Washed By The Water

During the month of January, our church held a church-wide 21 day prayer and fasting event while our Pastor preached on abiding in God.  The series was fantastic and was capped off with four nights of special preaching by guest speakers, worship that brought the house down, and baptism opportunities on each of those special nights as well as at all three services on Sunday.  The Spirit was palpable and it was a phenomenal week.  And as if just knowing Jesus is present isn't enough, we had the special honor of witnessing the four of our youngest kids make the decision to get baptized on that Sunday.

Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit"--Acts 2:38

Baptism is a public declaration of one's faith in Christ and membership in a local body of believers.  and the children had each come to the conclusion to get baptized on their own.  Hannah likes to say she started it, and in a way, she had.  In December she accepted Christ into her heart and almost immediately asked when the next baptism would be.  There is a class that the children participate in so as to make sure that they understand what is being said and committed to in order that none go into baptism unaware.  We signed Hannah up for the class and one by one, the other three younger kids decided to join her, just to get the information.  By the time the class was over, two were ready to go and two wanted to think about it more.  There was about three weeks before a commitment needed to be made, so they had plenty of time to discuss, process, and decide.  By the end of January, all four of them were in.  At the time, we had no idea how huge and busy this week would be at church, and though it was a bit of a frenzy, it was fantastic and I wouldn't have traded it for anything. 

The person being baptized has a choice as to whom they would like to actually baptize them, much to our surprise, the children picked differently than we would have guessed.  Hannah chose to have Jozsef baptize her, Riley chose John, Sonja chose me, and Connor chose Nikolas.  There was so much excitement and celebration.  Having a section of your family baptized all on the same day does not go unnoticed.  :-)  There were two tubs at the front of the church to handle the seventeen baptisms scheduled for the day.  Our kids kicked it off.  Riley was first.

Pastor Jason asked Riley to affirm his faith

John did the dunking

Down went the dead body

Up came the new life

Pastor Jason gave a celebratory high five

Hannah was the next to go

Pastor David asked Hannah to affirm her faith

Jozsef did the dunking

Down with the dead self

Up with the new life

Sonja was after Hannah

Pastor Jason asked Sonja to affirm her faith

I did the dunking.  Down with the dead self

Up with the new life

Connor was the last of our children to be baptized. 

Pastor David asked Connor to affirm his faith

Nikolas did the dunking

Down with the dead self

Up with the new life

There was much celebration in the lobby as we all left the main sanctuary.  I do love the community of our church.  People were celebrating everywhere.  The older couple that routinely sits behind us was sure to stop by and congratulate the kids with words of praise, hugs, and even a Hershey's kiss each.  It was very sweet.  And even the kids' Sunday school teachers were sure to make it through the crowds to come and personally congratulate their students and that meant a lot to each of the kids.  After the baptism was over, the kids had changed back into dry clothes and signed the trough, we went out for a special lunch--buffalo wings baby!  :-)  The kids were thrilled. :-) 

What a special day.  There's still a buzz about the community and in our house.  This day begins the next chapter of living out the faith, not just for the younger kids, but for all of us.  Hannah likes to tell us that "we're a real whole Christian family now".  She's so cute.  And it's true--now that John was baptized in May and the younger kids this February, we are all fully in Christ.  God is moving in big ways writing our names on His heart as we soak Him deeper into ours.  His love is amazing and we are all so happy to have it!