Visiting Church Plants + 8 Saved at Christmas Musical
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.
January 23, 2025
Dear Brethren,
Well it’s about time! That slacker missionary of yours hasn’t reported to you since some time last
year. Here is a little bit of what has happened though, even if not in much detail.
In November, Bev and I went to Rio Branco (the state capital) to hold a meeting with our church there. The building was packed and folks were standing for every service. It had been quite a while
since we last visited them. Frankly, we were very concerned about their well-being. They have
turned the corner though and are growing again. They are still VERY slow at missions, but on
Sunday morning they got an ear full. Pray that they will get back on track. Great visit.
In December, I held a meeting with Faith Baptist Church. Also an incredible reception. They asked
me to refresh them on Baptist heritage and doctrine. Did I have fun, or what? It has now been over
a month and the buzz is still happening all over town. Pray for Pastor Carlinhos. His wife is in very
poor health. Also, we had a long talk a few months ago about his future and the future of the
church. He has not prepared anyone to take over. He is ready to retire, but hasn’t done his
“homework”. The church is in good shape, but has suffered a number of splits in the past few
years. The church has several problematic members. Put them on your prayer list.
I also held a meeting for our chapel at Cruzeirinho. They are doing well and we had good crowds
and results from that meeting.
Thanksgiving was a huge success. We have had our Thanksgiving celebration in our small groups
for several years now. The last one that we held with the church all together on the third floor of
our annex we had 930 present. Since then, we had to go to smaller meetings in homes. Although
not all of our groups reported back, we still have well over one thousand members participating.
The group that Bev and I are part of had 14 couples.
You didn’t notice, but I had to stop to talk to the pastor of our church in the city of Thaumaturgo.
He wants me for a meeting in July. Talk about a missionary machine: First Baptist Church of
Thamauturgo is just that. We organized that church in 2008. They have started new works all
around and send out missionaries in a steady stream. Now back to the report.
Here at home we have had 2 more baptism services. I Baptized 31 in November and Pastor
Benjamim baptized 23 in December. We continue to have a constant flow of people being saved,
baptized and new members coming from other places. Also, newborns are being introduced to our
family almost weekly.
Our missionaries have been very active. We have been very busy on the Boa Fé River. Pastor Ezi
baptized several for our congregations at Gama and Generoso. We have 2 teams working to
share the gospel with every person along the river. One team is working from Gama downstream
to the where it flows into the Juruá river. The other team is working upstream from Gama to the
last house near the mountains in the far west of Brazil.
The Christmas Musical was just wonderful. My daughter Crissy, who writes the script and directs
the whole production, went way beyond the call of duty again. The theme was “Christmas: As told
by Jesus”. She even included the ascension of Jesus and the second coming. We had well over
1000 present every night, but one. At least 8 people were saved. I will include a picture of the cast,
217 people. This doesn’t include all the folks who work as ushers, parking lot, etc. Over 350 church
members participate directly. If you look closely at the lower left hand corner you might see the old
guy who preached 4 of the 6 nights.
Let me add a couple of things before I close. First, my health has been much better for the past
several months. I had surgery in the US in July to remove 2 squamous cell cancers from my head.
Two months ago, I had a non-malignant removed from my right arm. I finally found a cancer specialist in Rio Branco in November and he is a Baptist and ready to follow my case.
Then a word of thanks to those who have given toward the new canoe. Some have designated
funds and others gave to be used as needed. This has made it possible to purchase the motor and
the aluminum for the boat. We start the build next week! Thank you so much.
This report is way too long, but it had been so long since I wrote. I have been working long hours
and have not been in my office much at all for months, but no excuse. I must report more
regularly. My fault. Please forgive me.
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 Trip up the Juruá River into Peru, Training Leaders
March 21, 2024
Dear Brethren,
Another wonderful mission trip this month. This time up the Juruá River. For this trip I prepped my boat. It took a couple of days to get the engine running after the long stoppage because of my health issues. Pastors Ezi and Benjamim went with me for the very long run to Tipisca, Peru.
