New Missionary Family + New Ministry at Annual Missions Conference
August 22, 2022
Dear Brethren,
We’re still here. It has been a while, but here we are with some more news from Cruzeiro do Sul.
We had all our missionaries come in with their families for a little break and to be honored during our annual mission conference. We started off on a Thursday night with a dinner for all our pastors, chapel pastors, missionaries and their wives.
For the next 3 days we had lots of training during the day and services with the whole church every night. Bringing everybody in from so far away is a big expense, but worth every “Real” (Brazilian dollar).
On Saturday night we gave all our official workers a new ID card issued by First Baptist Church. All of Latin America is big on formality (red tape, too). We decided to renew the credentials of all of our workers, for two reasons. 1. There are so many fake and false preachers around now that we wanted ours to be identified as approved by the home church. 2. Then, believe it or not, our ID card is even accepted at border crossings! We now have 33 workers officially under our authority. There are many other evangelists in our many congregations and mission points who did not get this official sanction.
Also, during the conference, we were able to present a longtime desire and dream to the whole church. For many years we have wanted to have a way to share the gospel with the deaf. For the past year and a half, we have had a big group in training to learn their language. The group has already been through three levels of training. They are in the fourth and final advanced course right now. We were able to present them and let them show the church more of how it works. They have been active for months, but this was another opportunity to get the whole church behind this important ministry. Just last night there were a few hearing impaired and our folks were preaching to them. The official launch is scheduled for November, but fortunately they are already serving this group in most services and during the week on a personal level.
During the last service of the conference, we took on a brand-new missionary family. Ronaldo, wife and daughter are now sponsored and authorized as missionaries out of First Baptist Church. They are from the Marubo tribe. He was first evangelized and taught by one of our long-time members who married a Brazilian lady from here. Ronaldo spent some time with us and then went to Rio to go to seminary. He came back and went right back to the tribe. He has started preaching points in 13 villages among his people. These villages are deep in the rainforest north of us. To get there it is a 6-hour boat trip down the Juruá River then a 2 day hike due north to the Ituí River. This is another tributary of the Amazon River. Very remote! Recently Pastor Ezi (one of our 7 pastors here at First Baptist) went to see what Ronaldo is doing. He was amazed. We now have works in 6 tribes. Two of our ten full-time missionaries are Indians.
Thanks for all your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
The signing group at First Baptist Cruzeiro do Sul. 
The signing group at First Baptist Cruzeiro do Sul.
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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In the Height of Ministry 30 Years Later
Odali and Kathy Barros served the Lord in Sao Paulo, Brazil together from 1987-2013. In late 2013, they transitioned to Manaus in Northern Brazil to start sharing the Gospel and planting churches in villages along the river.
February 21, 2017
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We pray and hope that all have been blessed and are rejoicing in God’s care over each one of us. We have been doing great. It is hard to believe February is just about over. Kathy and I have been in the ministry for over 36 years and missionaries for 30 years. It is hard to believe that much time has gone by. Nearing the age of 60, I believe we are in the height of our ministry. We completed 3 years living back in the Amazon. We have been blessed and truly enjoy our ministry here. At this moment, we have one night free during the week. All the other days, we have some kind of ministry going on and on Sundays we have 3 services. We are really excited and thankful for what God is doing.
Our newest community where we are working, is Açutuba. What has been so wonderful is that God has placed people in our ministry that have opened the doors of their home to be used for reaching people. We started 4 weeks ago in this place. This week we had 22 that attended. What a wonderful blessing.
Not long ago a young man came to our services at the Living Rocks Baptist Church (Igreja Batista Pedras Vivas) and has been coming every week since. This week he told me that he had invited some young people from his community to come. He had 8 visitors and asked if someone could pick them up. Here it’s like living in farm country—people live far away and not everyone has cars. So, we help with transportation for those who need it.
