August 19, 2020

Dear Brethren,

Greetings from hot and sunny Cruzeiro do Sul. All of Brazil is hot and dry. We haven’t had any rain this month. The river is as low as it can be. Not much has changed here over the past few weeks.

A lady from our church is head of the health department and for the past 23 days she has been giving me daily reports about the evolution of the virus here in town. She gives me new cases, hospitalizations, discharged, cured, deaths and a few other categories. I now have a spreadsheet to be able to help evaluate the situation. Mostly though, I just spend lots of time in prayer in the wee hours, asking God to show me the way forward. Although the state and city have given permission for churches to meet, the restrictions are so severe that we have not returned.

We have given our congregations at Foz do Breu and the one in Peru, permission to meet. Last week we gave all of our interior works permission to hold public services. Also, this month we authorized our small groups to resume meeting. Today we will be giving our chapels here in town permission to resume regular services. So, little by little, we are coming back. I meet weekly with my staff to discuss and pray about each new step. We meet again this afternoon and I am going to recommend we have a morning service on August 30. This will be live streamed. We will add services incrementally from there. I have been informed that the city only has 4 “spies” on payroll and these refuse to work on Sundays, so that is good news. Pray for us. It has now been 5 full months since our last service at First Baptist Church.

We have been getting news from several of our mission works and missionaries. José Costa (border village) reports good attendance and at least one saved. José Maia (Tipisca, Peru) has been having limited crowds. He stays very busy though in the community. He even managed to find a plow to pull behind his ATV and has upped his gardening game! His son, who is our missionary at Santa Rosa do Purús, is now working part time in a cabinet shop and has started a small Bible study class. I just bought him a motor, so that when things get back to normal, he will be able to start mission work on the Purús River.

I have continued to work on construction jobs nonstop and pretty long hours. Don’t watch the news. Work keeps me content. Still hoping that things will get back to some kind of normal pretty soon.

Bev and I are doing well. The whole family is doing great. We have been meeting every Saturday night for our family time. Every Sunday afternoon we play a few innings of whiffle ball. Even the little squirts play. I even play! Only Grandma Bev sits on the sideline and watches to make sure nobody cheats. Bev had not been out for over 3 months. Last week she finally started to get out occasionally. She actually went to a supermarket for the first time in 5 months. On her last time out, she saw a guy from down south with a truck selling strawberries. She bought enough for the 3 families. She made me some shortcake and whipped cream. She really does love me after all!

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