Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [November 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.
November 9, 2015
Dear Brethren,
There is a little bit of everything to send your way this month. There is plenty of good news and a little of the other kind, too.
The ladies had their big retreat with about 150 women and several saved. We also had a couple’s retreat with over 30 couples. This was more of a teaching retreat than evangelism. There were a few lost couples present though who heard the gospel.
I missed one of this month’s mission trips due to an overload of work here in town and at camp. Zico and Nelson made the trip to visit our works on the Moa River. Nelson is one of our military guys who served as pastor in a church in Rio de Janeiro. We always have a few of these families who are with us for a couple of years and then gone off to some other town. Most of these come here for a 2 year tour. They can extend their time by a year and sometimes more. Once they see the church, they all put in for the extension and would stay on if their career would let them. This was Nelson’s first mission trip. He came back charged up. Almost all of these military families had heard about the church and the mission work here through the internet. We have been privileged to receive and train many over the years. We miss them when they are gone, but proud of the training and service they take to other places all over Brazil.
Pastor Dauro (Mike’s son-in-law) baptizing at First Baptist Church of Cruzeiro do Sul.
Three more ripe mangoes just came crashing down on the roof above my office. My yard is a mango lover’s paradise. There are tons of them on the trees and the ground. Although I try to keep the limbs trimmed back I still have a bunch of tiles to replace every year. Like the trees, but have come to pretty much hate the fruit. You probably really didn’t need that piece of news, but it is part of our life here in the rainforest.
The rainy season has started with heavy rains. It rained a lot yesterday, but we still had really big crowds in all services. There were 28 more baptized in the morning and 2 more saved at night. It has been like that all month long: a few saved and great crowds with many visitors.
We have been working at the camp property and new church property for several weeks now. We have had a lot of cleanup and fencing on both locations. The dry season is almost behind us and there were some urgent jobs to be done while the weather is still fairly dry.
Damage to Bro. Creiglow’s jeep. The right rear rim was completely split in two.
One afternoon a few weeks ago I had just started down the highway when a pickup came flying over a hill and rear ended my jeep. No telling how fast he was going. He left over 100 feet of skid marks and his speedometer froze at 50 mph, so he was really moving when he piled on the brakes. He spun me around 180o into the grass on the other side of the road. He was carrying patients to the hospital in Cruzeiro do Sul. Fortunately, no one was injured seriously. His truck was pretty much totaled. The rear body and suspension on my jeep were destroyed. I have been without a work vehicle for 3 weeks now. Parts are coming from all over Brazil including the factory in Fortaleza on the east coast. Since my Troller T4 is built 100% in Brazil from parts all manufactured here it will cost less than half what any other vehicle would cost to repair. It still will set me back at least $2,000.00 just for parts.
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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Missionary Update: The Creiglows in Brazil [October 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.
October 7, 2015
Dear Brethren,
Bev and I spent 10 days in southern Brazil on vacation. This was all the time I could get off, but it was enough and it was relaxing. Pastor Pedro and his wife were in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina. He was there finishing up his masters degree, so we met up in Rio Grande do Sul for the short vacation.
We have had a very busy time since then. I have been helping two of our missionaries work through some problems. Bev and I have been meeting regularly with our missionary at Guajará, Amazonas. He and his wife have got out of control with their finances, so we are walking them through the process of getting out of debt and restoring his testimony in the community. The other missionary has been working at Profeta on the upper Jurua River for 5 years. He has been struggling since the beginning of the year with deep spiritual and mental frustrations. The congregation there just sees him as their “hired hand”. They refuse to help with anything. They won’t even help with the spreading of the Gospel. Now some of you pastors are saying, “Well, what else is new?” To me this is NOT normal and I would go crazy, too, if my church did not pull their load with me. So pray for Antônio. We have brought him in from the field for treatment and possibly deploy him to a new field.
A few of the men from church who showed up to do fencing last Saturday.