The youth groups are doing great and growing. Kathy and I work with the youth in the city of Iranduba, where we have a mission. It is doing well and growing. This is the only mission that’s really in a small city. Inside the city limits there are probably a population of 20,000 people. This city is about 30 minutes away from our home. We have services there 3 times a week.
At the community of Ubim we are really needing a bigger place. We are meeting on the patio of a house that a family has opened for us to use. We are running an average of 45 kids from ages 1½ years old to 15 years old. We would like to be able to work with this group the best we can. Please pray that God will give us a larger place to work.
We still have 2 children at home with us. They both help in the ministry. Jonas has been great in helping with the children on Sunday mornings and with the youth, and Gabriel with the church band. They have been a great help to me while Kathy is in the US visiting her parents and our other children. We’re thankful that God has used all our children in many different ministries.
THE GREATEST THING YOU CAN DO FOR A PERSON IS THE INVEST IN THEIR LIFE. FROM KNOWING THE LORD AS SAVIOR AND GROWING IS WISDOM FROM GOD! We thank God for calling us to invest in people’s lives day by day—an investment like no other. It will last for eternity. This has been our life and our ministry. May God Continue to guide and bless us each day. We thank each one of you for your love, prayers and support. God bless y’all.
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
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Reaching Out to Youth & Training New Workers
Odali and Kathy Barros served the Lord in Sao Paulo, Brazil together from 1987-2013. In late 2013, they transitioned to Manaus in Northern Brazil to start sharing the Gospel and planting churches in villages along the river.
September 30, 2016
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We pray that all of you are well and enjoying blessings from our Lord and Savior. We are doing great and enjoying blessings from our Lord in our lives and ministry.
We have been saving an outreach for youth in the 3 communities where we have churches. The purpose is to reach new youth and also train new workers. We will have a total of 8 weeks, then we will leave the workers in these churches and go to new communities. We have had around 100 new visitors, plus the ones who belong to the churches. Although we live far from the city and with little commodities, it is unreal how much drugs are in these communities. Contact with these youth has reminded us so much of the Alpha & Omega Home. So, we are working in these churches with teens with the same needs. Pray for them and for the leaders as they reach out to them. There has been several saved. We are going to plan a baptismal service and a time of fellowship.
The mission we have at Ubim is going well. We are praying for God to show us a place to buy to build a mission. We have service on the porch of a couple’s home. It is getting a little hard to work with the group. We have a large range in ages. Pray with us that God will show us the perfect place. Kathy is training 5 of our youth to work with kids. It has been great to see them get involved.
We want to thank all of you for your prayers and support. God bless each of you.
These are pictures of the youth program Odali & Kathy are having in three communities: Iranduba, Mutirão, and the mother church Pedras Vivas. They have planned eight weeks of reaching out to lost youth and training new leaders.
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
Blog
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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: Odali & Kathy Barros in Brazil [May 2015]
Odali and Kathy Barros served the Lord in Sao Paulo, Brazil together from 1987-2013. In late 2013, they transitioned to Manaus in Northern Brazil to start sharing the Gospel and planting churches in villages along the river.
May 8, 2015
Greetings, to all our friends that are great prayer partners and supporters. We pray that all of you are well and enjoying the blessings from our Lord. We are all doing great. Things have been a little different this last month while Kathy is in the US visiting her parents and also seeing our children.
Things here are doing well. This month I will become the pastor of the Living Rocks Baptist Church, where have been attending. It is 20 miles after you cross the river from Manaus. The bridge that we cross to go to Manaus is almost 2 miles long. The view is beautiful. Since the bridge was built, it has made life much easier for those who live on the other side. Before I was married and worked with Paul Hatcher at Tabernacle Baptist Church, I went across the river almost every day. It sure took a lot longer to get across besides all the waiting time for the barges. So praise God for this wonderful bridge! Also they have more roads that take us places that you could only go by boat a few years ago. On these roads there are many small dirt roads that end up in small communities. There are many of them. These are the places that we are visiting to see which ones might have a Baptist work. Pray for us as we reach out to these places and that God will open homes where we can start.
