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 [February 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.
February 4, 2016
Dear Brethren,
Bev and I have visited a few of our congregations and churches in this first month of the new year. We visited Assis, Brasil again. We were with the new congregation at Colônia for the first time ever since they started.
This work is one of those things that happen to Baptists that isn’t really ideal, but has to be. We already have a church at Colônia; however, starting in 2011, the longtime pastor, who is getting up in age, started to treat the church as his own personal piece of property. He sold the corner lot to a bar, for starters. Then he told all the musicians that the church is his and they could only practice and play if he said so. I tried to help them through this, but to no avail. While I was on furlough in 2011 they called me a few times to get my input. At that time 50 members left and became members of one of our other local churches. A few months later they bought property and started a new work a couple of miles down the main street of town. They now have a beautiful big building and are growing leaps and bounds. Bev and I were with them on a Thursday night. There were about 100 present. Their average attendance on Sunday is 150.
The new work at Colônia.
We also visited our congregation at São Pedro. It rained all night and all day before and during our visit. Needless to say, there weren’t many people present. When I started preaching that morning my mind “glitched” on me. It was just a momentary skip, but very disconcerting. I had to ask somebody to take care of the rest of the service. Bev drove us home. The next day the doctor had me put through one of those tunnel machines (don’t know what it is called in English) to scan my brain. No brain was found, so I guess all is normal… for me. She is trying to get me set up with a specialist (neurologist?) to see where to go from here. Physically, I feel fine. For a few days I had been feeling sluggish and low on motivation. The doctor asked me to slow down. Since I am already slow by nature, I guess she wanted me to stop.
Bro. Mike with their new grandson, Brenden, named in honor of the first missionary in Cruzeiro do Sul – Joseph Brandon.
We are getting ready for the first big camp of the year. For the past couple of weeks I have been working on the new driveway and entrance at Camp Salem. There have been a lot of guys from church going up to help me. When the road was being paved they used our entrance a lot and the heavy machinery destroyed the part that we had paved with brick. The camp property is 400 acres 22 miles east of Cruzerio do Sul. This first camp is for youth. Right after this one will be the “tweens”. There will be a couple of camps every month for the rest of the year.
A picture of Bro. Creiglow 50 years ago when he first started seminary in Manaus.
On the 25th Dauro and Crissy had their fourth child. They named him Brendon Michael. Brendon in honor of the first missionary in Cruzeiro do Sul – Joseph Brandon. They settled on Brendon to trick our Brazilian friends into saying Brandon. Otherwise it would come out Brahndon. I don’t know where they came up with the Michael part. We are having fun!
On the 29th the church helped me celebrate my 50th year in the ministry. My surrender was on January 29, 1966.
A picture from Bro. Creiglow’s 50th year in ministry celebration. He writes, “By the way, I decided to dress just like a picture from 50 years ago when I first started seminary in Manaus. Believe it or not I still dress this way quite often. The oxford shirt and faded jeans are still the same size, too.”
My first sermon was 3 days later. We had over 400 present on Friday night. Plenty of great music, cake and soft drinks for all. It was a lot of fun.
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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