Plenty to Celebrate
December 13, 2022
Dear Brethren,
It has been a while since I have reported to you. My bad. Over the past three months it seems that I have been ill more than well. In and out of the doctors’ offices regularly. Even had some pretty serious surgery. Not an excuse. Not a complaint. Just letting you know that my motivation is pretty low right now. There is plenty to celebrate though, so here goes.
We have a young man in our church who owns an air taxi company (2 planes. His dad started the company). Ismael flies us on some of our mission trips to more remote locations. We pay just the gas. He took me and 3 of my guys to visit our missions at Santa Rosa do Purús and Jordão. These are the two most remote and isolated cities of the 22 official municipalities (counties) of the State of Acre. We have sent already sent missionaries to all of the towns that had no Baptist church.
We sent Lucas and Diana to Santa Rosa do Purús 3 years ago, during the pandemic. They have won some souls already and are meeting on a porch along one side of the house that we bought them. We have asked Lucas to start looking for property for us to put up our first building. They are also helping the small group of Kaxinauá Indian believers that we had contacted before we actually sent our missionaries there.
Ismael, his plane, my mission team plus Missionary Lucas and his daughter Ester at the airport in Santa Rosa do Purús, Acre 
Lucas, Diana and Ester (Santa Rosa)
Idevaldo and Queila have been at Jordão for 6 or 7 years now. They just finished their brand new building. All services had between 60 and 70 people. There were 4 professions of faith. On Sunday morning I baptized 7 people in the very shallow waters of the Tarauacá River.
Baptism 
Missionary Idevaldo and family (Jordão) 
New building at Jordão
Our trip covered about 1200 miles. This took just a few hours of travel time. I can reach both towns by trailering my boat then going up two different rivers. This would take a combined 68 hours just of travel time. Our work has expanded so far that the plane is a life saver.
At the same time that I was baptizing at Jordão, our home church also added 15 more members by baptism.
In mid-November I held a three day meeting for our church at Assis Brazil. It was their 60th anniversary celebration. Dad organized this church on November 15, 1962. Originally the church was located beside the lake at Humaitá do Moa. Later they moved to terra firma inland at Assis Brasil. They are in a beautiful and big new building. They have a vibrant mission work, too. Five children were saved on Sunday night. I waited until the last night of the meeting to reveal that I was the musician who played my accordion for the organization service 60 years ago. If I had told them that prior to the meeting they would have tried to convince me to play again now. Fortunately, none of us were subjected to that torture! The meeting ended well.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
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.
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Church Planting in Multiple “Municipíos”
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.
May 16, 2017
Dear Brethren,
The state of Acre has 22 “counties”. Here they are called municípios (municipalities). We are trying to plant churches in all of them. So far, we have churches in 7 of the “county seats”. The 2 largest cities are the capital, Rio Branco, and Cruzeiro do Sul. These churches have been around for years. The other 5 churches are in smaller cities close to us. Now we are going for the most isolated towns that have no Baptist church. We sent a missionary family to the city of Jordão 2 years ago.
This month we made a visit to Jordão and a survey trip to Santa Rosa do Purús. We had to fly to these cities that are deep in the forest and along the Peruvian border. We chartered the New Tribes Mission plane. It was necessary to make and pay for 2 flights as the pilot had to come from way up north in Roraima to make our flights and others over a short 1 week period. New Tribes Mission has a plane here now and mechanics, but still don’t have a pilot stationed here.
Jordão is on the Tarauacá River. The population is 8000 and 60% of these are from the Jaminaus and Kaxinauwa tribes. Our missionary couple is Idevaldo, Queila and their daughters, Vitória and Ludmilla. They have already bought a house and rented a place to hold services. We had a low of 45 people and a high of over 70 in services. One young couple that they have won to Christ have already been trained to help with the music. The man did not play any kind of instrument. Idevaldo taught him to play bass in 3 months. Idevaldo plays guitar and actually made his own instrument! Very talented. Queila has started a kid’s club that has an average of 25 children attending. They have already acquired 2 lots for us to put up our first church building. They are also already doing mission work in the villages and along the streams out of town. I am so proud of them. On Sunday morning, I baptized the first 14 members.
