a VBS with a school friend. I was raised catholic but my
mom didnt mind getting me out of her hair for a week so she
let me go to VBS at a bible believing church the summer of
74. On the last day of the program there was a celebration
and baptism at a local lake. I remember playing on the beach
while the pastor was performing baptisms of people who had
registered prior to the celebration. I remember when he gave
the open call to walk into the water, I stopped what I was
doing on the sand and walked straight to the waters edge,
and there I was baptized. I didn’t know what came over me.
It felt so wonderful.
The following weeks found me at the local
pool calling the kids to get baptized in the water. I wanted
them to feel what I felt when I went in and came out of the
water. I would say " come on you got to feel this"
Well, needless to say, when I dunked them under and they
came out they were like
"What’s the big deal?"
I couldn't understand why they didn't feel what I felt.
After the summer of 74 turned into fall I went
on with my life up until I came across a Christian man at my
place of employment. At that time, 1988, I was 24 and
looking for enlightenment through the new age movement.
When this Christian man challenged what I was following, I
challenged him right back with, what else, scripture.
I said to him, "Doesn't the bible say if God has 100 sheep
and 1 should stray He will come after me?". Matt 18:12
(Ya I laugh now too.) It was at that time I realized,
"He is coming after me!"
and I remembered that day on the beach and the summer of
74 and I realized what happened to me, what I felt and tried
to make others feel.
I had not thought of that summer since it happened,
I realized at the moment I accepted Jesus as the Lord of my
life, it was the Holy Spirit come upon my life that
I had felt in the lake when I was 10 years old, and that's
when I understood why the others at the pool didn't
"feel it.
This is my third time being baptized.
When I was an infant, I had no control of what happened to me.
When I was 10 yrs old, I had no idea what happened to me.
Today, with full willingness and knowledge
I choose what am doing, and I rededicate my life to Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior,
with these witnesses from Fellowship Alliance Chapel.
These are His people,
this is my family
And I want the world to know.
Our baptism. August 26, 2018
LEFT IT IN THE WATER
and I can still feel it!