August, 2006

Dear Brethren,

Greetings from hot and dry Cruzeiro do Sul. Our dry season coincides with your summer time. The past two years have been drier than usual. We have had some pretty regular rains here in town, so the grass is still green and growing, but the river is drier than I have ever seen. Last year was the driest ever, but this year the river is even lower.

A few weeks ago I built a jack plate to put on my small aluminum boat to be able to use my 25HP jet drive motor. This is the only motor that I can use for my trips right now. There are many places that the river is so shallow that even the jet drive has trouble getting through. One place at the mouth of the Juruá Mirim River the sand bar comes so close to the bank that you can just about jump clear across the Juruá River.

The first trip with the rig set up for shallow water was to Porto Walter. This section of the river used to be navigable year round with a regular small outboard. Not so anymore. This trip would take only three hours in the rainy season. This time it took six and a half hours. It also took three times more gasoline.

I took two of our teachers to train the local women and teens how to conduct Vacation Bible School. The training part lasted from Monday through Wednesday. Then Thursday through Sunday was VBS. Our missionary there is Brother Mário. He is an easy-going guy with a great testimony there. He is, however, not a go-getter! He said he expected that we would have about forty kids. I told him right away that that wasn’t going to happen. We had two hundred thirty! Several of the children were saved during the week.

Vacation Bible School at Porto Walter

Janete and Fátima did a wonderful job with the training of the local teachers. Five years ago we sent Janete to Goiás for three years of training in nursing and children’s ministries. She has been passing those skills on to others for the two years since her training. The investment was really a good one.

For the return trip I took the motor off of the boat and made some adjustments to my newly fabricated jack plate then reinstalled the engine (By myself) For some reason those 130 pound motors seem to weigh much more than when I was 25 years old!. This adjustment made a big difference in speed and fuel consumption. It took only four hours down stream and half the gas. With gas at $6.00 a gallon I have to choose my trips, equipment and fine tuning carefully!

Taking the Gospel to 230 kids and training more workers is worth all the cost and effort. All things considered, it is just plain fun to be out on the rivers, if you ask me.

Continue to pray for us and please continue to give generously. God bless.

In Christ,

Mike Creiglow