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.
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Baptizing New Disciples Along the Moa River
February 12, 2024
Dear Brethren,
The trip to the upper Moa River was great. Seven of us went all the way from the port here in Cruzeiro do Sul to the foothills in one day. Missionary Geverton was our pilot. He is our itinerant missionary since 2020. The church had a 10-meter aluminum canoe made for his ministry. The boat has a top that is the full length of the boat and the benches have cushions. I was able to kick back and just enjoy the trip. We left at 6:00 AM and arrived at 5:00 PM. There was plenty of water in the river and we only got into one rain.
The building was packed for all services. One of the reasons we were there was to celebrate the 27 years since we sent Missionary Rivaldo. Way back in 1967, I started preaching the Gospel all along the Moa River. At that time, I was just an 18 year-old, single, seminary student who had just been called to be a missionary. Still preaching there after all these years, I preached twice and performed a baptism. The river dropped quite a bit while we were there, so I had to go half the width of the river to have enough water to baptize. The schoolteacher was saved and was baptized. Also, one lady and a couple of her children were part of the group. She has 7 children. Her husband is in a federal prison on drug charges. He burns up the “salary” that the government gives each inmate on drugs, so she has to make a living on her own. What a trouper!
One of our guys got sick on the trip. 24 hours after our return, it was my turn. I was sick for a whole week. I was still able to get some work done in spurts, but not very productive for the whole week. We suspect that the hygiene at our missionary’s house is not ideal. He has a very bad outhouse and no well. He drinks out of the local creek. All kinds of livestock are in and out of this creek. We are going to build him a septic system and proper bathroom. We have also selected a location to dig a well and install a pump. Don’t worry, I and the team did not drink the creek water! We took enough bottled water for the 6-day trip.
Our attendance has been recovering at a snail’s pace since COVID. We are now having over 600 both morning and night in both Sunday services. Last Wednesday we had 378. The average for this service has been just over 300 for 2023. We had another couple saved this week and several requests for baptism.
It is Carnival in Brazil. Fortunately, it is slowly dwindling as more Brazilians trust in Christ. Way back in 1977 we started having retreats for the youth to have an option to get away from the madness of Carnival. The youth are up at Camp Salém right now. There are over 130 teens and a team of about 20 adults who take care of them. This is the first of many retreats of the year. We are under pressure to build more cabins. We built 8 more bathrooms last week and installed a new water tower just in time for camp. I will be checking in on them later today.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
“You will see a pole behind me. That pole is what I use to clear the river bottom of fresh water sting rays before the candidates come in. You don’t want to get stung by one of those critters. The pain is indescribable.”
“The pics are from my trip up the Moa River. Have you ever had to stuff your pant legs into your socks and tie plastic bags over your shoes to go to church on a Sunday morning? Not likely. We had plenty of mud from all the rain, so you do what you have to do. The other 2 pics are of the baptism service. So good to be back on the rivers again.“
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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Blessed Christmas Musical & Plans for 2024
January 18, 2024
Dear Brethren,
Sure hope you all had as blessed Christmas as we had. The Christmas Musical lasted 6 nights this time. We had over 1000 people every night. On Christmas night we had over 1500. Over 350 of our members were part of the effort. My daughter Crissy writes the script and produces the whole thing. She has a close crew who works with her, of course. One of the TV networks did a long in-studio interview with her. That kind of thing used to end up in my lap, but not anymore. The transition to others is happening. We had heavy rains right up to the first night. Then the Lord said, “Stop!” The rains resumed the very next day after Christmas. The very best part though was that 20 souls were saved.
We had just under a thousand people at our New Year’s Eve service. Two more people were saved that night.
January is usually a slower month. We let folks rest a little before the flurry of activities of the new year kick in. All this month I am preaching from texts about the second coming of Christ. The messages have stirred Christians and there have been more folks saved, too. Two of our pastors are taking their vacations during January, so I have been more active than usual in and out of the pulpit.
We are also restarting our construction cycle and even starting some new building projects. There is still much to be done on our buildings, inside and out. We are also putting in a deep well at church. There are times that city water can’t keep us supplied. Water and electricity have always been a problem here in Cruzeiro do Sul. We are also doing some building at camp Salém.