As some of you may recall, First Baptist Church bought 18 acres of land for expansion in the near future. It is about a mile past where we live. On one of my evening runs I decided to swing in there and check up on things. I discovered that a man had just cleared about 3 acres of land on our neighbor’s ranch and planted some new manioc on his place and in ours, too. The rancher paid the guy some cash to get him out of his hair and not have to take him to court. Since the church doesn’t feel that it would be appropriate to pay the man, we have decided that now is the time to get all of our fences and gates up to par. I have been working out there for several days now. Several of our men have taken time to help out, also. We have been cleaning out brush, did some plowing and fencing. I could tell you more, but let me just say: September and October are our hottest months of the year. This afternoon I decided to sit in the AC of my office and write you. Thank you very much for stopping my machete!
We have been having huge crowds at church for weeks now. We have actually had 48 more in September on average over August in our evening services. The morning services added another 146. We have had 3 people saved in each evening service for the past 5 weeks (all of September and the first Sunday of October). We have had several more requests for baptism. Of course several have moved away, too. Levi and Eliane just retired from Bank of Brazil and moved to Curitiba, Paraná to take care of her elderly mother. Levi was still single when I became pastor. He married a Presbyterian, who I baptized many years ago. Hard to lose such faithful people. He was one of those original 40 members that I had when I became pastor 37 years ago.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [September 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.
August 28, 2015
Dear Brethren,
My last letter was only a couple of weeks ago. In those two weeks we had another baptism at church, adding 12 new members. There have been several more professions of faith and a few more added by letter. I also visited a couple of our works around town and out of town. This time though, I want to tell you about something a little different.
This month the Catholic Church in Cruzeiro do Sul celebrated its 100th anniversary. The patron saint is “Our Lady of Glory”. The local parish was started on August 15th 1915. That means that they had an eleven year head start on the Baptists. Missionary Joseph Brandon arrived in Cruzeiro do Sul in 1926. First Baptist Church was founded on May 12, 1929 with only 13 members. Here is what I want to emphasize: From the start of our town until 1926 all the citizens were members of the Catholic Church. As late as 1929 there were only 13 Baptists in Cruzeiro do Sul. There has been a dramatic turnaround.
When I was a boy the whole center of town was blocked off for the celebration of Our Lady of Glory in the month of August. Thousands of people would flock in from all the rivers and roads for the 9 days of celebration, called Novenário. Many people would spend all or most of their hard earned money from their jobs as rubber workers. Many would give large sums to the church. Others would spend everything on liquor. Some of the priests would even sell the booze and smokes. It was sad to see all the debauchery and exploitation. This was also the month of the highest rate of pregnancies out of wedlock.
This year was quite the contrast with the past. Only a half of a block was blocked off downtown. The crowds were very small. The Baptist and other gospel preaching churches were all full. Ours was full and turning folks away. We had over 600 in the morning service and just under a thousand in the evening service. We had to take a few benches out of the auditorium because of the special program for that night and so had less seating capacity.
As each year comes and goes, more and more people are leaving the old idolatry and coming to Christ. In fact the Catholic Church is trying to imitate some of our methods and even our buildings thinking that our expansion is just a matter of facilities and methods. They don’t understand why folks are leaving Catholicism. They don’t see that it is the Gospel of Christ that is changing lives.
There are still more Roman Catholics than born again Christians in our city, but things are changing. One day soon Our Lord of Glory will replace “Our Lady of Glory” in Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil and the world over.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [August 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.
August 6, 2015
Dear Brethren,
The recovery from the flu has been slow, but I am almost back to normal. We have a new building going up at camp and I have been able to help the crew with that. I went up a couple of days in my jeep and helped haul lumber from out of the jungle. I was even able to help carry some of the beams. The trailer was only able to get so far and we had to carry some very heavy stuff for a couple hundred yards out of the woods. So I guess I am back to the usual self.
We have had a good month at First Baptist. We have held 2 baptism services a month apart. There were 15 and 12 baptized. A good many more have been saved. Attendance has been really good for summer time. In fact one Sunday night we had an overflow crowd in which many could not get into the building. We have been needing to expand for years. God will make that happen in due time. Right now construction is a little far out there as the economy has really gone south. At least we have our new property waiting for the right moment.
One of two baptism groups from the past month at First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul.