On a Sunday night I preached to a crowd of over 600 at First Baptist Church. On Monday morning at 5:00AM I was up and getting my boat down to the river. We got away after 6:00AM. Just before 5:00PM we pulled up at Foz do Breu on the Peruvian border. Our congregation at the village there is almost 300 miles upstream.
We spent next 3 days with our missionary José Costa and the congregation there. We held a baptism service on Tuesday afternoon.
On Thursday we continued on into Peru, still on the Juruá River. This short section took less than an hour. For the first time in a long time, I was able to get there without some kind of interruption. Many times I have had to stop to rescue or help somebody in distress. The last trip a group of Peruvian soldiers’ boat had sunk and I hauled them back up river to their post.
We spent the next 5 days with missionary José Maia and Silvánia. We three pastors spent the next 3 days teaching a small group of Hunikuim Indians from our congregations on the Breu River. Let me explain why we had to do this training in Peru rather than at their villages on the Breu River.
We have a large congregation on the mid-section of the river and preaching points on all the middle and lower river. However, there are 5 small villages on the upper section of the river that we had not reached yet. Our Hunikuim pastor is in poor health and has his hands full taking care of the villages where we already have a presence. A Pentecostal group got into these 5 villages and stirred up trouble with the federal government. They wanted to tell the women what kind of clothes they have to wear, putting women on one side during services and men on the other and forbidding the Indians of singing or praying in their own language. A judge heard about this absurdity and laid down the law that until further investigation no more “white” people are allowed into the tribe.
For this reason, we had the leaders come to Peru for us to teach them who and where the Baptist came from and what we believe (basic doctrines). We also needed to inform them of the origins of the Pentecostal movement and what they believe. We sat around a table for 3 days teaching and fielding their questions. We were pleased to see how Baptist these young Hunikuim leaders are.
On the weekend we held services for the folks at Tipisca. The building was packed for the 3 services. There were a few saved.
The river was at mid bank when we started our trip. In fact, it was the same level all the way, which is very rare and a huge blessing. The rains came in a deluge just after we got there. It rained for 4 days non-stop. By the time we left 8 days later the river was raging and out of its banks. This happened across the whole state and has been hard on the river folks. Even so the people came out to hear the Word. Some even came through chest high water at night. Awesome.
In fact, I wish I had space to tell you about an Ashaninka Indian named Joana who came to visit me. You will have to live with the tease until I can tell you her story someday.
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
Mission Trip to Peru, Surgeries Scheduled
February 22, 2023
Dear Brethren,
Greetings from not so cold today Lexington, Kentucky. It has now been over a month that I arrived here for medical attention. Things have gone pretty well so far.
Before leaving home, I had confirmed my first visit of the year to our mission work in Peru. That didn’t quite work out as planned. Still there is good news. Our missions director, Zico took Pastor Benjamim (yes, that spelling is correct) with him and made the trip anyway. The church building was packed and they had a baptism, too.
Today is the final day of our first big youth camp of the year. Andrew is the leader of that ministry.
The last Sunday of January we had our “Ministry Fair”. This event is just as many ministries as possible setting up displays and recruiting new help for the year ahead. Our church has an average of 70% of the membership involved in some kind of ministry or service. We are so thankful that the Lord has made this happen. It is why so much gets accomplished. Sharing the workload across the membership has made it a joy to pastor.
My oldest son Adam and his wife Suzy came over from California to visit. Also, my grandson Caleb came in from Indiana. I am staying with my daughter Monica and granddaughter Isabella here in Lexington, Kentucky. We all went over to visit my Dad and his wife Lois last night. Dad is now 96. He is not in the greatest health. He is still very much alive and has not lost his sense of humor. Last night he was in great form. He told a bunch of stories. We had some really good laughs and shed many a tear. Dad and I have 90+ years of missions combined between us. One date that he and I share is January 29. He was baptized on that day in 1956. I surrendered to be a missionary on that same date in 1966. Great times. Wonderful blessings.
My first surgery is scheduled for tomorrow February 23. Please continue to pray for all of my treatment. I will have a second surgery on March 6. There will be other doctor visits and procedures along the way.
Since the treatment is going well into March I have accepted an invitation to attend the Baptist Faith Missions Spring Missions Conference in Ohio on March 31 and April 1. Looking forward to seeing many of you there.
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