The bridge leading to Manaus.
Kathy told me about the conference and how great it was. She was really excited and rejoicing in how every one was enthused about missions and just having wonderful fellowship. We praise God for that and pray that our love will grow more and more each day. Sounds like Kathy is having a great time with family and friends.
We have had several friends that came to see us here at our place. Friends that we have known since we were single and then worked with some of them when we were all young married couples. Some have just found out that we are back in the Manaus area. It has been great to see them again and have fellowship with them.
Pray for us as we take on the leadership of this church. Many of the members have not been involved in any kind of ministry before. We want to teach them the importance of serving in the church and help them find an area that they can serve.
Thanks for you love and support! God bless each of you.
Odali and Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
Caixa Postal 1
Iranduba, Amazonas 69.415.000
Brasil, S.A.
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
Blog
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Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [February 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.
February 10, 2015
Dear Brethren,
The year is 41 days old and we have had 38 days of rain. Fortunately it hasn’t hurt our crowds too much. Many people have been put out of their homes and there have been a few deaths because of the flooding across the state. We are concerned about having supplies cut off again this year. Even though there has been so much rain our attendance was actually up for January. We added three new families by letter and have had a few professions of faith.
February 1st was homecoming. There were 637 for the morning service and meal. We had our “almost like” faith promise pledge, too. This should bring in an extra $4,000.00 per month for our extra outreach programs.
I know you would rather hear just uplifting news, but…..This month I had to fire the guy who has worked with me in all the construction projects over the last 5 years. He was slacking and also playing loose with the truth. Then a week later I had to fire the man who has been my traveling buddy for the past 7 or 8 years. There were a bunch of little things that he has not corrected in his life. I had been warning him for years, literally. Then recently there were problems with the occasional beer and sex. These have not been easy things to handle.
There have been a bunch of other situations, just as tense, that I have been dealing with for weeks on end. Also, with the expansions of the programs at church, the workload has increased a ton. Yesterday I got up at 6:00AM and started my Bible reading. Before I finished even a chapter I fell asleep in my chair. Bev has a lady from church that helps her a couple of days a week with the cleaning. When she arrived at 8 o’clock and saw me asleep in my chair she was alarmed and sure something really bad had happened. The only times she has ever seen me that way was when I broke 4 ribs and the last time I had malaria. Well I’m not sick, but I slept until 10:00AM then fell asleep again after lunch and slept another 3 hours. During my morning nap I even had a dream. I was standing in a room surrounded by people who needed my attention and instructions, but I was just standing there, sound asleep! So I guess that counts as double the rest. I was asleep in my sleep. This will all pass soon, I hope. I think we have turned the corner on the wave of unusual problems that we have had to deal with. Just keep praying. Good news is coming soon.
In his 49 years of ministry, Bro. Mike Creiglow has been through at least 3 accordions!
To put the smile back on your face I am sending a picture of me making noise with the accordion during the homecoming service. By the way, on January 29th I celebrated my 49th year in the ministry and an accordion has been right there with me all the way. The accordions have had to be replaced at least 3 times. One of these days I will have to be replaced, too!
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 Wacasers in Brazil [October 2014]
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
October 3, 2014
Dear Friends,
I missed giving you a report last month on what’s going on, so I’ll try to get you caught up without making this letter too long.
In my last report, I mentioned that we were sending one of our young evangelists out into the jungle region where Brazil and French Guyana share a border. Alysson, our volunteer has now returned from that trip and has shared the experiences and results that he had while working there. In the course of one month the group went to several villages of Indian tribes and a few towns of small population. They were able to share the gospel in hospitals, public schools, public squares and in 67 homes. In all, they spoke to over 3390 persons and, of these, 750 made a profession of faith in Jesus. Alysson was so encouraged that now he wants to prepare to go to other regions as a missionary.
Our motorhomes are all running again and we have 3 teams out sharing the gospel as I write. During the last two months we took two of our teams to some neighboring towns to evangelize in the public schools and parks, as well as assisting some local churches with their missions training. Projeto Vida has gone through some very trying times, both financially and some health issues. Our leader of this ministry, Paulo Novaes, received a doctor’s report that he has cirrhosis of the liver. He, of course, is concerned and is having to change his diet, his exercise program and was advised that he’d have to stop stressing. It is this last item that is the most difficult. There are over 50 volunteers involved in this ministry and their well-being is a constant concern. Also, there are all the issues involved in maintaining 4 motorhomes equipped, fueled and running properly. Add to that, the relational issues between 12 people per motorhome living together in a small space for 3 weeks per month, 9 months per year. These are stress-generating issues, to say the least. Please pray for Paulo that he may know how to fully surrender these issues to the Lord and not let them destroy his health.
We just went through a rough period with the death of my co-pastor’s aunt. Glenda fought with breast cancer for nearly one year. She maintained a strong testimony to God’s grace and love throughout the ordeal, but the Lord saw fit to take her home last Sunday. Many of you have had to suffer a similar battle, either from having cancer yourself, or accompanying a loved one who had it. You know how hard this battle can be. My co-pastor’s family was strengthened by God’s grace as a result of this battle and we have seen in many ways how trials truly serve for our growth and spiritual well-being. We rejoice that Glenda no longer suffers the pain and uncertainty of how to please the Lord in sickness, but we are saddened by the family’s loss of their loved one.
Our church is experiencing encouraging growth, especially among our youth and children’s ministries. I am amazed every week while I’m preaching to look out upon the congregation and see so many new faces of folks that I’ve never met. Even more exciting than this is that they return week after week and several have come seeking to be baptized as followers of Christ. Next week we will be scheduling a baptismal service for 6-7 converts. We are so thankful to the Lord for using us and blessing us with these signs of His power at work around us.
Thank you for your continued prayer and faithful giving so that we may continue to serve the Lord here in southern Brazil.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279-1
Sobrado 1, Bairro Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR Brasil
(813)481-7007
bobbymichael_1@hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [February 2014]
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together for 40 years. 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 9, 2014
Dear Brethren,
Here is just a quick note to keep you praying. There really isn’t much striking news this month. There has been plenty of work, but of the routine kind that isn’t much “to write home about”.
This has been the rainiest January of my 51 Januaries in Brazil. Of the first five Sundays we had major rain on four of them. Attendance has taken a big hit. Last Sunday morning the rain started at 4:00AM and didn’t end until Monday. We had only 126 in the morning. One Sunday night we had only 327. In January we usually have several days of sunshine. We have some big rubber trees here on the property. When the sun comes out in January the pods pop loudly, like a gunshot, and shoot their seeds far and wide. That didn’t happen this year. Our yard turned into a swamp and the grass is struggling to survive! The crowds are down at church, but the river is up, so tomorrow early I will head up river.
We have had several more professions of faith, requests for baptism and church letters.
This past month has been wall to wall meetings with ministry leaders. We are trying to get organized for the year. This is boring to report, but it is what I have been doing.
This week I just barely managed to squeeze in the recording of one TV program. Here is something for you to pray about. Our cameras are ancient. They no longer record directly to tape. We can only use them in the studio recording to hard drive. We can not use them in the field at all. One of them was purchased in 1998! One that was bought in 2000 quit completely. Dad donated his prosumer 3 years ago to replace it. This year we will have to replace both cameras and that needs to be sooner, not later. Pray that we will be able to come up with the money. We have been on the local station for 24 years now. Many people who would never set foot inside our church or even let us into their homes watch “Momento da Graça” every Saturday and Sunday morning.
Also, I have been doing some much needed work here at the house. I built the carport this month.
We held our first general pastors/missionaries meeting of the year this weekend, too.
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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