Bev and I went to visit our congregation in Guajará, Amazonas last Sunday morning. We had a great time with the small group there. A few weeks ago we had to pull our missionary out. He and his wife were about to kill off what had been built up over the years. He is a 50-year old teenager who can’t handle his finances and his wife walked all over him running the show at the congregation. Not a good formula for success. Pastor Pedro and I (plus wives) sat them down to give them the news. We have brought them back in to try to help them find their way for future ministry. We shall see. Not an easy thing to do, but it is part of working with so many different people. Anyway, the few that are left are ready to dig in and get back to work. Bev and I thoroughly enjoyed our time talking with them and making plans for the coming days. They have a big brand-new building that will seat 300 people. There are only about 30 members left, but it will come back, by God’s grace.
Tomorrow I’m off to the upper Moa River. We leave at 6:00AM and hope to make it all the way to the mountains before dark. Two of our missionaries are going with me as well as one of our pastors. Exciting stuff.
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 Missionary & First Baptism Service of the Year
July 7, 2021
Dear Brethren,
Time flies when you are having fun. It has been a long time since I reported to you. For several months there wasn’t much positive to tell. For most of this year, it has been kinda rough. Things are improving a little though, so here goes.
After the last trip to the Moa the rivers went down quickly. Just as I was to go to the upper Juruá River the bottom dropped out and things opened up for us to start having public services again. For the first six weeks I put in a lot of long hours on the building and sermon/lesson prep. At first, we were having all the services streamed live until folks could get used to coming back to the in house services. Now we stream just the Sunday night service. Attendance has not yet gotten back to normal levels. However, we feel that things are looking pretty good, given the level of fear that so many people suffered. We have services on Wednesday, Sunday AM and Sunday PM. For the 2 months that we have been back there have been at least 300 people in every service.
We had our first baptism service of the year. There were 528 people present and 41 new members were baptized. Pastor Ezi baptized the adults, and I baptized the children. We also observed the Lord’s Supper.
Here is a little side story about this particular baptism. My granddaughter Kayla came to my office to talk to me. She had already requested baptism at church, but wanted to talk to me about her baptism. First she gave me a pretty good lesson on the doctrine of baptism. Not bad for an 8-year-old. Then she got down to talking to me about what she really wanted. She wanted to know if grandpa could “bapticize” her. Now I am not sure that I got the spelling right, but I got the meaning!
She is Crissy’s only girl. Later Andrew’s youngest came with the same request. So that is how I came to baptize (or “bapticize”) the 17 children, Kayla and Devin among them.
Last Saturday we had an activity here at the house. Occasionally we have what we call “Breakfast with the Pastors”. It is an opportunity for people to have some casual time with the 7 pastors. About 80 people showed up at 7:00AM. We spent a great couple of hours together. We had a surprise announcement during the gathering. One of our evangelists, who works at our chapel at Cruzeirinho, announced that he was going into full time mission work. His name is Jeverton. The pastor of the chapel and he had met with me 3 other times over the past few weeks to talk about the fields that are ready and waiting. He is going to be our itinerant missionary on the Juruá River from Ipixuna to the border. He will be checking in on all of our congregations and preaching the gospel house to house. Next, we need those other 2 missionaries, for those 2 other fields!
There have been one or more saved on all weekends since we started services again. Also, our youth (15-24) and Youth+ (25 and older) have started back. The nursery is also back. We are still not able to have our children’s programs, but hope to begin soon. The lockdown here has been severe, to say the least, but we are getting things back as soon as possible, trying not to have the authorities breathing down our necks. We still have whistle blowers reporting us all the time. We are doing our best at trying to be bold and wise at the same time.
Well, that is pretty much what is going on. Busy, tired and happy. Hope you are, too.
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
First Mission Trip of 2021
January 27, 2021
Dear Brethren,
Things are far from normal. Yet the rainy season has started and the rivers are coming up. We are enjoying pretty good health. The church continues to meet, albeit with much lower than normal attendance. People have been saved in almost every service. Fear and panic is still widespread. We have lost many friends and brothers. Many more are still coming down with the virus. Vaccinations have started here in Brazil. So it is a mixed bag.
Pastor Ezi and I went on our first mission trip last week. We went up the Moa River to visit 2 of our works. We were in the open boat with smaller outboard. I was not sure how I would do manually starting and running the engine as my strength is still not where I was. On top of that we got rained on big time going and coming. Rain always presents a big challenge and even bigger on a small, winding river. All went very well though. God continues to give me strength and He is a great pilot.
Pastor Ezi and me with new motor on the river 
The new building 
Sunday morning service in the new building 
Baptism
We dedicated the new building at Serra do Moa (Mountains on the Moa River). We held 4 services with them. Missionary Rivaldo is doing great. He worked there when we first started the congregation. Later he took care of 2 other fields. Now he is back where he started his ministry 24 years ago. This is he fourth building that we have put up. The first three were tiny wood frame structures that didn’t last that long. This time they put in a concrete foundation and partial brick walls. The rest is wood, but this one should last much longer. The last building is still in good shape and is used for Sunday School.