This month was our annual missions conference. We had most of our missionaries in from the fields. We had three of our men who work in Peru, who managed to get all the way here. José Maia is our Brazilian missionary who works in Tipisca, Peru. Eduardo, who is a Peruvian citizen from the Caxinauá tribe, came in. Then, for the first time, Laureano, who is a Peruvian from the Ashaninka tribe came in. It was so good to have Larueano. I had not seen him for 2 or 3 years. He is one of our first converts from the days when I first started going across the border (about 15 years ago). He takes care of 4 preaching points at the mouth of the Huacapisteia River and up the same river. These are the villages we plan to visit with our medical mission team in October.
Men Present at Annual Preachers Meeting
Our newest missionary family came in, too. Idelvaldo and family were approved last year and were sent to the city of Jordão 5 months ago. They have already had a few people saved. They started meeting in a space in a public school. Then they moved to a covered area at their rented house. Now they have spruced up a “store front” and have a nice big sign up front. They are having about 40 people in services. We already have property to build our first church building. Jordão is one of the 22 “county seats” in the state of Acre. Our goal is to have a solid church planted in every one of them. We have already gotten to seven!
Meal at the annual workers meeting
Last Saturday morning we held our annual preacher’s meeting. There were 84 present. The men had 3 solid hours of practical classes on 5 different topics. It went by so fast. I taught just one of these and had 2 more ready if there had been time. The wives also got together for a lecture from Dr. Suiane. Suiane is one of our medical doctors who goes along on our medical mission trips. She just concluded another missions course and followed that with a month long practical internship in Bolivia. The ladies were thrilled to hear her testimony and teaching. We closed out with a great meal. We had over 150 present for lunch.
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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Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [July 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.
July 2, 2015
Dear Brethren,
As soon as I arrived from my trip up the Juruá River in May I caught a flu that was going around. It started on a Tuesday night while recording the TV program. On Wednesday morning the lady from the health department came by to give us our flu shots. Bev took hers, but I was not able. It has now been over a month and it looks like I will be going to the doctor this afternoon. That is what the boss says. I had improved last week, but since Monday it has gotten much worse.
Even though I have been very weak I have been able to get a few things done.
One of the jobs that was urgent was build a trailer for missionary José Maia for the work in Tipisca, Peru. The river is going down fast and we needed to get the trailer and some building supplies to him while there is still a little water in the river. The trailer was finished last week and early this week I bought the last of the materials and got it all on a boat. I wasn’t much help getting the stuff on the boat, so Pastor Ezi helped and we still had to hire some guys. Those 100lb bags of cement now weigh about a ton!
Baptism at Guajará in the state of Amazonas
Also I was able to visit our works at Rodrigues Alves (up river) and Guajará, Amazonas (down stream). Bev went with me on the visit to Guajará. We held a baptism service there, too.
The materials that I produce for the church and the work got behind, also. There were a few days when my fever was so high I couldn’t think straight. Much of that is caught up, but still have a way to go.
The most recent group that was baptized into First Baptist Church, Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil.
I managed to preach Friday night, Sunday night and Wednesday night at church. We had a huge crowd on Sunday and 2 more people were saved. There have been several more saved in other services, too. There were several more baptized on the 21st of June.
Well I hope that by time you read this I will be well again. Pray for me anyway.
Pray and give also for our next big medical mission trip. On October 23-31 we will be going to the Huacapisteia River (a tributary of the Juruá River way up in Peru). There are 4 Ashaninka indian villages that we will visit. Besides all the fuel, food and medicine we will have to buy one more aluminum canoe and motor to add to our fleet. Next month I will give you some numbers. Please pray and get ready to give to make this exciting mission trip happen.
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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Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [June 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.
June 1, 2015
Dear Brethren,
The middle of last month I left for a long trip up the Juruá River. Zico (Francisco Nunes), who is our missions director at First Baptist, went with me.
The river has started its end of rainy season “retreat”. It has gone down at least 30 feet already, but the rains still haven’t stopped. It rained all day the day before our scheduled departure. Then, for good measure, it rained all day the day we had set for the trip. That was Saturday, May 16th. When I am out on the river, I don’t mind too much if the rains catch me, but I hate leaving when it is raining, so we didn’t leave until Sunday. The weather was cool and clear on Sunday.
