October 28, 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 Sao Salvador. The village there is growing and the church has made some modest gains. The next stop was at the Nukini Indian village at Republica. 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.

We brought our missionary from the mountains, further upstream, to take care of Republica. The congregation in 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 five of our eleven families. Rivaldo (our missionary) still goes there almost every weekend to preach and teach. Another local worker, Wilson, takes over at Republica 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 of 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 your prayers and support.

In Christ,

Mike Creiglow

Baptism at mountains on Moa River, Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil