Visiting Church Plants + 8 Saved at Christmas Musical
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.
January 23, 2025
Dear Brethren,
Well it’s about time! That slacker missionary of yours hasn’t reported to you since some time last
year. Here is a little bit of what has happened though, even if not in much detail.
In November, Bev and I went to Rio Branco (the state capital) to hold a meeting with our church there. The building was packed and folks were standing for every service. It had been quite a while
since we last visited them. Frankly, we were very concerned about their well-being. They have
turned the corner though and are growing again. They are still VERY slow at missions, but on
Sunday morning they got an ear full. Pray that they will get back on track. Great visit.
In December, I held a meeting with Faith Baptist Church. Also an incredible reception. They asked
me to refresh them on Baptist heritage and doctrine. Did I have fun, or what? It has now been over
a month and the buzz is still happening all over town. Pray for Pastor Carlinhos. His wife is in very
poor health. Also, we had a long talk a few months ago about his future and the future of the
church. He has not prepared anyone to take over. He is ready to retire, but hasn’t done his
“homework”. The church is in good shape, but has suffered a number of splits in the past few
years. The church has several problematic members. Put them on your prayer list.
I also held a meeting for our chapel at Cruzeirinho. They are doing well and we had good crowds
and results from that meeting.
Thanksgiving was a huge success. We have had our Thanksgiving celebration in our small groups
for several years now. The last one that we held with the church all together on the third floor of
our annex we had 930 present. Since then, we had to go to smaller meetings in homes. Although
not all of our groups reported back, we still have well over one thousand members participating.
The group that Bev and I are part of had 14 couples.
You didn’t notice, but I had to stop to talk to the pastor of our church in the city of Thaumaturgo.
He wants me for a meeting in July. Talk about a missionary machine: First Baptist Church of
Thamauturgo is just that. We organized that church in 2008. They have started new works all
around and send out missionaries in a steady stream. Now back to the report.
Here at home we have had 2 more baptism services. I Baptized 31 in November and Pastor
Benjamim baptized 23 in December. We continue to have a constant flow of people being saved,
baptized and new members coming from other places. Also, newborns are being introduced to our
family almost weekly.
Our missionaries have been very active. We have been very busy on the Boa Fé River. Pastor Ezi
baptized several for our congregations at Gama and Generoso. We have 2 teams working to
share the gospel with every person along the river. One team is working from Gama downstream
to the where it flows into the Juruá river. The other team is working upstream from Gama to the
last house near the mountains in the far west of Brazil.
The Christmas Musical was just wonderful. My daughter Crissy, who writes the script and directs
the whole production, went way beyond the call of duty again. The theme was “Christmas: As told
by Jesus”. She even included the ascension of Jesus and the second coming. We had well over
1000 present every night, but one. At least 8 people were saved. I will include a picture of the cast,
217 people. This doesn’t include all the folks who work as ushers, parking lot, etc. Over 350 church
members participate directly. If you look closely at the lower left hand corner you might see the old
guy who preached 4 of the 6 nights.
Let me add a couple of things before I close. First, my health has been much better for the past
several months. I had surgery in the US in July to remove 2 squamous cell cancers from my head.
Two months ago, I had a non-malignant removed from my right arm. I finally found a cancer specialist in Rio Branco in November and he is a Baptist and ready to follow my case.
Then a word of thanks to those who have given toward the new canoe. Some have designated
funds and others gave to be used as needed. This has made it possible to purchase the motor and
the aluminum for the boat. We start the build next week! Thank you so much.
This report is way too long, but it had been so long since I wrote. I have been working long hours
and have not been in my office much at all for months, but no excuse. I must report more
regularly. My fault. Please forgive me.
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
31 Baptized, including Adriano from Florianópolis
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 30, 2024
Dear Brethren,
Hello from Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil. It has now been exactly 3 weeks since I arrived back home after a month in the States. While in the US I had 2 more malignant tumors removed from my head plus a couple of follow-up procedures on both eyes. I am feeling fine and went straight back to my usual work routine. I get up at about 5:00AM every day and turn in at about 11:00PM. I have been able to complete several catch up/maintenance projects and some new ones, too.
I haven’t made any mission trips yet. The river is at a record low level and only canoes are getting around. I have already installed an electric start kit on my 25HP engine and done all the maintenance before the rainy season comes around. I am also getting the new boat project organized. Andrew has finished the drawings and we are almost ready to start building. The engine and aluminum materials have already arrived. Hoping and praying that some of you can help me with this project.
Things are going very well at church even though we have had some major opposition in the last couple of weeks. Yesterday we had baptism and the Lord’s supper. I baptized 31. More people have been saved each week since my return. One of the ones who made a profession of faith was a young deaf woman. This ministry which finally launched a couple of year ago has grown steadily. We now have at least 5 who have been saved and 12 who attend services.
