Baptisms!
Baptisms!
Most of the time when an international comes to Christ, we encourage them to be baptized by their local church in Madison. However, our friend’s father was recently visiting from Asia for a period of a few weeks. During this brief visit, he had been a regular part of our Bible discussion and ministry activities. My friend asked me (Jesse) to do some special Bible studies with him. This man had believed in Jesus a few years prior, but had never been baptized in his home country for various reasons. We had some great individual Bible reading and discussion together, and there was a moment when it was evident this father understood in his heart and mind what the cross meant and had trusted in Jesus.
The next group Bible discussion of ours which this man joined, we ‘just happened’ to be studying Acts 8, in which the Ethiopian eunuch asks Philip to baptize him immediately after he believed in Jesus. This happened literally minutes, or a few hours at most, after Philip met him! “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” (Acts 8:36b NIV). So, when this Asian father asked me to baptize him during his visit to America - a time when he could celebrate this occasion with his wife, two sons, newborn grandson, and in-laws - I concluded, like Philip: Why shouldn’t this man be baptized? The baptism turned out to be a joyful celebration of new life, faith, and family.
I was also super thankful and honored to get to baptize our 14 year old daughter Joyah recently as well in the same lake, Lake Mendota (photo, below). Joyah will share more about this later…
