Abi and Eli got baptized this past Sunday, August 20, 2023. Our small church isn’t big enough to have this celebration regularly, so when we have a critical mass for a baptism service, its kind of a big deal. For our two girls, it was a really big deal. They’ve each been on a journey, with this dark Covid sidetrack in the middle that added a lot of uncertainty. When the invitation went out to be a part of this year’s baptism service, it took some reconstruction research to put the pieces back together. Fortunately, I have an aunt who had been praying for them all the way through their walk with Jesus, and she was able to dig up some chats that helped us remember.
Eli accepted Jesus as her savior on March 6, 2018 at an Awana meeting at a church we attended in Ohio before our current church home. That church had its faults, but the children’s program wasn’t one of them! Abi asked Jesus into her heart at a combined, multi-church youth meeting in our little town on October 2, 2019. We wouldn’t have these exact dates if it weren’t for the prayerful petitions of Aunt Sylvia, who lifted them up to Jesus and inquired gently about their little lives. (I’ll also have to grudgingly credit Facebook for preserving this chat history.)
This past Sunday, surrounded by our church family, some good friends in the area, and Nana and Papa — who made the trip from Ontario starting at about 4 in the morning — our girls followed the Lord obediently in the waters of baptism. They were lovingly guided by our Pastor, who gave Nic and I the opportunity to participate in the dunking in a blow-up hot tub at an outdoor service on a beautiful Sunday morning.
Pastor Andy pointed to “sign posts” that help us remember God’s faithfulness, and the key points in our walk with him. If they take one thing from their childhood faith experience, we hope that its love: Jesus love for each of us, that he would die on a cross to rescue us from our sin, and his commandment to love Him and love others as the most important things we can do in our lives. We’re so proud of all of our kids for choosing love – for the record, Ben was baptized July of 2021 at Family Camp.
A big thank you to everyone who prayed with us for our kids. Your prayers changed things!
