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.
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Projeto Vida Travels 6,000 Miles to Share the Gospel with Different People Groups
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
October 11, 2016
Dear Friends,
We had hoped that Projeto Vida would be able to purchase an 18 passenger travel van before our scheduled mission trip to the Lower Amazon River basin, but the Lord had other plans. Instead, 25 of our dedicated followers of Christ set out in an old travel bus on a 6000 mile trip to take the gospel to many different people groups. The first stop was in the slums of Rio de Janeiro shortly after the Olympic Games. The teams shared God’s word in public schools and parks.
Leaving Rio, the bus then set out for Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, over 1000 miles away. Again, the teams were allowed to go into the schools with Gospel skits and testimonies. Many students heard the gospel for the first time in their lives. After a few days in Brasilia, the bus began the next leg of their journey to northeastern Brazil, in the desert region. Along the way the old bus began to have a few problems. First, two of the large tires blew out at the same time. After repairing them, which was not cheap, the differential gear box tore up and the bus had to be towed to a repair garage and be repaired. The original price would have been above our ability to pay, but the garage owner felt led of the Lord to give a deep discount and with the offerings of some of you, we were able to pay for the new price and get the bus back on the road.
The journey continued northward toward Maranhão where our teams had the privilege of taking the gospel to some Indian tribes. There were quite a few who surrendered to Christ during that stop. All of the team members had to learn how to adapt to the culture somewhat to gain and entrance into the people group. The different foods and unfiltered water left several of the workers ill for a few days.
Next, the group went on to the mouth of the Amazon River where it spills out into the Atlantic. They left the old bus in the last town and got on board an old river boat to travel up river for 4 days. There were over 50 people aboard that boat and everyone had to sleep in hammocks crisscrossed in every available space. The teams stopped at many small villages along the river banks to share the gospel with folks, many who had never heard the Gospel of Christ clearly presented. There were dozens saved in these visits. Our team was traveling with some missionaries who lived in the region and who would be taking note of the villages with multiple conversions to return to begin routine Bible studies and new church plants when possible.
On this journey there was a young American man named Christian Wertz from my church here in Florida. He engaged in a game of “football/soccer” with some villagers on an improvised court that was made of roughly planed boards covered with dirt and sawdust. He got a large splinter in his bare foot which got badly infected and he had to be taken to the nearest health outpost to treat him. He recovered quickly and returned to help the team evangelize in more villages on the return trip to where they left the travel bus.
On the return trip to their headquarters in southern Brazil, Projeto Vida didn’t experience any mishaps. The team arrived after a 34-day trip and having seen hundreds of people profess Christ as Savior and Lord. One of the side benefits of the trip was that while they were helping a local church in northern Brazil, two of the members felt led of the Lord to contribute enough funds for Projeto Vida to purchase their first 18 passenger travel van. Now they will be able to make more trips similar to this one at a much reduced cost and much quicker. Praise the Lord with us!
In Christ’s love,
Bobby Wacaser
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Furlough Address:
3912 Casaba Loop
Valrico, FL 33596
Field Address:
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279-1
Sobrado 1, Bairro Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR Brasil
Phone: (813) 481-7007
Cell Phone: (813) 727-6405
Email: bobbymichael_1@hotmail.com
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