders. Many are traveling, but we still had 75 present. Each group is supposed to have 10 people or less, but most have many more than that. All of our groups now take care of around 900 to a thousand of our church members. We have made great progress in getting as many members into groups as possible over the past year.
Our Sunday School lasts for 2 and half hours, including the opening worship. Two Sundays ago I taught the adults and youth for the two one hour periods. That lesson was about the security of the believer from Hebrews 6. This lesson was expository. A health problem has been keeping me from standing that long. About half of the lesson was taught standing and the rest sitting in a chair on the edge of the stage. For the conclusion I was sitting on the edge of my chair leaning toward the congregation. As soon as I stopped they broke into loud, extended applause. That was really different, to say the least! I am so glad that these folks really enjoy the Word and its doctrines.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: The Creiglows in Brazil [May 2016]
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 9, 2016
Dear Brethren,
One of our chapel pastors, Rondisson, went with me to visit one our newest works on the upper Juruá River. The congregation at Triunfo started this new work. It is further upstream. It is over 250Km (156 miles) up river from Cruzeiro do Sul. My motor was pretty cranky and kept us on pins and needles the whole trip, but we made it. It was really hot, but we didn’t get into any rain and the river cooperated with us. The water level was stable, which is very rare. We spent 3 days with them. They also dedicated their building while we were with them. We spent three days there and held 4 services. Two young women were saved and there were some requests for baptism. They already have 8 Christians in the village of over 150 people. There are 28 households. This new work is a great-granddaughter of First Baptist Church. The name of the village is Boa Vista.
Bev and I visited the chapel at Cruzeirinho. They are doing very well. They have a really big new building close to being ready to move in. They are still in their little wooden building up on the hillside. They have used the new building, which is already under roof, for a couple of events. They can’t move in just yet because they don’t have it under lock and key. The neighborhood has a history of drugs, robbery and vandalism, so I don’t blame them for waiting the right time. Anyway we had a good visit with the house packed out and a few decisions.
The new work at Boa Vista, a great-granddaughter of First Baptist Cruzeiro do Sul.
I have spent quite a few hours working on my boats and motors. All of them are 7 years old and starting to give me a little trouble. I did manage to solve the problem with the engine that we ran to Triunfo.
All is going well at First Baptist Church. We started an evening service for the children from 3 through 11 (multiple classes), which has helped free up space in the auditorium. It is usually packed and this has helped a little. Needless to say the kids are really excited that they have their own service on Sunday night.
There have been a number of retreats at our camp – Acampamento Salém. Most of these were training retreats. One, however, was for the older folks in our church. Pastor Pedro leads the ministry that takes care of the folks with gray hair. He took over 60 up to Salém. They had a great time. Bev and I were only able to go up for lunch on Saturday, but we still had a great time with them.
We really need you to pray for Brazil. The economy has been in a recession for over 2 years. We need to send out 2 new missionaries, but giving has dropped off as our people struggle to get by. The political turmoil right now is as bad or worse than ’63 when the military regime took over power. I realize that the US is in a big political mess, also. Brazil has reverted back to a banana republic in just a few short months. We are praying for you. Please pray for Brazil.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [December 2015]
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.
December 9, 2015
Dear Brethren,
It has been exactly one month since my last letter, but it has been a short month. We have continued to have good services at First Baptist Church. We have had a few folks saved every week. Last Sunday Pastor Benjamin baptized 8 more. I served the Lord’s Supper. We had one more profession of faith during that service even though we never have an invitation on those days. Just before services a man named Ney came to me to talk. He has attended our church for 20 years, but just got saved Sunday morning and wanted to make his public profession of faith. There were 3 more saved in the evening service.
We finally got all the trusses and purlins on the building at Cruzeirinho. The roofing is going on right now.
Bev and I visited the church at Assis, Brasil a couple of weeks ago. They have a big building, but have purchased new property and are building an even bigger building. They continue to partner with us on several mission projects.
Zico is at Jordão right now. He reports that the new work there is going great. They have been averaging 55 people in Sunday services. Although we had made some trips there over the past 3 years the work was just really started this year when we sent Idevaldo and family to that field. Some have been saved already. Zico will be leaving Jordão for Santa Rosa do Purús this week. We don’t think there is any church of any kind there. I will report on his findings next month. Santa Rosa do Purús is one of the 22 cities of the State of Acre that we plan to start a church. First Baptist has sent missionaries to 7 of the 22 cities so far. We still have a long way to go.
We now have a new missionary to send to Foz do Breu on the Peruvian border. Mário and his wife came before the church for approval 3 weeks ago. That field has been without a missionary for 10 months now. During this time one of the local men has been taking care to hold services, teach and even make a few mission trips.
Our television program just celebrated 25 years. I have had a half hour program on a local station every Saturday and Sunday morning. I don’t know if anyone has been saved. The only real feedback is from folks I run into downtown who say they never miss a program. You and I have bought all the equipment, studio setup. The church here pays for the airtime. We will probably only be able to gauge results in eternity. Hopefully we will be able to keep the program on the air for a few more years.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [July 2014]
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.
July 10, 2014
Dear Brethren,
Bev and I went back to Pé da Terra for a few days of training with the church there. We are trying to help them with their financial teaching and management. There were over 50 members present for the 4 lessons I taught during 4 nights.
We had another baptism at First Baptist this month. I baptized another 32 new members. That has been right at the average all this year. Attendance has been a little below average for the month. That is to be expected during the World Cup. The consolation game is coming up on Saturday. Brazil will be playing after being humiliated by Germany in the worst match in World Cup history. All that to say that spirits are generally at a low ebb in Brazil, but we still have a lot of good news about the Good News.
Our annual missions conference was a huge success. We had very big crowds for all meetings. We even had 3 more professions of faith and 2 more requests for baptism, even though no invitation was given. Five more were baptized, too. We had the usual 100+ present for the annual pastors and missionaries’ meeting. Also during the conference we had a special business meeting to approve Idevaldo and family as our newest missionaries and to approve his being put on payroll, full time beginning August 1st. Zico will be taking them to visit the field at Jordão on July 21st. We hope to move them there by October or November.
It was my privilege to participate in the organization of our newest Baptist church. Three of our churches in the western region past Cruzeiro do Sul started a work at Japãozinho. The name of the place is “Little Japan” although there are no Japanese within several thousand miles! The churches at Mourapiranga, Pentecostes and Assis Brasil cooperated to begin the preaching point 16 years ago. The new church adopted the name Igreja Batista Elohim and starts out with 25 charter members. They already have a beautiful new building. Their pastor, who has already been working with them for 12 years is Pedro Mariano. Most importantly they are already participating in mission projects. Authority was granted by First Baptist Church of Assis Brasil.
I visited our chapels at Cruzeirinho and Centrinho. Centrinho has just finished putting up a little wood frame building. Cruzeirinho has moved their wooden building to the back of the lot and is getting ready to build a nice big brick building on the front of the lot. All of our chapels are growing at a steady pace. We now have 7 chapels placed strategically around town. Last year we had only 4. Our youngest is Cruzeirão and is meeting on a rented lot, but we are looking for property. One more is to open soon out near our house on the north side of town. We have property and 2 workers being prepared right now.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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