There were over 200 people present. Most of these were from 5 of our other congregations downriver. There 4 professions of faith. I baptized 8 on Sunday morning. This was squeezed in between rainstorms. The rains hardly ever stopped. In fact, we were scheduled to be with our mission at República (Nukini Indian reservation), but the missionary and his family were not able to return because of the rain. We plan to visit them in a few more days.
One thing that was sad was seeing the reach of the panic over the virus reach all the way up river. They were handing out masks and spraying gel at the door of the new church building. Now, I am not against masks at the right place and time, but this was very disheartening to see. Many of them had their masks on upside down! The reach of tyranny seems to have no limit.
The new 25HP 4 stroke outboard worked very well. Thanks to all who have helped me purchase and maintain my boats and motors.
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
A Unique Story of the Church in Barão; New Engines Needed for Boat Missions
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.
November 15, 2019
Dear Brethren,
Let me begin with a prayer request this time: Cruzeiro do Sul and indeed Brazil is under the worse epidemic of dengue fever ever – please pray. A young woman from our church just died of hemorrhagic dengue and we have many in the hospital or recovering at home right now. In fact, I have been sick for the past couple of weeks and the doctor initially thought that I had dengue. Turns out that I had an infection and am taking antibiotics. Yesterday I finally started to feel a little bit better. The epidemic is so severe that I even got a letter from the U.S. Embassy telling us what precautions to take, etc.!
Since my return from the States a few months ago I had noticed that our attendance had been flat at First Baptist Church. I have been getting all 7 of the pastors together once or twice a week to discuss what is wrong. We have taken care of some disciplinary problems. I have been doing some much-needed teaching in several areas of concern. The attendance has been edging up again and we have had several more saved. In fact, we had our best Wednesday crowd of the year this week. Pastor Ezi brought a lesson about resolving conflicts between members. He had already called on prayer to close the service, when a man came forward and made a profession of faith! We held a baptism and Lord’s supper service earlier this month. We had a big crowd and added 27 new members.
Bev and I were with the Getsêmani congregation at Colônia São Francisco for a weekend meeting. Really big crowds and great services.
Bev also went with me to visit our church at Barão. This is one of our oldest churches. Its story is unique. The original founder of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mâncio Lima, a rubber baron, went up the Moa River, enslaved the Puyanawa Indians, and took over their lands. For years we had a church there, but he or his descendants would not allow the construction of a church building. When I was a boy they still met in the preacher’s home. Later the federal government gave the land back to the tribe. Now they have a nice big brick building. The reservation is now accessible by road. The pastor is Brother Amós, who is the chief’s son. Even though the church is in what is officially an Indian reservation, you really wouldn’t notice a whole lot of difference from any of our other towns. Bev and I visited them for a couple’s meeting on a Saturday night. It rained all afternoon and we did a lot of slipping and sliding in my jeep to get there. There were well over a hundred present.
Last week I was scheduled to be with Igreja Batista da Bíblia at Igarapé Pentecostes, but had to cancel because of my illness. They just lost their pastor, so pray for them.
South America is boiling with all kinds of political upheavals. Please pray for Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Bolívia. Brazil has also had some setbacks and needs your prayer, too.
I am in the process of renewing my outboard motors. My 60HP and 25HP are both over 10 years old. Calvary Baptist Church of Hurricane, West Virginia has provided the new 60HP. It has been ordered and is on the road somewhere between São Paulo and Cruzeiro do Sul. It has taken well over a month to get this thing rolling. The trucking company says the engine won’t be delivered until December 6. I have saved back a little money toward the new 25HP motor. It will cost about $5,000.00 with shipping cost included. My first 2 trips with this new engine are to take place in January 2020. One of these trips is to the Purús River. We just sent a new missionary couple there and I need to survey the river from the bridge crossing to Santa Rosa. I will trailer my boat and motor east for 280 miles to the bridge then make my way almost 300 miles up the Purús stopping at some 45 villages just to gather data. That data will be shared with our missionary Lucas. He will then begin the actual mission work along the river. Would you help me buy the new 25HP outboard? These may well be the last engines we ever have to buy for Mike Creiglow. I am now 71 years old. If these 2 engines last 10 more years (like the old ones did) then I would be 81 and it might just be time to slow down and let others take over. We will see what the Lord wants to happen.
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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A Visit to the Works on the Moa River
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.