About a half hour into the trip the engine quit on me. I had taken it out on Thursday to do a test run and all was working pretty good. It took me 45 minutes to repair. I had to pull off the carburetor, tear it all down, clean it then reassemble. After that it worked fine for the rest of the trip.
We had to go all the way to Thaumaturgo where they were expecting us for the evening service. The small open boat with 25hp motor took a long time. This leg was 190 miles. We finally got in at just before 6:00PM. We had a good service even though the electricity kept going off. The church is doing very well. They have bought lots on the corner beside their new building, lots and nice house across the street and a piece of land for their camp.
The next morning we went on up another 85 miles to Foz do Breu. We spent one night with the folks there, but because the river was going down so fast we decided to go ahead a make the visit to our 2 missionaries in Peru.
Bible study with five nationalities in Tipisca, Peru (Brazilians, Peruvians, Caxinauá, Ashaninka and one American)
We spent two full days visiting our tiny group of believers in Tipisca, Peru. José Maia and family (Brazilians) serve there. We also support a Peruvian family, Brother Eduardo. He, his wife and children are also Caxinauá Indians. We already have a building up, but not many believers. The little town only has about 300 people. There is an army outpost. The soldiers spend all their time and money on liquor and prostitutes. They are in the barracks most of the time and don’t come to church. There are a few Peruvians who have government jobs. A few of these come to services. The bulk of the population is made up of Indians from four different tribes. There are a few Brazilians in the town, too. This means that 4 languages and 2 other dialects are spoken. As you can tell this is one tough field of service. We decided to not have regular services, but informal Bible studies while there. We had 5 nationalities sitting around the table in José Maia’s kitchen. Songs were sung in 3 languages and 3 musical styles. This is fun, but daunting.
Missionary José Maia’s house
José and family are still living in a primitive thatch covered house that was on the property when we bought it. It was built by an Indian. Now it is falling apart. He will be building soon. I am going to buy the roofing for them and am building him a trailer to haul the lumber out of the jungle. They are trying to break through to the village through daily work with the children and teens. José and Eduardo also have started visiting the tribes along the rivers. This is all slow, hard work. All I can say is, WOW! What missionaries!
On the way back downstream we spent another full day and night with the congregation at Foz do Breu on the Peruvian/Brazilian border. We don’t have a missionary family there right now, but hope to fill this void soon. Pray with us about sending a missionary. The congregation is doing well though.
The Maia family playing with Peruvian and Indian school kids on our church property in Tipisca, Peru.
Further down river we stopped to visit our congregation and missionaries at Vila Triunfo. We were with them for 3 days. They now have electricity in the village. We were there for the installation of air conditioning in their wood frame building! How weird is that? The first night we held a couple’s meeting with 27 couples. The next night there were regular services with 148 present. Then on Sunday we had 184 in the morning and 217 at night. There was one profession of faith and request for baptism. Fredson and Auriane are doing one great job. The village has been transformed by the gospel. The village has cleaned up in just about every way. There may not be much they can do about the clouds of blood sucking gnats by day and voracious mosquitoes by night, though. My body is nicely dotted by tiny blood blisters, but so what else is new?
Zico and I travelled 970Km (606 miles) during our 9 day trip. We got to visit 4 of our missionaries in 4 locations. We were able to share the gospel to people of 5 different languages. One person was saved. We didn’t get rained on. Not a single drop. Even though the river was dropping so fast (7 feet one day) we didn’t have to even take off our sandals one day. I can’t remember the last time when I made this kind of trip that I didn’t have to wade through all kinds of mud. We were in the sun for many, many hours (protected by 100 factor sunscreen), but no burns. What a wonderful mission trip. HE was so merciful, again.
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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Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [April 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.
April 15, 2015
Dear Brethren,
First Baptist Church just sent out our newest missionary family. Idevaldo, Queila and their two little girls left for the city of Jordão on March 17. The town is just 8000 people of which half are Indians from three different tribes. Jordão is at the mouth of the Jordão River. The town actually sits on the banks of the Tarauacá River with the Jordão flowing in on the other side. The Tarauacá is a tributary of the Juruá River (our river) and flows into the Juruá hundreds of miles down stream from us. Just to remind you: The Juruá River is a tributary of the amazon. All this to say that Idevaldo and family are way back in the bush, almost on the Peruvian border.
