Baptizing New Disciples Along the Moa River
February 12, 2024
Dear Brethren,
The trip to the upper Moa River was great. Seven of us went all the way from the port here in Cruzeiro do Sul to the foothills in one day. Missionary Geverton was our pilot. He is our itinerant missionary since 2020. The church had a 10-meter aluminum canoe made for his ministry. The boat has a top that is the full length of the boat and the benches have cushions. I was able to kick back and just enjoy the trip. We left at 6:00 AM and arrived at 5:00 PM. There was plenty of water in the river and we only got into one rain.
The building was packed for all services. One of the reasons we were there was to celebrate the 27 years since we sent Missionary Rivaldo. Way back in 1967, I started preaching the Gospel all along the Moa River. At that time, I was just an 18 year-old, single, seminary student who had just been called to be a missionary. Still preaching there after all these years, I preached twice and performed a baptism. The river dropped quite a bit while we were there, so I had to go half the width of the river to have enough water to baptize. The schoolteacher was saved and was baptized. Also, one lady and a couple of her children were part of the group. She has 7 children. Her husband is in a federal prison on drug charges. He burns up the “salary” that the government gives each inmate on drugs, so she has to make a living on her own. What a trouper!
One of our guys got sick on the trip. 24 hours after our return, it was my turn. I was sick for a whole week. I was still able to get some work done in spurts, but not very productive for the whole week. We suspect that the hygiene at our missionary’s house is not ideal. He has a very bad outhouse and no well. He drinks out of the local creek. All kinds of livestock are in and out of this creek. We are going to build him a septic system and proper bathroom. We have also selected a location to dig a well and install a pump. Don’t worry, I and the team did not drink the creek water! We took enough bottled water for the 6-day trip.
Our attendance has been recovering at a snail’s pace since COVID. We are now having over 600 both morning and night in both Sunday services. Last Wednesday we had 378. The average for this service has been just over 300 for 2023. We had another couple saved this week and several requests for baptism.
It is Carnival in Brazil. Fortunately, it is slowly dwindling as more Brazilians trust in Christ. Way back in 1977 we started having retreats for the youth to have an option to get away from the madness of Carnival. The youth are up at Camp Salém right now. There are over 130 teens and a team of about 20 adults who take care of them. This is the first of many retreats of the year. We are under pressure to build more cabins. We built 8 more bathrooms last week and installed a new water tower just in time for camp. I will be checking in on them later today.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
“You will see a pole behind me. That pole is what I use to clear the river bottom of fresh water sting rays before the candidates come in. You don’t want to get stung by one of those critters. The pain is indescribable.”
“The pics are from my trip up the Moa River. Have you ever had to stuff your pant legs into your socks and tie plastic bags over your shoes to go to church on a Sunday morning? Not likely. We had plenty of mud from all the rain, so you do what you have to do. The other 2 pics are of the baptism service. So good to be back on the rivers again.“
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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Sharing the Gospel with Disillusioned & Depressed Partygoers
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
March 4, 2020
Dear Friends,
Having finished our two-week missions training seminar, we now have four new fulltime volunteers working with our traveling evangelism team. The team went to work immediately after the seminar during Carnaval week here in Brazil. I’m sure you have heard of, or seen on TV, a taste of that awful “lust-fest.” Fortunately, our team was able to interact with many of the festival-goers, without having to be involved in their immoral practices. They shared the gospel with dozens and several people repented and surrendered to Christ. Our team formed groups of three volunteers to mingle with the people at large gatherings on the beach to pray and look for individuals who might give them a hearing. Contrary to appearances, quite a few of the party-goers were depressed or disillusioned with life and were open to discuss God’s plan for their lives. We train our missionaries on how to approach people outside of the walls of the church building with the gospel and, thankfully, the Lord saw fit to use them to bring several to Christ for salvation.
The Brazilian school year has begun again and so our traveling team will begin to go into the public schools where they were invited to share the gospel through skits and testimonies. Our newest volunteers haven’t had that opportunity yet, and they are excited about it. It is one thing to mingle in a crowd sharing the gospel one-on-one, but quite another to stand before groups of 300-500 people performing a skit or sharing your personal testimony. Please pray for all 15 of our traveling team members.
Charlene and I have started back our English as a second language classes. Between the two of us, we have 44 students between the ages of 8-17. All but five of these students come from the community around our church and are not church members. She and I give the English course free of charge so that we may have the opportunity to get to know them and their families and to share the gospel with them. We have been doing this for a couple of years, now, and we have people in our church who came as a result of this means of outreach. We are looking forward to being used to reach those that the Lord has sent to us this year as well.
Thank you for your faithful prayers and support so that we might continue to share God’s love in our corner of His field of service.
In Christ’s love,
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Bobby and Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279
Sobrado 1, Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR. Brasil
Phone: 55-41-99899-2333
bobbymichael_1[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
Read more
