May 26, 2003

Dear Brethren,

The last medical mission trip to the upper Juruá River was one of the best ever. The big boat that took up supplies and gear left on Wednesday, with a crew of 2. I left in the aluminum canoe with small outboard on Friday. The doctors, dentists and coordinator left by plane on Saturday. It took me a little over 8 hours to Thaumaturgo where I spent the night and visited with our congregation for one service. The next morning I ran another 4 hours and arrived just before the plane at the mouth of the Breu River. The big boat arrived later that afternoon. We were set up for the clinic to begin on Sunday. We held services with our congregation there on Saturday and Sunday. The government just built a new school at Breu, so the clinic was easy to do. We set up our tents in one room, doctors in another, dentists in yet another and the pharmacy in the principal's office. There is a big breezeway in the middle of the building where I sang with the children and taught them Bible stories. Our coordinator took advantage of this time to teach dental hygiene. It is unbelievable how much the physical and spiritual health of this village has improved in the 7 years we have been working there. 

All of this is done with church money and no help from government agencies. It is very expensive. Zico, who is the coordinator of the project, dentist from our local church, who I have trained and worked into this position, added up the total cost of this last clinic and discovered that it came to almost $8,000.00. This includes airline tickets to get doctors and dentists in, flights to the field, medicine, dental supplies, gasoline, diesel fuel, food among other odds and ends. 

After Breu we started down river. The first stop was Pedra Pintada. We have been working at this village for 4 years. Since we had made plenty of preparation in each village to be visited, we were able to control the crowd a bit better.

The next village was Caipora. There were two more saved this year and they are ready to start sawing lumber for us to put up a building. We now have over 30 believers. Since our missionary at Breu has now prepared two men to work with him, we are going to be able to free him up to go down river at least once a month to visit the new works that we have opened along the river. We are trying to work out a deal to buy him a small diesel motor and canoe to be able to make these trips. The motor costs $1,300.00. Just go ahead and make yourself at home and buy that motor for the man! You won't make us mad at all. 

This year we took the clinic to 2 new villages: Aida and Belfor. At Aida we had a great reception. The villagers there are hard workers and were very helpful hauling all the equipment and gear that has to be moved every day when we set up. The main leader at the village and 2 more people made professions of faith. These were not during the service. I sat down with all three after the service had ended and they were won through personal witness. Even when folks make a profession of faith during a service, I or one of the team members sit down and go through the personal evangelism, the gospel and some basic information to start them on their new life. Of the 7 professions of faith on this trip, five were made during private talks, which is different, but good in some respects.

Our last stop was at Belfor. This village is pretty big, several hundred people and was pretty busy for the doctors and dentists. We even had to delay our departure the next day to take care of a few last minute patients. Two teenagers were saved during the service in the evening.

The whole trip was just about as perfect as could be. The river was low, but held pretty much one level for the whole time, which is very rare for the upper Juruá. that means that there was not too much mud. It did not rain the whole time: extremely rare for this time of year. The team was, well, a real team. No friction at all. We had better food than usual, too. The day before we arrived at Caipora and band of an estimated 1000 wild hogs came out right at the village and they killed over 50, so we had lots of fresh meat. Now there were the usual swarms of stinging insects and lots of hard, hard work, but it is more than worth what little sacrifices we make.

We stopped back in at Thaumaturgo on the way out. That afternoon I baptized 14 new members. That night after services, we got the team together for our final meeting and evaluation. The fellowship was just so good that we were up to almost 2:00AM. I then had to get up at 4:00AM to go on down river. Some of you have expressed your concern about my being out on the river by myself at all hours of the day and night, but I am not alone! Besides the fact that God is with me, but there are also the dolphins, crocodiles and other critters to keep me company as I poke along through the dark! Not to worry. I am having fun while I get a little work done.

Well this letter is way to big, but I still have one more thing to get in. On these trips we sleep the doctors and dentists in tents. Our tents, however, are shot. A nice Sunday School project would be to help us replace these tents. We use 3 person, 2 pole dome tents. These cost about $150.00 for a pretty good one. If you would like, just ship it through the mail at surface rate, which takes about 4 or five months to get here, but is the cheapest and easiest way to send them. Fairly small project, huge results. Thanks.

God bless and thanks for all of your prayers and support. 

In Christ,

Mike Creiglow

New building at Thaumeturgo, 300 miles up river from Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil