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.

February 12, 2020

Dear Brethren,

Grace and peace from us in fairly peaceful Cruzeiro do Sul. It looks like the rainy season is finally going to get under way. Most of the rain is falling in southern Brasil though and we are still waiting. I had to cancel a river trip in January because the bottom dropped out of the river. I was able to send our bricklayer by canoe to the last congregation at the mountains on the Moa River to continue the work on their new building. In fact, it worked out that because the roads dried up, he was also able to spend a few days at Gama, Amazonas (opposite direction by almost a hundred miles) to finish the parsonage for missionary Anísio.

Bev and I made a mission trip to the state capital Rio Branco. Let me tell you what that is all about. Almost 30 years ago we started a church in Rio Branco. Only after much prayer and reluctance on my part that I agreed to start a new church there. At the time there was one rather solid Brazilian convention church and a sprinkling of Regular Baptist churches. Most of them were dying. At the same time, we had dozens of folks who had been saved here in Cruzeiro and had moved to Rio Branco and were begging for a church with solid doctrine and evangelistic spirit. Three times a group of them bought their own tickets and came to Cruzeiro do Sul to beg me to start a church. My reluctance was because ethically I did not want to infringe on a region that already had churches. Nevertheless, I finally acquiesced. We had a good pastor from Brother John Hatcher’s work in Manaus who was in Rio Branco at the time, but was poised to return to Manaus. We started meeting in a school in a neighborhood that had no church of any kind. I visited them once a month. We eventually found property and I helped them build their first building. They grew quickly and soon we organized the church.

Over the years the convention church finally became charismatic. It is now the largest “evangelical” church in the state. They dragged 25 of the 27 convention churches in the states into the prosperity gospel movement. Many of the Regular Baptist churches died. The 2 or 3 that survived are just hanging on. They are extremely legalistic and reaching no one. Our church, Igreja Batista Memorial, grew steadily. They got up over 200 members. They built a bigger building and were doing great, then the pastor left. He put in his place a guy who is a hypercalvinist (without consulting our church). The new guy is a good teacher, but very arrogant. Recently he has been calling himself Rabbi Lopes! The church quit preaching the gospel a few years ago. We have reached out to them in several ways, but there is no longer any interest in reaching the lost. The church is dying. They now have 50 or fewer people in their Sunday services. I know this because one of our members who has stayed faithful puts videos on Facebook of the Sunday services. I have seen 3 of these videos and can count the number of folks present.

For about 3 years now I have been struggling in prayer about what to do. Recently unchurched people from Rio Branco have been begging me to start another church. Bev and I went to meet informally with a few of these folks a couple of weeks ago. Looks like we are going to have to bite the bullet and do what has to be done.

First Baptist Church of Cruzeiro do Sul continues to take the gospel to the most remote places. During 2019 we sent out two more missionary families. We will continue to do this until we have planted churches in all the cities of our state, neighboring states and countries. BUT, Rio Branco has half the population of our state. There are almost 500,000 people concentrated in one spot and the gospel has been abandoned by the local churches.

Thanks for staying with me through this long read. I need you to pray with us about this challenge. Frankly I don’t know exactly how to proceed, but we cannot wait any longer. So please help me with your prayers.

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