March 15, 2017
Dear Brethren,
A few weeks ago Zico (our missions director) and I went to visit our works on the Moa River. The rainy season has been, well, REALLY rainy. The river broke all high-water records since they started keeping records. We put our boat in at Mâncio Lima to start out on the Japiim River. They just put in a really nice ramp there. All of this saves about 2 hours travel time. We had absolutely perfect weather for the whole trip. We didn’t get rained on at all. Yet it was overcast, so we did not get burned. The temps even dropped down into the low 80’s. No insects, no mud and plenty of wild game to eat. Thank the Lord for putting me in paradise. We had above average crowds at all the services. Since I had not visited the Nukini tribe and the folks at the mountains for several months, I decided to do more teaching than usual. Our missionary, Aldenísio, continues to do evangelism in the villages between the congregations.
The congregation near the mountains on the Moa River on a Sunday morning.
Our first youth camp of the year happened from February 24 through March 1. We were able to build one more cabin for the guys. Recently we have been having more guys than gals. We can now handle about 120 people at Camp Salém. There were 4 teens saved and a number of other important decisions were made, 20 in all. My son Andrew and his team take care of this ministry.
The kids getting ready to sing during the service.
We just had our first baptism and Lord’s Supper service at church. 30 more were added by baptism. We have also had several new members join by letter. The other side of that coin though is the fact that we constantly lose members who move away. One of our best group leaders moved to the state of Goiás. One of our keyboard musicians passed his engineering entrance exam at the federal university in Rio Branco. One of our guitar players moved to France! These and many others are saved and trained here at First Baptist Church….then off they go to serve in other cities, states or even other countries. It is sad, but we are glad to prepare folks to serve in other fields.
Since the modifications on the building, which increased our seating capacity, we have been filling those extra seats almost every week. We have continued to see people saved every week this new year. Last week 8 were saved and this week 3 more.
HELP! My satellite phone subscription renewal hit my credit card this year and it more than doubled! Last year was only a little more than $500.00. Not bad to have this essential tool for my mission trips deep into the jungle. This year they charged me $1,170.00!!! That hurt. Help me if you can.
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 2016]
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 11, 2016
Dear Brethren,
Let me begin with the biggest news and work through as much as possible. I probably will not be able to get to everything, but here goes my best shot.
First Baptist Church authorized the organization of our new church at Vila São Pedro. This work was started a few years back and has now reached a level that we felt comfortable enough to make the move toward independence. They have a nice big brick building. They have 2 local pastors that we trained and are already supported by the new church. Then there is one of the most important items that qualify them to be a local independent church. They have already started a couple of preaching points on their own. The new church was organized with 40 charter members.
The new church at São Pedro the night of the organization.
A couple of weeks back I spent 3 days with First Baptist Church at Mâncio Lima. This is the second oldest church in the state. They are just a year younger than First Baptist Church of Cruzeiro do Sul. We will be 87 years old in May. They just turned 86. We spent the 3 days teaching about the Function, Mission and Vision of the church. Over the years they have become inactive in missions. Now they have become interested again and I am going to do all I can to help them get involved once more. Their pastor is brother Eliel, a local guy who went to seminary, pastored a couple of other churches before returning home to Mâncio Lima. He is a soft spoken, low key kind of guy, but is excited about getting back to basics. The largest crowds were on Saturday and Sunday with over 200 present.
The baptism at Serra do Moa (mountains along the Moa River).
Zico and I have been back to visit the works on the Moa River. Our main man there is Aldenísio. He is from the Nukini tribe. A couple of years back he was still single and that became a problem. He got married some time back to a girl from the Poyanaua tribe at Barão. He has spent a lot of time at Barão while dating and was away too much from his field of service. We have had to take up some of the slack. He still has to build a house at his home reservation. The name of that place is República and we have a small congregation there. Zico made a visit in February. He and I went up the Moa in March. I took my smallest boat with 20HP motor to save gasoline. That, however, left us exposed to hot sun and rain for many hours. The Lord blessed though and we had a good trip with little discomfort from the elements. The visit with the congregation at the Moa Mountains was great. Although they have not had a preacher for several months they have been very faithful. We had over 60 people on Sunday morning. One of the older couples of the village just got officially and legally married. They were thrilled to finally be baptized after all these years.
On the same Sunday morning that I was baptizing at Serra do Moa three of our other pastors were doing the same. Pastor Benjamim went to visit our mission at Ramal dos Caracas and baptized several there. In the mean time, Pastors Ezi and Dauro baptized 35 more into First Baptist Church at home. Pretty good weekend, wouldn’t you say?
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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