One of the men who I baptized yesterday has a unique story and was especially gratifying to me.
Adriano is from Florianópolis in southern Brazil. He manages a firm that operates here in Cruzeiro do Sul. Before he was transferred here, he had a spiritual shake up. He was Roman Catholic, but feeling empty and desperate. On a rainy day he “randomly” stopped into a Baptist church there in Florianópolis. A pastor talked to him about Christ and told him that as soon as he got to Cruzeiro do Sul to find a church. He came to our Sunday evening service here at First Baptist. He heard me preach the gospel. That was my last time in the pulpit just before my trip to the States. After the invitation and after the service he came and told me his story. I shared the gospel with him. He trusted in Christ that very night. After my one month absence, I was back in the pulpit on Sunday night, September 22. He made his public profession of faith that night. On Thursday night he attended a one-night course for candidates for baptism. Yesterday I was privileged to baptize him and 30 other new believers.
Some of those who were baptized are from our congregations out of town. Some of them came from our congregation in Guajará, state of Amazonas.
Our camp, Salém, has been busy all summer. There were 2 more retreats just since my return. The youth had one with 4 teens getting saved. Pastor Ezi who takes care of our older members also had a retreat for them. The women’s retreat was the weekend that I was headed back home. They always have about 250 ladies even though the camp only has room for about 150! Friday, I laid out the markings of a new 2,600 square foot metal structure. Saturday was the groundbreaking. We hope to have this building under roof in time for the first big youth camp next February.
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
3 in Brazil Surrender to the Call to Serve as Missionaries
July 2, 2024
Dear Brethren,
It has been a long time since I reported to you. News I have a plenty, but I have not stopped long enough to report it to you.
After the long trip to Peru and the big flood it was time to go back up the Moa River to finish some work on the building at the mountains. I had intended to go in my boat, but the bottom dropped out of the river and I had to get our itinerant missionary, Geverton, to take me in his canoe. It took us 12 hours as opposed to 5 hours, but it was pretty nice to have somebody else at the helm for a change. I loaded up the little Honda generator and a bunch of power tools and in 3 days was able to finish up the windows in the front of the building. We also held services with the congregation there.
Shortly after that we had the huge privilege to have Pastor Mark Pyles and wife Valarie with us for a far too short visit. We were able to let them get a little sample of what the Lord is doing here in Cruzeiro do Sul. Perhaps the neatest thing we were able to do was visit our work at Gama. We all piled into my Jeep and went out there for an afternoon baptism service and the regular service at night. The folks there treated us royally including a great meal. We don’t get many visits out here in the middle of nowhere, so it was such a blessing to have the Pyles with us.
Our church celebrated her 95th anniversary on May 12th. We also had our missions conference at that time. We had all our missionaries come in from the bush for this major event. We treated all the missionaries and their wives to 2 days at a local resort before the conference. Many of them had never had this experience. Of course, we had some good teaching and sharing during those 2 days. Our guest speaker was Pastor Edward Luz who is also president of New Tribes Missions Brazil. The preaching was great and our people responded well. The crowds were really big for all three nights. The last night we had 850 people at First Baptist Church. That was all home folks since it was a Sunday night and people from other churches were at their own churches. We had 3 more people called to serve as missionaries. On Saturday morning we had our annual pastor/missionary meeting for fellowship and training. There were over 200 workers present for that event and lunch.
Many more people have been saved and added to the church over these last 3 months since my last report. We have had 2 baptisms. 38 baptized and then last week another 23. We have also added several by church letter. I have intensified my teaching at the home church. One highlight was our last membership course. We graduated just under 150 new members. That coursed is 8 lessons, which I taught over 2 weeks. Sunday night they received their certificates.
Bev has been with me as I have visited several of our works. I held meetings for our churches at São Pedro and Santa Rosa. These are both “First Baptists” organized out of our church. We have also visited our congregations at Cruzeirinho and Guajará for either morning or night services, multiple times.
I have much more to report, but this report is already too long. I will send more news soon. Just so you know, I work long hours all day every day building “stuff” and almost every night teaching or preaching. It just seems so hard to “stop” to send you the reports that I know you all deserve. 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
Transitions and Plans for the Future
October 26, 2023
Dear Brethren,
The temperature has dropped! Could it be because we left Cruzeiro do Sul, where we were seeing 100’s on the thermometer, and landed in chilly Lexington, Kentucky? Bev and I left home on the fourteenth of this month. We will be here for around 6 weeks. Between return doctor visits and eye surgeries, I will be in and out of clinics at least 10 times. So far, I have gotten through 4 of these. Help us in prayer as you remember.
Attendance continues to improve at First Baptist Church of Cruzeiro do Sul. We just had 2 weeks in a row with over 600 in every Sunday service. We continue to see folks saved and baptized. We also have added several more by letter. Also, there is a steady stream of people who come from other denominations and get their first teaching and preparation for baptism.