It took several days to get their furniture and baggage there. The river is very small and shallow. Even though we are still in the rainy season, one day without rain that far up means that only small canoes can get through. They finally got everything there and moved into the house we rented for them. They have already had the first services and 9 people have been saved. We are the first and only Baptists in the whole region.
Unfortunately I was not able to go along to help them with their move. My son Andrew fell ill suddenly about 4 days before that trip. He went to the doctor on a Thursday, ran some tests on Friday and on Saturday he and I were in Manaus. Five doctors that we talked to here told us that he should get out of Cruzeiro do Sul and see a specialized surgeon in a big city as soon as possible. We had all the appointments set up to see the doctor in Manaus before we ever left home. We were able to get all the tests and reserve the surgical center for the same week.
The surgery was 3 hours and went well. The recovery started great, but then there was a complication. He was in grave danger for a period of over 60 hours. I did not sleep or eat during that time. Many hours of prayer. He was conscious most of the time, but came very close to death. The Lord spared him though. We are back home now and he is recovering nicely.
The first Sunday back in the pulpit was a great and humbling feeling. That was Easter Sunday. My message started with God’s explanation that the life is in the blood. Then we went through the last moments of the death of Christ in the 4 gospels. Then I shared the sensation I had as a father seeing the life drain out of my son. My son was spared though. God’s Son was not. Nobody will ever know or fully understand what that feels like. Andrew and I can appreciate it considerably more now. Five more people gave their lives to Christ that night. Many tears were shed as they understood at least a little of what our God did for us. I still can’t stop crying every time I remember. Continue to pray for us. I am still not over this ordeal, by any means. It will be a while.
Andrew’s treatment was all done through private medicine. He doesn’t have insurance, since it doesn’t work that well in this kind of economy. If he had gone through the government provided “health care”, he wouldn’t be with us today. Anyway, if you would like to help, please do. He has a wife and 4 children to support and this was a major hit financially. Just hospital and surgery were about $7,500.00.
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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Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [September 2014]
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 12, 2014
Dear Brethren,
Hello from the…….States! Right now Bev and I are on a short vacation in the States. So I am writing this from the mission house in Lexington, Kentucky. But before this could happen we had a lot to happen in Brazil.
The week before we left home I had several short mission trips to make.
The river is very low and the summer (dry season) is in full swing. Manuel and I headed 100 miles up river to Porto Walter to visit our congregation there and start the construction of their new building. It took us 9 hours in one of our aluminum canoes. Not bad for as low as the river is. We started laying out the position of the foundations and doing some digging the same day and worked into the night. The next day we managed to get a backhoe to do the biggest job on the lot. We managed to square up and level everything to begin the actual foundations. I just talked to Hudson and Manuel and they are up there, as I write, working on the footers.
The same week we went across river to Miritizal to build the first truss for that new work. We had plenty of help from the members so it went pretty quickly. Just yesterday they sent me a picture of what they have done. They have the building under roof. This is the way I like to see things happen. I gave them a little help, instructed them on how to proceed and the task is finished while I rest up here in the US!
The weekend before leaving Cruzeiro do Sul I was able to visit our missionary Rivaldo at Nova Cintra. Most of the year I would go there by river, but in the dry season it can be reached by a narrow dirt road. They are in a brand new building and had over 200 people inside and almost that many that couldn’t get in. They are doing really great. One woman made a profession of faith on Saturday night.
On Tuesday, August 26th, Bev and I went to Manaus for our conference at Nova Igreja Batista. David Hatcher is pastor and has done a super job with this training/fellowship conference that happens every 2 years. There were pastors and leaders from 13 states, 5 countries and 39 different cities. We had over 30 from our home town. Unfortunately for me I took the flu along for the ride. I was able to go to the opening banquet and the last service. By Saturday night I was able to preach. There were over 3000 present. Bev and I went from church straight to the airport to catch our flight to the States.
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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