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.

June 8, 2016

Dear Brethren,

We moved up our annual missions conference this year to coincide with the church’s birthday. The church was founded by Joseph Brandon on May 12, 1929 with 13 members. We are now 87, still young and growing. We started the activities off with a banquet for all of our missionaries, chapel pastors, pastors and the wives. Then we had four days of classes and services. The first night was about the church, her history and where we are planning to go. We closed out with a special night dedicated to our missionaries and their service. The building was full every night, but on Sunday night many people were turned away as there just wasn’t any way to get even up to the doors. The church had the children take up a special offering for our missionaries. They carried several fish nets around as the members used “fish” envelopes to put in their gifts. We were able to give each of our 10 missionaries a couple hundred dollars extra before they returned to their fields. This was pretty good, given the economic downturn (huge understatement) that we are in right now. On the final night we had one of our men surrender as a missionary. Now we have three to send, but are short of funding, so please pray that things will turn around soon.

A group of children singing about missions during the conference.

A couple of months ago I told you about the twins from the Kaxinauá tribe. Damiana was saved and I baptized her. Her sister Cosma was reading her Bible day and night. Well I just got word that she has been saved! In fact, there is another little side story to go along with this good news. A few weeks ago I was in a little hardware store downtown. It is a long narrow thing, old style where the owner sits at his desk near the door. There is a narrow passage between his desk and a jumble of motors, pumps and chainsaws. There was a family of Indians standing right there talking. I was on the inside waiting to get out. There was what appeared to be mom, dad and kids of different ages jabbering away in their native language. I just stood there smiling and waiting for an opening. The store owner’s wife informed me that they were planning on buying a motor. Then one of the children looked at me, grinned real big and said to mom and dad, “Pastor Miguel”. I shook everybody’s hands, but still didn’t know whom I was talking to. Then dad said in Portuguese, with a very heavy accent, “We are Cosma and Damiana’s family. You baptized our daughter. She is very happy.” We then proceeded to get caught up on all the news from their tribe way up river in Peru. It was a really fun experience to finally meet the rest of the girl’s family. Pray that the rest of them will be saved.

Our daughter Monica and her daughter Isabella came down to visit us. Monica had not been here since 2008 and Isabella, who is just 5, came for her first visit. We had 9 of our 11 grands together for a short 6 days. Talk about a party! All of us had a good time, playing ball, boating, swimming and camping. Melany (one of Andrew’s girls) and Adriel (one of Crissy’s boys) got really attached to Isabella and she to them. When it was time to say goodbye, things got really tense and sad. We miss them a bunch and will have to wait no telling how many years to get together again. Many times folks talk about the sacrifices that missionaries make to be on the field for life. Most of the time people are thinking about material comforts that must be given up. We never give that a second thought. The distance between family members though, is hard to cope with.

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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