Our church purpose statement is this little 3 letter word: AME. First it is the imperative of the verb “to love”. Also, it is an acronym for “Adorar” (worship), Ministrar (serve) and Evangelizar (evangelize). Many of the ministries in our church have incorporated this into their titles. The youth call themselves “AME Jovens”. The pre-teens adopted, “AME Teens”. Just last Saturday this latter group had a special night to preach the gospel to their friends. There were 31 saved! Miller, the leader of this ministry, is a full-time policeman at the state prison. Maybe he just doesn’t want these kids to end up there.
We have had a few changes of pastors in some of our churches. Earlier this year Pastor Eliel, who had been at First Baptist of Japiim (city of Mâncio Lima) took over the pastorate at Ipixuna, state of Amazonas. This is on our river, downstream from us about a days trip. They had been without a pastor for some time. Frist Baptist of Japiim then just recently called Carlos August after being without a pastor for 8 months. Carlos turned over his pulpit at Gethsemane Baptist, to his father and father-in-law. He had been pastor there from the time of the organization until last month. That church is in Iracema, just a few miles down the road. We had a good long talk about all this just before my trip to the States. It looks to be a good situation for all 3 churches. The 2 churches that had been without pastors were in poor shape even before the pastors left. It is good to see how well He takes care of His churches.
Speaking of that…Three Sundays ago I communicated our 5-year plan to First Baptist Church on a Sunday morning. After teaching a lesson on what the Bible teaches about how God plans and human planning, I let the church know that she needs to get ready for the time when I will need to step aside, or down or something like that. My goal was to let the church know that all of our programs and the mission work is already in good hands and flowing. My part in the coming days is to make sure that we finish all the building we need to do at the downtown campus and get a pilot program in place for the move to the new, bigger and better property that we purchased a few years ago. By God’s grace we hope to see that all happen by the church’s 100th birthday on May 12, 2029. If Christ returns before that, great. If He takes me home before that, no problem. Get ready and be ready. He who knows all things knows exactly what He has planned and will do. 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
New Boat for Itinerant Missionary
August 15, 2023
Dear Brethren,
Hello from perfect weather Cruzeiro do Sul. We just had a cold front come through. There were 3 days of rain and temperatures in the low 70’s. We had just come off a 30-day drought. Now the grass is green again and clear blue skies. So good to be home. Speaking of being home: Bev and I have been back for exactly one month.
The church has been taking advantage of my return and put me to work big time. I have been preaching or teaching at least 3 times a week. Sometimes more. Besides these messages in our regular services, I have also been in the studio recording videos and have visited one of our chapels, too. This month they asked me to prepare a series of lessons about some of the “One to another” texts. I singled out 8 in the book of Romans. Sunday morning, I taught about having the “same mind” from Romans 12:16. Each lesson is supposed to be 1 hour. Mine took an hour and a half. When I closed, they broke into applause. My hope is that they enjoyed the lesson. Of course, there is always the possibility that they were just glad I shut up!
Bev and I visited Cruzeirinho last Sunday night to help them celebrate the Brazilian Father’s Day. Although it was raining, they had a really good crowd, and one lady came back into fellowship after being away for 3 years.
This is church camp season. The preteens went to Camp Salém (our own 400 acre camp) three weekends ago. They had 55 kids. The next week was the men’s retreat. They had over 170. This past weekend was the youth group. Don’t know exactly how many went. I was up there yesterday, and I am sure they had well over 100.
The church bought a brand new aluminum boat and 23HP motor for our itinerant missionary Geverton. The boat and motor were unveiled in the church parking lot 2 Sundays ago. The boat will carry 12 people. He has been taking care of all the congregations and mission points between here and Porto Walter. His last trip covered Valparaiso, Nova Cintra, Valquiria, Profeta and Luzeiro.
Since my last letter our evangelists have been back to Gama and Ramal 7, plus Generoso on the Boa Fé River.
Besides all the meetings and work at church, I have been trying to squeeze in as much repair work as possible. It is unreal how many things broke down while I was away for 6 months. It seems like every day I find something else that needs to be fixed. I have started up some new building projects, too. Nothing major yet, but things are starting to get back into a rhythm.
My health has improved. I have lost 13lbs so far and am getting my exercise pretty regularly. The medical bills are still trickling in, but nothing big of late. Thanks to all who have prayed and given. Thanks for all 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
On the Way to a Tribe in Cruzeiro do Sul
July 21, 2023
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The year is passing so fast that it is hard to believe July is gone. We pray and hope that all are well and blessed. We are doing well and blessed by God through each of your prayers and support. We have had the privilege of having some friends from Kentucky visiting us. It’s been wonderful. One of the ladies, Jennifer, used to work with us at Alpha and Omega in Garça. We have visited different places and shown where we have ministries.
Also, me and my son Joshua, mostly known as “Zinho”, are on our way to a tribe in Cruzeiro do Sul. We will be walking in the forest for 43 kilometers (26.7 miles). The chief of the tribe is a Baptist pastor. His son is from Mike Creiglow’s church.
Now that is raining less, we will be able to work more on the camp buildings and also work on the remodeling of the church in the village of Cacau Pereira. We hope and pray we can get a lot done and finished so we can use both places.
We had lots of problems with our cars but looks like the problems are getting solved. Praise the Lord. Living out where we live is difficult without a car. Also, we take several people to church. Pray that the cars will continue working so we can use them in the ministry.
Thanks to each one of you that are part of the ministry through prayers and support.
God bless you!
Love in Christ,
Odali & Kathy
Contact Info:
Odali & Kathy Barros
Iranduba, Amazonas
Brasil, SA
odali_kathy@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
Remembering Missionaries of BFM
May 18, 2022
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Thanks to our Lord for precious moments in our lives. This month is a special month as we remember the missionaries of BFM who have served the Lord for many years.
Kathy and I had planned a trip to my home state, Cruzeiro do Sul, for over a year. With all the pandemic problems we had to change it. But finally, this month we were able to make the trip. The day we arrived we got a message that Brother John Hatcher had gone to be with the Lord.
Many places we have been we have met people that were led to the Lord by Bro. John Hatcher and also Bro. Bobby Creiglow. What a special moment! These men of God were used to touch many lives and also left an example of serving through good times or hard times.
May God bless each person and the churches that have given to this mission and for uplifting all of us in prayer.
Our works in our ministry are doing well. While we are traveling, we have left those from our church that are doing leadership training caring for the work. Pray that this will encourage our members to want to do more.
We had a special evening with Mike and Beverly Creiglow. My Christian life and ministry started with them. I’m thankful for their influence in my life. May God continue to bless them and their ministry.
Thank God for each of you supporters of BFM. God bless each of you.
Odali preaching at his nephew’s church in Rio Branco 
Service at the Creiglows’ Church 
Service at the Creiglows’ Church 
Odali & Kathy Barros with Mike & Beverly Creiglow
Love in Christ,
Odali and Kathy
Contact Info:
Odali & Kathy Barros
Iranduba, Amazonas
Brasil, SA
odali_kathy@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
A Rollercoaster to Start the Year
February 8, 2022
Dear Brethren,
What a roller coaster. We have had joy and sadness. We have had health and sickness. There has been frenetic activity and standstills. Numbers have been up and down.
In December we had a baptism service with over 40 new members added to the church. We had a couple of services with over 1000 people present. The average over all services was in the six hundreds.
Then came January. Then came the common cold, the flu, a new variant of Covid, more dengue fever and plenty of malaria. All this illness got so bad that last Wednesday night we had to cancel services. All of the 50+ musicians, 20+ praise group singers and all 7 pastors were sick. There was a grand total of 3 people that showed up. Fortunately, we have not had any deaths.
December 2021 
January 2022
Even with all the wave of disease we still had pretty good crowds during January. There were from 2 to 8 saved every week. One of the really wonderful things about those who have been saved is that most of them are between 8 and 10 years of age.
On one Sunday night I really messed up my scheduling. I accepted an invite to be with one of our chapels, but hadn’t noticed that I was also scheduled to preach at First Baptist. Oops! So I sent one of the other pastors over to Cruzeirinho in my place and begged forgiveness of the chapel folks. God wanted me in my pulpit that night. The core of my sermon was about ways that adult Christians can really mess up a clear presentation of the gospel and how adults have a hard time grasping the simple truth of the gospel. My closing illustration was the Elon Musk interview with the Babylon Bee and his purported “profession of faith”. If you haven’t watched it, stop right now and go look it up. That night ALL 5 of the professions of faith were children. There was such joy and also many tears were shed. Even though our human planning got all twisted up by me, God had His plan working as smoothly as ever. It was one of the best services I have ever been in.
The city has put us in lockdown again, complete with mask mandates, mandates to show proof of vaccination, social distancing and all that stuff. No public gathering is to have more than 300 people. We are not following any of that. It is interesting that our last service had 297 present, even though we did nothing different to keep people away or bring them in. Our people love to be in church. We are back to livestreaming all services, because so many just can’t come.
The Creiglow gang has been sick, too. Some have tested positive for Covid, others for the flu. Bev is still quarantined. Bev and I don’t know what we had and haven’t gone to the trouble to get tested. We ruined enough swabs during our travels to the States and have had our fill of that stuff. I am back in the pulpit full time. My cough is completely gone while I am preaching. When not in the pulpit I am hacking away. We are all on the mend though.
Well this has been one strange report, but I hope you were edified at least a little.
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
