April 18, 2005

Dear Brethren,

As the apostles always said, “Grace and Peace to you in Christ Jesus.” 

Our TV program is called “Momento da Graça”. I’m sure I don't have to translate that for you. It goes on the air on 2 local stations every Saturday and Sunday morning. We are rejoicing that the almost $20,000.00 of equipment that was purchased in 2001 is finally paid off. Thanks to all of your faithful monthly giving, the equipment is finally “ours".

Recently one of the decks had to be repaired. Even though the stations could have aired different programs each week, for some strange reason they put the same program on three weeks in a row. In that message I made the following statement: ”Here in Cruzeiro do Sul, the only churches that believe that Jesus really saves and saves for good are the Baptist and the Presbyterians.” The largest Pentecostal church here in town didn’t like what they heard. They are now ready to “do something” about this crazy Pastor Miguel, who they claim said that only Baptist and Presbyterians are going to heaven. Of course they don’t believe in salvation by grace or much less the security of the believer. Well at least we know they are listening and watching.

Thanks again for providing the equipment for the TV broadcast. Every week thousands of people hear the gospel. Many of these will never come to church or allow any of us into their homes. These are without excuse. 

My last river trip was to Porto Walter. We held a special service to celebrate our missionary's graduation. Mário now has his teaching certificate. We had moderate crowds for all services. There were two professions of faith and I baptized one young lady.

Once again thanks for the new boat and motor. This boat has a 25HP outboard. Andrew and I built the aluminum boat. It is very fast and economical. I was able to go all the way there on one six gallon tank. I have never owned a motor that would do that. It also only took three hours and fifteen- minutes, which is the time my old 50HP took. So thanks so very much. 

I have also visited the churches at Mâncio Lima and Bethel Baptist.

Here at First Baptist things are going very well. Our attendance is up in all services. For the past two years our attendance had leveled off. As of last November we called off Sunday school until we could revamp the whole program and retrain our staff. The former leader moved to southern Brazil about that time and had not been doing anything with our Sunday school, so this was the time to dive in and get things back on track. Actually our Sunday school attendance had declined over the past few years. We had bottomed out at an average of 350. I took on the reorganization and training. This took a bunch of my time and a lot of effort, but it is paying off. Last month we averaged 411. The last three weeks we have had 456, 453 and 513. There have been small but steady numbers of professions of faith. I have baptized twenty-one, nine and eleven in January, February and March. We now have two evening services. The afternoon service is growing very slowly. The night service is now almost up to where we were before we split into two separate services. Overall, attendance is again on the rise.

Besides all of this we also had a great youth camp in February. We had over eighty young people. Our theme was “The Investigators”. The teams of teens had to investigate and solve four related “murders”. All of our Bible studies were about investigating God’s Word. Our team that now takes care of youth camp took four months to plan the crimes and rehearse them. The first murder was so realistic and such a surprise that we were afraid that some of the youth might freak out. It was touch and go there for a while! They did a great job, as usual. This has been such a relief to me. I now go to teach, but have none of the other duties. The team takes care of all activities, meals, maintenance and discipline. The very first night one of the teens came up to me and said, “The light bulb is burned out in the room of my cabin.” Before I could open my mouth, Andrew let him know that he was talking to the wrong person and sent off one of his guys to take care of it. Andrew is the team leader and what a leader he has turned out to be. The team met over forty times to prepare for camp. I was only present at the first and last meetings. Andrew literally pastors seven couples who have grown by leaps and bounds. Those of you who send in offerings designated to Andrew are making a good investment and a huge difference in the Kingdom. Thanks. 

God bless you and thanks for all the faithful support in prayer and money.

In Christ, 

Mike Creiglow