Recovering from Covid-19

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 14, 2020

Dear Brethren,

Greetings from “I don’t even know how to describe this place anymore.” Cruzeiro is well in to its second wave of Covid-19, yet there is all kinds of construction going on, schools are closed (all year), restaurants are open and business seems to be booming.

As many of you already know, the Creiglow family is going through the virus phase. We are not sure how many of us have had it, but it seems to be somewhere between 8 and 10 of the 14 family members. It looks now like Bev may have been the first. Her test was the first to show antibodies. Now Andrew’s 2 oldest have it. I was the only one hospitalized. As it turns out I had the coronavirus and dengue fever at the same time. Recovery has been slow, but steady.

First Baptist was forced to halt services back on March 18th. We started back in September with one service and at only 50% of our normal attendance. It grew gradually in size and number of services per week. Then the second wave hit. We dropped 20%. Now we are back up to where we were before the second wave. The drop, by the way, coincided with our election frenzy here. Lots of big rallies every day for 2 months. This down period was also when I was out of commission.

Bev and I got to go back to church yesterday, December 13th. We had good crowds morning and evening. 624 for the day. I was surprised to see so many visitors. There was a young mom who came back into fellowship after being away for 6 years. There were also 2 professions of faith. Although Dauro and I are not preaching just yet, we were at the doors to dismiss the crowd in the evening service. It is so strange to just have to stand there smiling and speaking to folks, but not knowing if a person wants to shake your hand or get a hug. Many do, but some just walk by with a sheepish smile. Awkward!

Construction at Jordão

Lucas and Diana are in from the field at Santa Rosa do Purús for a short rest. They are holding services already. Two of my builders have gone to Jordão to start the construction of the building. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go along. Neither of these towns had a Baptist church. Both towns had a Catholic presence and a ton of neo-pentecostal congregations. Jordão has a population of 8000 and 13 of these “churches”, while Santa Rosa do Purús is 12 thousand people and 14 “churches”.
All of the Creiglows here were under strict quarantine on Thanksgiving Day. It was very strange. Bev and I were not hungry and didn’t cook at all. Our Thanksgiving “dinner” was crackers, cheese and a glass of juice. We postponed our family dinner. Last Friday night we finally got together and, boy was it great. There were several things that made me laugh so hard. For those of you who may not know it, many people who have Covid lose their senses of smell and taste. When Andrew’s family arrived we were all around the island in the kitchen looking at the different dishes. His oldest daughter Heloisa (who is now 20) grabbed the bowl of broccoli casserole, pulled it up close and exclaimed, “I can smell the cheese!” She came away with a dot of cheese on her nose. Our devotion that night was all 14 of us sharing things we are grateful for. What a night!
 

Continue to pray for us and for Cruzeiro do Sul. Many friends have left this earth during this year.  

Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.

In Christ,
Mike Creiglow

A belated Thanksgiving Dinner

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

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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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

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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Smiling at All the Ways God Keeps Supplying

Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.

September 15, 2017

Dear Brethren,

Greetings to all. It has been a good long while. For the last 3 months, I have had 4 different illnesses to deal with. I am over one of them and recovering (long process) from another. The other 2 will be with me for the rest of my life. It has been tough not being able to do my usual stuff.

Bev and I went to Manaus for our big conference at Nova Igreja Batista where David Hatcher is pastor. At least one of our missionaries, (José Maia) reported on the work in Peru. I was privileged to bring a message on Sunday morning. There were over 40 of our workers and wives from our area at the conference. I believe there were 160 pastors from all over Brazil. It is always a very encouraging time for us. To see a church that is doctrinally sound and growing by leaps and bounds is something to see and rejoice about. Thanks, and congratulations to Nova Igreja Batista.

Another visit was made to Santa Rosa do Purús. This time José Maia took his son Lucas and his bride-to-be to check out the field. They have another year of training. In about a year and a half we hope to send them. In the meantime, we have helped the Kaxinawá church to get their property and soon we will help them put up a building. Right now, they meet behind Pastor Moisés’ house under a little thatch roof.

The youth and the ladies have held their retreats in August and September. The youth had over 100 and there were 2 or 3 saved. The ladies had over 130 at camp.

We have had good services at church with people being saved almost every week. We have also had an unusual number of folks coming from other Baptist churches by letter and even more from other denominations by baptism. On the other hand, we continue to lose folks who move to other cities. This week a retired policeman and his whole family are on their way to Porto Velho. Another retired middle-aged couple just moved to Rio Branco where their 2 children are in college. All of these folks, who have been faithful and productive, are also people with good income. We put on 2 more missionaries this year, so things have already been really tight. We continue to smile at all the ways He keeps us supplied. It is amazing.