Our visit to the town of Santa Rosa do Purús was exciting, too. This is the smallest town in the Acre: 6000 people. 70% of these are Kaxinauwa. It is almost 2 hours by air. For us to get there by land and river we have to go 250 miles east by road then up river from the bridge on the Purús River for another 225 miles. The Purús is another one of the major tributaries of the Amazon River that flows parallel to the Juruá River. It flows into the Amazon a few hundred miles downstream from the mouth of the Juruá River. In other words, we are getting into a completely new river valley.
There is already a small group of the Kaxinauwa who meet and hold services. The tribe is called “Kaxinauá” by most folks. The name means “people of the bat”, as in the animal. They call themselves “Huni Kuim”, which means “The True People”. Many of the tribes around us see themselves as the original people of the earth and superior to all others. Their “building” is really just a hut. There are 6 poles, thatch roof and dirt floor. We had 50+ in the one service we held. The singing and most of the service was in their native language. My message was NOT in Huni Kuim! They all understand Portuguese.
The town has 15 sects and cults, but no Baptist church, so we are going to try to open the work there soon. There are 46 villages along the river between the border and the bridge, so we have our work cut out for us.
I took Zico (our missions coordinator), Ruben (one of our businessmen), and Rondisson (one of our chapel pastors) along on this trip. Please pray for the new missionary that we need and the funds to support him, whoever he may be. So much to do and so few workers and funds.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
Baptism in Jordão
Service with the indigenous folks at Santa Rosa do Purús
Baptism in Jordão
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 [December 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.
December 9, 2015
Dear Brethren,
It has been exactly one month since my last letter, but it has been a short month. We have continued to have good services at First Baptist Church. We have had a few folks saved every week. Last Sunday Pastor Benjamin baptized 8 more. I served the Lord’s Supper. We had one more profession of faith during that service even though we never have an invitation on those days. Just before services a man named Ney came to me to talk. He has attended our church for 20 years, but just got saved Sunday morning and wanted to make his public profession of faith. There were 3 more saved in the evening service.
We finally got all the trusses and purlins on the building at Cruzeirinho. The roofing is going on right now.
Bev and I visited the church at Assis, Brasil a couple of weeks ago. They have a big building, but have purchased new property and are building an even bigger building. They continue to partner with us on several mission projects.
Zico is at Jordão right now. He reports that the new work there is going great. They have been averaging 55 people in Sunday services. Although we had made some trips there over the past 3 years the work was just really started this year when we sent Idevaldo and family to that field. Some have been saved already. Zico will be leaving Jordão for Santa Rosa do Purús this week. We don’t think there is any church of any kind there. I will report on his findings next month. Santa Rosa do Purús is one of the 22 cities of the State of Acre that we plan to start a church. First Baptist has sent missionaries to 7 of the 22 cities so far. We still have a long way to go.
We now have a new missionary to send to Foz do Breu on the Peruvian border. Mário and his wife came before the church for approval 3 weeks ago. That field has been without a missionary for 10 months now. During this time one of the local men has been taking care to hold services, teach and even make a few mission trips.
Our television program just celebrated 25 years. I have had a half hour program on a local station every Saturday and Sunday morning. I don’t know if anyone has been saved. The only real feedback is from folks I run into downtown who say they never miss a program. You and I have bought all the equipment, studio setup. The church here pays for the airtime. We will probably only be able to gauge results in eternity. Hopefully we will be able to keep the program on the air for a few more years.
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 [August 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.
