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