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
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
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.
Read more
Back Home in Brazil
July 24, 2023
Dear Brethren,
Greetings from hot and dry Cruzeiro do Sul. Perfect! After 6 months in the United States, I have arrived back home. Bev was with me for the last 3 months of my “vacation”. My treatment ended at the beginning of July. Our return trip was long, tiring, but went without a hitch. My parting shot as the surgeon left the room on my last checkup was, “Doctor, you did what nobody has ever been able to do: You made time stand still. These have been the longest 6 months of my life.”
Thanks to all of you who have prayed. Please don’t stop though. At age 75 I am still not out of the woods and may never be. Special thanks to my daughter Monica who had to put up with the “homeless guy” for 6 months. What a trooper, just like her Mom.
We have been back home for 10 days now. You would not believe the number of things that can break in 6 months. I am still weak, but have gotten quite a few things repaired. Of course, there have been meetings and more meetings as I try to catch up. It has all been very pleasant though.
Attendance is on the rise at church. Yesterday morning we had a baptism and Lord’s supper service. Pastor Maicom (one of our 7 pastors) performed the baptisms. We added 10 new members. We also had 3 more requests for baptism yesterday. Three more people came back into fellowship. We also reinstated a family of 6 that had been away for a long time. We had 1,089 at church yesterday.
Yesterday was one of our oldest members birthday. Sister Eunice Sá was at church to celebrate her 90th. Many of her children and grandchildren are faithful members to this day. Her husband pastored First Baptist Church back in the fifties. He went to heaven many years ago. He was a deacon when I became pastor. Many other family members were at church last night to help her celebrate.
Our missions teams have been busy these past few days. They made visits to Ramal 7, Campinas, Gama and Paraná dos Mouras. We are having a little trouble with our missionary at Campinas, but the work is doing pretty good. Gama just continues to grow by leaps and bounds. The congregation at Ramal 7 has just finished their first building. They have moved in, but haven’t held the dedication service yet.
Well I realize that this is much news, but it is a start. It is hard to express the relief and joy of being home again. Thanks again for being patient and prayerful.
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
Tearing Down to Build Up
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.
February 3, 2019
Dear Brethren,
Time flies when you are having fun or when you have too much work to do and deadlines looming. Forgive me for not reporting to you lately. Our work is in a major transition right now. There is enough to report, but it seems so boring to me that I have just been lazy about telling you.
Our Christmas musical was a success and several people were saved. Now that the crime wave has subsided somewhat the crowds actually came back up. On Christmas night we had a big rain and that kept the crowd just at maximum capacity. We actually thanked the Lord for that rain as otherwise we would have had to turn away hundreds of people.
We held our first baptism service of the year and 13 new members were added. We have had people saved every week so far this year. One Sunday night I preached about the Sabbath and did not give an invitation, although I did preach the gospel. There were still 3 public professions of faith! We have had some more saved during our Wednesday night doctrinal services, too.
We sent out another missionary couple this month and approved another. Anísio and Matilde are already at Gama, Amazonas (neighbor state, east of Cruzeiro do Sul). We also approved Lucas and Diana. They have just finished seminary. For the next 6 months they will be here under our wing doing an internship that all of our missionaries are required to do. In the middle of the year we will be taking them to Santa Rosa do Purús. This town has no Baptist church and is on the Purús River on the Peruvian border. They are also expecting their first child in March. Yesterday the ladies at church gave Diana a baby shower.
Their church building was designed and built 40 years ago by Bro. Mike.
Demolition has started on the old church building in order to rebuild and double their seating capacity.
Two weeks ago I began tearing down our old church building. I designed and built it 40 years ago. We outgrew it a long time ago and have made modifications to add more space. I added a mezzanine for an extra 220 people. A couple of years later I tore out 6 Sunday School rooms to add another 240 seats. We moved those rooms into our 3 floor annex. Over a year ago we built a metal structure over the top of the old building. Now I have gutted the old building and tomorrow I start rebuilding. Of course many of our members are working with me every day and into the night. Some can only come during their lunch break or at night and there is a lot of different crews almost every day. It is a strange sensation tearing down what I built personally, hands on, 4 decades ago. I have no sentimental or regretful feeling. It is just strange as each brick, bolt or nail comes down. As I work I think, “I put this bolt in this truss 40 years ago, now I am taking it out.” Just sharing the feelings that go along with this new phase.
The third floor of our annex is a covered but all open. That is where we are having services now. The area is over 5800 square feet. The crowds have been really good in spite of the lack of AC and 2 flights of stairs. We want to have the new building up by May 12th when the church celebrates her 90th birthday. We don’t have any debt and we only have $3,000.00 in the bank. We do have a crazy pastor. What matters though is that we have a very rich and loving Father. The new building will double our seating capacity.
For some time I have been working 12 and 13 hour days of manual labor. Leave at dawn and get back home after dark. Then I have church work at least 4 nights a week, besides trying to make time for counseling and other jobs related to our ministry. You get the idea. The church needs your prayers and I need your prayers.
