Mike Creiglow October Missionary Letter
Caixa Postal 24
699980
Cruzeiro do Sul,
Acre, Brazil
Dear Brethren,
The last thing I told you last month was about trying to finally getting our jeep. Well it was still quite a process, but it did come through. We closed the deal way back in March, but Just got it in late September. Even at the last minute things got balled up. Even to get the title from the government you have to go through a broker. The dealerships all have one on call. The broker sent his runner to pick up the pile of documents for my car at the dealership and on his way back to the office was held up at gunpoint. All the documents were lost. They had to start all over. This added yet another 3 days to the whole process. Well we did finally get the car on a barge to Porto Velho. I flew from Manaus to pick it up. My son-in-law, Dauro flew from Cruzeiro to drive the jeep from Porto Velho to Cruzeiro do Sul. The trip is 1300 Km or about 800 miles. Much of the road is patch quilt, 2 lane pavement. The rest is dirt and some of that was mud. The trip went well though and we are thanking the Lord that we have the car here in the garage. I had prayed for 7 years and the Lord hás answered.
There are 2 small towns (county seats) here in the Acre where we didn’t know if there are Baptist churches. These are between here and the capital. They both have a population of about 5000. We stopped in to see. One hás a church, but we haven’t figured out what or who they are. The other hás no baptist church at all, so we are already praying for some more missionaries. Please pray with us. In fact during the coming months I plan to visit all 22 “municípios” (same as your county seats) in the state to see where there are Baptist churches, what kind and if they are doing anything. I do know that there are 27 churches in the Acre Baptist convention, but 24 of these are charismatic. Almost all of those churches are in or near the capital, Rio Branco. Anyway, I want to see first hand, so we can make our mission plans for the rest of the state.
Well I finally got my Dad back down for a few weeks. He hás been preaching to our church and our chapels. He Will, no doubt, tell you the details. The folks here are really enjoying. Actually, I am, too, a little!
Besides the camps that I told you about in my last letter, we have had 3 more. One was a training camp for leaders, another was for couples, and the other was the annual ladies camp. This particular couple’s camp is also done each year, but is different from the regular one, in that everybody goes on motorcycles. We had 40 couples. I can’t get Beverly to saddle up, but I went along anyway, all by my lonesome. Don’t you feel sorry for me? All the other guys had their wives hanging onto them. Poor little ole me! I had to ride up to Salém for 2 hours and ride back without my love hanging on for dear life! Come to think of it, maybe that is why she won’t ride with me anymore. Anyway camps have been great this summer season.
Crowds have been just average at church these past few weeks. There have been a number of folks saved. We had one o four newest preacher/pastors, Ezi Lopes to preach on a Sunday night a couple of weeks back. He had preached several times on Wednesday, Friday, Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon. Sunday night is pretty intimidating for most first timers. Ezi felt the pressure. It was great though and there were 8 professions of faith that night.
God bless all of you. Thanks for all of your prayers and support. Hope you can get over the financial crisis so that you can get back to giving as before. Since the regular offerings have been down we have taken a hit on average of $500.00 the past 2 months. I will pray for you, too.
In Christ, Mike Creiglow