July 2003

Dear Brethren,

Andrew, my son-in-law, Dauro and I went to visit our congregation on the Moa River. Our first stop was at São Salvador. The village there is growing and the church has made some modest gains. The next stop was at the Nukini Indian village at República. Our work there is young, even though we have held services there for many years. 

Our main goal was to dedicate the new building. The villagers built their building with just a little help from us. They were ready for this celebration. They killed a steer and fed the whole village all day. The dedication service was held outside because the building was just too small for that kind of crowd. There were over 300 present. The building will hold 100 in a pinch. There were 2 professions of faith. 

We brought our missionary from the mountains, further up stream, to take care of República. The congregation at the mountains is dwindling. The federal government is trying to move everyone out of the area, which has been set apart to be a national park. We have lost 5 of our 11 families. Rivaldo (our missionary) still goes there almost every weekend to preach and teach. Another local worker, Wilson, takes over at República while Rivaldo is away. Wilson lives a couple of hours away, by canoe, up a small stream. We managed to get him a 5hp motor to get his family to and from the main village. 

Our next stop was the congregation at the mountains. The small congregation was having some problems. After the second service we sat everyone down for a long talk, and some much needed Bible teaching. The main leader in the village, who is the song leader, was in sin and doing a lot of finger pointing. A week after our visit he got things straightened out and is back helping the congregation. 

At the end of our trip, we took a two-day “vacation”. We hiked six hours into the jungle and camped beside a small stream in the mountains. The stream is full of rapids and skirted by sheer cliffs. There are three beautiful waterfalls. We got to see a lot of monkeys and birds, too. So much for life in paradise. 

Thanks for all of your prayers and support.

In Christ,

Mike Creiglow

Serra do Moa

The Falls at Serra do Moa