Missionary Update: The Creiglows in Brazil [January 2013]

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.

January 4, 2013

Dear Brethren,

This month is all about being born and being born again!

On December 8th we organized First Baptist Church in the city of Rodrigues Alves. The new church was organized with 119 charter members. They have been in a nice brick building for a long time, but it has become way too little. They are very close to moving into their new building. They wanted to have the organization service in the new one, but it has rained so much that they didn’t have time to get it under roof. In fact it rained the night of the service and cut down on the size of the crowd, but the building was still full. Another church was born.

The choir at the 2012 Christmas production.

This year we had a mega production for our Christmas presentation. It took a whole year to get ready. My main job was to build the stage, lighting and sound. I started right after the Thanksgiving service. I had been working very long hours to get the annex under roof for the Thanksgiving dinner. We fed more than 900 that night. Then I jumped right into the Christmas program. Andrew and I extended our stage another 4 feet in depth and the whole width of the building. I built a curved set of 4 steps to one side for our 30 member choir. On the other side we built a rotating stage to save space and make it easier to change scenes. We also used the baptistery for the resurrection scene. Many of the backdrops were digitally printed on vinyl. A couple of these were 16 feet wide! Then there were dozens of other props that had to be placed on stage or removed at each rotation of the platform. We also had to install a video mixer, sound and video projector up on the third floor terrace for overflow crowd. My daughter Crissy wrote the script and produced the whole thing. Crissy and Beverly selected all the songs and even translated some from English to Portuguese. If you haven’t gathered, this was a musical, with a modern story line and flashes back to the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It was a ton of work and investment. Over 200 members worked very hard for months. We spent about $10,000.00, but it was more than worth it.

The theatre group for the 2012 Christmas production.

We tried our best to keep our members at home, unless they were willing to watch on the big screen up on the 3rd floor. We set up seating for several hundred people with a 16 foot screen. Each night I went through the congregation and asked the few straggler members (only about 5-10) to give up their seats to the lost. Fortunately I didn’t have any backlash from this tactic. Actually many members were pleased and thanked me for doing this. Boy, do I love my church! We also tried to keep people from other Baptist churches away. We reserved our main auditorium just for unbelievers. Because of the larger stage we only had seating for 700 people. Of course there were another 100 or more who attended standing. We had 5 nights from Friday through Christmas night. We were packed to capacity every night. It started raining about an hour before services on Christmas night. It rained hard for hours. No pastor in his right mind would wish for rain on the night of a big service, but after all was said and done, I was glad that it rained. If it had not rained we would have to turn literally thousands away. Even with all the rain there just wasn’t any place to put anyone else! I think that now I will be able to persuade the church that it is more than time to move to a bigger location. During the five nights we had 51 professions of faith. We are expecting many more in the weeks and months to come. Many have been born again.

The Creiglows just welcomed a new granddaughter: Kayla!

Then before I close, let me add that my granddaughter Kayla was born last night. My daughter Crissy worked like a crazy person on the Christmas program and even sang every night with that huge bulge out front. She walked into the brand new maternity/children’s hospital last night, sat down in a wheelchair and 5 minutes later Kayla Cristina was born. Dauro went back to the car to get her things, just 50 yards away, and missed seeing his daughter’s birth. Mom and baby are doing fine. Bev and I now have 9 grandkids: 3 boys and 6 girls. I fear that the boys’ team may never catch up. Rejoice with us at the arrival of Kayla. Crissy and Dauro now have 2 boys and girl.

This letter is longer than most, but I just had to tell you about the birth of a new church, 51 people who were born again and the birth of our newest little one.

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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