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 20, 2014

Dear Brethren,

Hello from under water Cruzeiro do Sul. We have had more rain in November than I can ever remember. The Tarauacá River is already out of its banks with hundreds of people driven from their homes. Even the Juruá River, which is much bigger, is almost to the top of the bank.

Speaking of under water and banks, let’s use the same words for different things. Brazil’s banks are making record amounts of money, but Brazil is “under water”. We are officially in a recession. Cruzeiro do Sul is really in trouble. Our inflation is always 3 times higher than the rest of the country. Last month our church was over $4,000.00 in the red in a budget of $20,000.00. We have 9 missionary families to support besides a few other staff members. Since my return to Brazil after a month’s vacation in the US, we have been able to recover much of the loss. We have 2 new missionaries to send though. I know many of you are going through much the same thing, so that will help you as you pray for us.

We are also having some tough times in our struggles with sin. The wife of one of our chapel pastors fell into adultery and she has not told him yet. One of our single missionaries has fallen into fornication with a lost friend who is now pregnant. We are dealing with other similar cases inside the home church. This has hit us as a wave. I could go on, but you get the picture.

Our missionary at Foz do Breu has decided to resign and become the associate pastor at Thaumaturgo. Pray for a replacement. This is a strategic, very important field right on the border with Peru. One of our Brazilian missionaries, José Maia, who we sent to Peru had his work visa cancelled and is in a huge battle to try to get a permanent visa.

Now, after all the gloom and doom, let me finish with some good news. This month I visited Cruzeirinho. They are growing steadily. They have moved their old wooden building up on the hillside and are building a new brick one. They already have the foundations, slab and some of the walls up. I started this building just before vacation. Porto Walter has finished their foundations and they are gearing up to pour the slab. I started this building program in late August. The work there is also growing. They have been caring for one of our congregations further up river at Vitória. They had been meeting in the school. They just put up a big wooden building and it is already under roof. I was supposed to raise the money for the roofing, but they did it on their own!

Last week we held a Family Workshop and couple’s retreat. At one stretch during those 5 days we had 48 hours of nonstop torrential rain. We still had good turnout. Besides the camp team, there were 42 couples at Salém (our camp).

Then a couple of weeks ago I presented and dedicated my youngest grandson at church. Devin is Andrew and Eline’s fourth child. He is 3 months old today.

Then to cap off the good news I got a call a few days ago from a brother in Rio Branco who decided to donate a brand new state of the art sound system to the church. He bought it at Brazil’s biggest technology fair in São Paulo. It is the most modern system in the world. He put the pile of boxes on a truck and sent a technician by plane to help us do the install. The tech, a half dozen of my guys and I took all day Friday and Saturday to tear out all of the old system and do a complete install from the ground up. I was skeptical about all they said it would do, but it works as billed!

Thanks for all of your prayers and support. Please take some extra time to pray for me as I deal with the huge problems and challenges we are facing. 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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