The teachers and staff of Colégio Cristão Cruzeiro. The principal is the man in the middle.

Our school just had a celebration of 25 years. We have continued to have first through 8th grades. This year we have 649 students. The party was at the city’s only public auditorium and theatre. Our school is now rated the 2nd best of dozens of schools in Cruzeiro do Sul and 5th best in the state. Our principal is Thiago Muniz. He and family are very faithful members. He has done an exceptional job at Colégio Cristão Cruzeiro.

We have had a crime wave in the Acre’s 3 largest cities. We had a 24-hour murder spree here. Four murders and another non-fatal shooting. One of these shootouts was right in front of the grocery store where we do our shopping in the middle of the afternoon. This is organized crime being run mostly from within the penitentiaries. The streets are now empty after dark. Some churches have set their service an hour earlier. Even our attendance is a little off.

Pray for me and for our forlorn city.

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

Click here to donate to BFM.


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Church Planting in Multiple “Municipíos”

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 16, 2017

Dear Brethren,

The state of Acre has 22 “counties”. Here they are called municípios (municipalities). We are trying to plant churches in all of them. So far, we have churches in 7 of the “county seats”. The 2 largest cities are the capital, Rio Branco, and Cruzeiro do Sul. These churches have been around for years. The other 5 churches are in smaller cities close to us. Now we are going for the most isolated towns that have no Baptist church. We sent a missionary family to the city of Jordão 2 years ago.

This month we made a visit to Jordão and a survey trip to Santa Rosa do Purús. We had to fly to these cities that are deep in the forest and along the Peruvian border. We chartered the New Tribes Mission plane. It was necessary to make and pay for 2 flights as the pilot had to come from way up north in Roraima to make our flights and others over a short 1 week period. New Tribes Mission has a plane here now and mechanics, but still don’t have a pilot stationed here.

Jordão is on the Tarauacá River. The population is 8000 and 60% of these are from the Jaminaus and Kaxinauwa tribes. Our missionary couple is Idevaldo, Queila and their daughters, Vitória and Ludmilla. They have already bought a house and rented a place to hold services. We had a low of 45 people and a high of over 70 in services. One young couple that they have won to Christ have already been trained to help with the music. The man did not play any kind of instrument. Idevaldo taught him to play bass in 3 months. Idevaldo plays guitar and actually made his own instrument! Very talented. Queila has started a kid’s club that has an average of 25 children attending. They have already acquired 2 lots for us to put up our first church building. They are also already doing mission work in the villages and along the streams out of town. I am so proud of them. On Sunday morning, I baptized the first 14 members.

Our visit to the town of Santa Rosa do Purús was exciting, too. This is the smallest town in the Acre: 6000 people. 70% of these are Kaxinauwa. It is almost 2 hours by air. For us to get there by land and river we have to go 250 miles east by road then up river from the bridge on the Purús River for another 225 miles. The Purús is another one of the major tributaries of the Amazon River that flows parallel to the Juruá River. It flows into the Amazon a few hundred miles downstream from the mouth of the Juruá River. In other words, we are getting into a completely new river valley.

There is already a small group of the Kaxinauwa who meet and hold services. The tribe is called “Kaxinauá” by most folks. The name means “people of the bat”, as in the animal. They call themselves “Huni Kuim”, which means “The True People”. Many of the tribes around us see themselves as the original people of the earth and superior to all others. Their “building” is really just a hut. There are 6 poles, thatch roof and dirt floor. We had 50+ in the one service we held.  The singing and most of the service was in their native language. My message was NOT in Huni Kuim! They all understand Portuguese.

The town has 15 sects and cults, but no Baptist church, so we are going to try to open the work there soon. There are 46 villages along the river between the border and the bridge, so we have our work cut out for us.

I took Zico (our missions coordinator), Ruben (one of our businessmen), and Rondisson (one of our chapel pastors) along on this trip. Please pray for the new missionary that we need and the funds to support him, whoever he may be. So much to do and so few workers and funds.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.

Baptism in Jordão

Service with the indigenous folks at Santa Rosa do Purús

Baptism in Jordão

 

In Christ,
Mike Creiglow

Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com

Click here to donate to BFM.


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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

Click here to donate to BFM.


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