God’s Kingdom Bursting Along the Breu River
March 23, 2023
Dear Brethren,
Well I have now been here in the States for two months. It looks like I will be here for a while. I have been through many visits to the doctors, many tests and two surgeries. The recovery will be long and even once that is finished I still will have 6 weeks of daily radiation treatments. It could be another three months, so please continue to pray. So far the expenses have been low and some friends and family have been helping out. I am so thankful that Baptist Faith Missions has provided such good health coverage.
Here is some really good news, at least for me. The church down home has paid for Bev’s tickets to come and be with me for the coming months. She will be leaving Cruzeiro do Sul in a couple of weeks. The news from my doctors has all been pretty good. News that Beverly will be here with me is very, very good news.
Things are going well in the work. Attendance has been growing over the last weeks. We are now consistently over 600 in both morning and evening services. We had been just over 500 each in January. February was better. Now in March almost every service has been 600+. Last Sunday 2 more were saved including another young lady from our deaf folks.
Two weeks ago, our deaf ministry started having discipleship classes. We have 4 basic training courses for all new converts. These are now being ministered to our new deaf members.
Last Sunday 2 newborns were presented to the church. We also found out that 6 more couples are expecting. Over the past weeks 3 couples have done “reveals” out at our house and property. This is an honor for Bev and me. Shame I am not there to participate.
As a reminder, our church has a team of 7 pastors. I am the senior pastor. While I am away the others pick up my slack. Pastor Ezi Lopes went to visit our congregation on the Breu River. This river runs along the border between Peru and Brazil. He baptized 22 new members at the Hunikuim tribe.
We sent a missionary there several years ago. José Maia was forced to leave by a federal judge. That is when one of the young girls, Damiana, went to live with Maias in Tipisca, Peru. She got saved and she was the first person that I baptized in Tipisca in 2017. She later returned to the tribe and was used to reach them with the gospel. A couple of years ago I baptized the first 9 converts there. Among them was Cosma, Damiana’s twin sister. One of the young men who was baptized is now their pastor. Aldenir is his name.
When Christ’s kingdom bursts out no one can stop it. The judge kicked out our missionary. One girl left with him. She got saved and went back to her people. Many others got saved. God called one of the young men to shepherd them. I baptized some, but am not there to care for them. Ezi went and baptized another large group. I didn’t tell him to go. One of the videos I saw of the baptism service showed the congregation singing “I have decided to follow Jesus” in the Hunikuim language as they made their way to the river. Who taught them that? Where did that come from? How can that be? It’s not me. It’s not José Maia. It’s not Ezi Lopes. You know who it is! To God be the glory.
Thanks for all your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Pastor Ezi baptizes a man in the Breu River 
Baptism of 22 new members at the Hunikuim tribe
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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Good News from Southern Brazil!
April 26, 2021
Dear Brethren,
Hey, things are finally improving here in Cruzeiro do Sul. Yesterday we had zero new cases, no deaths in 12 days and only 3 locals in the ICU. We continue to have patients coming from out of town to our hospital here, but those, too, have dwindled. The state and local governments have lifted the lockdowns and curfews. Wednesday we plan to start back with services open to the public.
One of my guys went with me on another trip up river. We went back to Serra do Moa. This time I took a bunch of goodies to our missionary couple, Rivaldo and Leila. My small group donated dishes, silverware, pans, sheets, blankets, hammocks and a number of other household items. I bought a little gasoline generator, wires and LED bulbs, so that they can have lights in the evening. The first thing that I did when we got there was run wires and sockets for our first night. While I did that Manoel and Rivaldo installed hammock hooks in 3 rooms. We held services, too.
This was the first trip with the new 60HP Mercury outboard that was purchased by Calvary Baptist Church, Hurricane, West Virginia. The motor was installed last year, but because of the pandemic I had not been able to make any trips. I had just built a new top for my boat to keep me out of the rain and sun. The river was high and it was really enjoyable. Thanks so much to Calvary and her pastors. You have made the life of this old missionary so much easier!