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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Great Christmas Musical; Progress in Porto Walter
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 10, 2o18
Dear Brethren,
Our Christmas Musical was better than ever, if that is even possible. We had 7 nights this time. The building was full every night, but not always overflowing. The crime wave is keeping folks in their houses at night. We still had big crowds even when the restaurants and streets were empty, so it was all good. We did not have one night of rain, even though we are in the rainy season. Several people were saved and a number of other people asked to become members or requested baptism. Eight of my grandchildren live here. Of these, 6 were involved in important parts of the Musical. Adriel (Crissy’s second) played the main character and sang the conversion song. Alec was Gabriel. Melany and Kayla were angels. Heloisa and Caleb sang in the acapella quartet. We have been blessed with lots of talent in the church and our own family. Our stage was completely rebuilt this year. We wanted to really emphasize the birth of Christ this time, so I made a new manger scene that came down from the rafters during the play on a cable and winch system. In all we had almost 350 of our church people involved. We are thankful.
“Joseph, Mary and Jesus during the Christmas Musical. We always have a fresh batch of babies to portray Jesus every Christmas!”
Although we were not able to break our attendance record at Christmas (the building has its limits), we did break 2 other records. Last year we had 132 motorcycles in the parking garage. This year there were 179. I didn’t think this was possible, but they squeezed them in. That ministry leader got really creative this year. We have a special section in the garage for people to check in their helmets. It is already a challenge to care for some 300 helmets. Marcelo decided to go the extra mile. Any helmet that had a scratched visor got a brand new one with the church’s logo installed while the owner was at the service. Also, I had the guys count the cars parked along the four blocks around the church. For the first time ever, we had more cars than motorcycles.
The building at Porto Walter just before Sunday morning services.
The river has finally started back up. I took out about a week here and there to do all the maintenance on outboard motors and generators. In mid-December I took out a full weekend to visit our work at Porto Walter. We had hoped to formally organize the church at that time, but they are not quite ready. The visit was very good. Huge crowds and a few decisions. They just got the trusses up on the new building. Soon I am to be with them again to help put on the roofing. The new mayor has managed to get investment money and has paved almost all the streets. Looking really good. The congregation has continued to work at Vitória further up river and has started new works at California and another mission point inside the Grajaú River. All three are growing rapidly. Many have been saved over the last year.
The walls and roof are now up on the new building at Gama. Continue to pray with us that God will give us a missionary to move there permanently. Other doors are opening, but we are still short of missionaries and the funds to send them. Please pray with us.
Our mission at Foz do Breu just reported on their last mission trip to Pedra Pintada and Caipora. Attendance at these villages has been in the 50s. There were 4 saved at Caipora.
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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Visiting Works in Gama, Santa Rosa, & Centrinho
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, 2017
Dear Brethren,
Greetings from Cruzeiro do Sul. The rainy season has finally started for real and the river is up pretty high. It is time to get back on the river with some of the visits to our works a little further away.
Taking advantage of the prolonged dry season, I visited several works along the roads. Zico, Ezi and I visited the new work at Gama. While there I built the first trusses for their building. I took one of our men along to teach him how to build the rest. We are still praying for a couple to move there to take care of the work. Access is easy in the dry season. There is a 30 mile dirt road that winds through the jungle to the Gama River. In the rainy season the only vehicles that can get through are ATVs and with much effort and frustration!
I visited the work at Santa Rosa. We held one of our preachers meetings while I was there. The church is doing well. The pastor is Brother Sadraque. He is a young local who was saved and called right there. He accepted the pastorate after the last pastor left unexpectedly. That was a couple of years ago. Since then Sadraque has done a good job and the church has almost doubled in size. I have been working with him over the last few months to get him through a problem. He feels that he is in the position only temporarily. It still hasn’t soaked in that God put him there.
Bev went with me to visit the work at Centrinho for a weekend meeting. Pastor Marcelo and his wife Neire serve there. They have about 40 people. There were over 70 present for the services while we were there. They meet in a little wooden building, but doing well and growing slowly.
We had another baptism at church this month adding another 38 members.
Our seminary closed out the semester late November with 22 students attending classes. We offered 6 modules this last semester. I taught Bible geography. Lot of fun.
The violence here has gone down a little, but is still rampant. The state AG just put out the stats. Two things are worth quoting. First, the murder rate per 100,000 population is 56. Then if the State of Acre were an independent country it would be the 4th most violent country in the world. He went on to say that a person is more likely to be murdered in the Acre than in Syria. To top it off, the bad guys are now stopping boats on the river to rob and murder their victims. When our members heard about my next trip up river they were concerned. I can’t let this stop me though. Unfortunately, Brazil has the strictest gun laws in the world and I cannot have a weapon. The bad guys all have guns though. In a referendum 95% of the population wants the right to own a gun. Socialism is what it is though and there is not much hope for improvement here.
I am still dealing with health issues. I have continued to work long hard days, but it has not been easy. Not sure that the doctors here are going to find out what ails me. Please continue to pray.
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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