August 13, 2014
Dear Brethren,
This month I spent 2 weeks on a motorcycle trip leaving Brazil and visiting Peru, Bolivia and Chile. This was for adventure, but the Kingdom is ever present. One of the things I wanted to do in Chile was buy a new computer at the Free Zone in Iquiqui. Baptist churches are not as prevalent or visible as in Brazil. The Andean culture is ancient and dominant. Very different from what I am used to here in Brazil. Nevertheless, while in Puno (city on the shores of Lake Titicaca) I met a great Baptist named Henry. He was saved at age 20 and is a member of a Baptist church of about 200 members. He teaches a Bible class 3 times a week. He went to Copacabana, Bolivia with us. There are no more American missionaries in Bolivia, or so I was told. The president there hates all Americans. Henry says that many Bolivians are being saved in spite of the persecution by the president who he described as “tonto” or CRAZY! My good friend Sherman Smith was along for this trip and we almost got caught in “no man’s land” for Americans on the border between Bolivia and Peru. It was tense. I won’t be going back to Bolivia any time soon. Anyway we traveled 3500 miles through the Andes. Much of the trip was at 15,000 feet. One mountain pass was 16,000 feet. The winds were violent. We were in temps at or below 0º much of the time. We stayed one night at a little town called Macusani which is almost 16,000 feet. There was no heat in the rooms and no water in the communal bathroom. Most of our guys were fainting, vomiting, dizzy and out of breath. I was fine. Like I said: adventure!
We had a good month here at church. There was another baptism with 26 new members. Last weekend we had 3 days of special services. The main feature was the tenth anniversary of our theatre group. Each night they presented a play which they created around a pirate theme. The message was about the true treasure of salvation in Christ. There were 9 people saved just this weekend and 5 more requests for baptism.
The five pastors of First Baptist Church have been busy working with our chapels and chapel pastors. At the beginning of this year we allowed our chapels to have Sunday evening services. For a short time this put a dent in our attendance at the mother church. Now it looks like we have already grown back the ones who now attend the chapel services. Sunday night we were at capacity again. This past weekend the Catholic church had their biggest festivity of the year, but had no impact on our attendance.
Zico, our missions director, took Idevaldo and wife to visit the town of Jordão on the upper reaches of the Tarauacá River. They are our newest missionary couple and we will be sending them to the field later this year. The church has already approved them and put them on full time salary.
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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Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [July 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.
July 10, 2014
Dear Brethren,
Bev and I went back to Pé da Terra for a few days of training with the church there. We are trying to help them with their financial teaching and management. There were over 50 members present for the 4 lessons I taught during 4 nights.
We had another baptism at First Baptist this month. I baptized another 32 new members. That has been right at the average all this year. Attendance has been a little below average for the month. That is to be expected during the World Cup. The consolation game is coming up on Saturday. Brazil will be playing after being humiliated by Germany in the worst match in World Cup history. All that to say that spirits are generally at a low ebb in Brazil, but we still have a lot of good news about the Good News.
Our annual missions conference was a huge success. We had very big crowds for all meetings. We even had 3 more professions of faith and 2 more requests for baptism, even though no invitation was given. Five more were baptized, too. We had the usual 100+ present for the annual pastors and missionaries’ meeting. Also during the conference we had a special business meeting to approve Idevaldo and family as our newest missionaries and to approve his being put on payroll, full time beginning August 1st. Zico will be taking them to visit the field at Jordão on July 21st. We hope to move them there by October or November.
It was my privilege to participate in the organization of our newest Baptist church. Three of our churches in the western region past Cruzeiro do Sul started a work at Japãozinho. The name of the place is “Little Japan” although there are no Japanese within several thousand miles! The churches at Mourapiranga, Pentecostes and Assis Brasil cooperated to begin the preaching point 16 years ago. The new church adopted the name Igreja Batista Elohim and starts out with 25 charter members. They already have a beautiful new building. Their pastor, who has already been working with them for 12 years is Pedro Mariano. Most importantly they are already participating in mission projects. Authority was granted by First Baptist Church of Assis Brasil.
I visited our chapels at Cruzeirinho and Centrinho. Centrinho has just finished putting up a little wood frame building. Cruzeirinho has moved their wooden building to the back of the lot and is getting ready to build a nice big brick building on the front of the lot. All of our chapels are growing at a steady pace. We now have 7 chapels placed strategically around town. Last year we had only 4. Our youngest is Cruzeirão and is meeting on a rented lot, but we are looking for property. One more is to open soon out near our house on the north side of town. We have property and 2 workers being prepared right now.
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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