Bev and I gave two weeklong courses to couples who are getting ready to marry. We have done this for years, but a couple of years ago we completely revamped and reformatted the course. It has been a big success. One thing that the couples all really like is that we have it here at our house instead of a classroom. The first round was for 5 couples. Last week we had two more. Last Friday Dauro and I performed the ceremony for my granddaughter, Heloisa and her husband Jefter. She is my first grandchild to marry. I also married both her parents and his parents a long time ago. They were one of the couples that did the classes with us. Because of the pandemic we had to have the ceremony here at the house. They plan to have a church wedding when the lockdowns and curfews are totally lifted. Dauro is qualified to do the civil marriage and I did the religious part.
There is plenty of good news coming from our works far and near. I have talked to several of our missionaries. Some of them have rural telephones and so we talk weekly to those. The word from the border, Foz do Breu, is that they have been having services already. Some have been saved and several new families moved into the village. They have continued to visit their mission points although, without holding services due to the virus spread. They also visited the Indian reservations on the Breu River. Those works are growing big time. The main pastor among the Hunikuim tribe is a young man named Aldenir. He almost died with a terrible infection a while back, but now is doing better. He has actually gotten into 2 more Indian villages in the last few months.
Well actually I have quite a bit more news, but have run out of space. Quite different from last month, when I had nothing to report.
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
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.
Read more
Building Dedication on the Grajaú River
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.
April 24, 2018
Dear Brethren,
We have been back four more times to visit the Katukina Tribe. Every time I teach I use some kind of object to illustrate the main theme. They are so used to government people having “meeting” with them that they just tune out to blah, blah, blah. Most of the time these outsiders (anthropologists and other official busybodies) speak “down” to them. These folks (left wingers) know what is best for these lowly souls. Does that sound familiar? Also, not all of them are fluent in Portuguese, so I have to take it slow and make it easy to understand and follow. I never stand, but sit with them and engage them the whole time, getting them to participate in the lesson. This works really well with them….as it does with everybody in the world. Uh duh! We had 3 saved two weeks ago.
The meeting at Vila São José (Breu River) among the Hunikuim went very well. There were over 200 from several locations in attendance. Just after the meeting the young man who takes care of them, Aldenir, the chief’s brother, got a bad infection from a bad tooth. They had to rush him to Cruzeiro do Sul. He had to emergency surgeries. Zico and I have been visiting him. He can barely mumble. His wife is with him, but she can speak very little Portuguese. The infection got so out of control that they had to send him to Rio Branco. The word is that he is better, but please pray for him.
Our church has kids clubs that work on Saturday mornings. We have one at the home church and then there are also clubs at most of the chapels, too. A couple of months ago one of our young women approached me about starting a new and different club for the kids of the Lagoa neighborhood. This is a slum down by the river and is the most dangerous in town. Murders happen there almost weekly. Drugs are at the center of it all. One of the 3 major gangs controls who comes and goes. We decide that the best way to do this would be to bus the kids in to church on Saturday afternoons. She and a couple of others went to talk to the gang boss to get explain the project and get permission. He agreed. On the first Saturday one of our evangelism teams went in just to witness and invite. There were 3 professions of faith that first day. Last Saturday they already had the team trained and ready to begin (the basic training for all the clubs had already been underway for 6 weeks). They bused in 47 children. Now there are kids from 2 other neighborhoods along the river that want to come. Great things are happening.
This last weekend was the dedication of a brand new building at our newest congregation. This is on the Grajaú River. This is a large village about 170 miles up river. This work was started about 2 years ago by our missionary at Porto Walter, Alexandre. Many have been saved and they wanted to put up a building. Well they did just that and with no outside funds. They also have a generator and installed lights. They fed everybody from their village and others who came from all around. A hint that they might just be Baptists!
We added 39 new members at First Baptist this month. A few by letter, too. We had 10 people saved from Sunday to Sunday last week.
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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