Baptism

Joel announced a couple of months ago that he had decided to be baptised.  He (as always) came to the decision on his own one day, but had decided not to do anything about it until he’d chatted to his best friend at Church to see whether he wanted to be baptised at the same time.    So it was with a lot of joy that Joel was baptised at the end of November.  It turned into quite a family affair with Charis reading a Bible passage and Lesley praying for him (with Paul looking on with a hugely proud grin on his face).

I thought you might want to read his 'testimony' that he'd written out:

"When I was 5 my sister and I sat on my bed and she showed me a presentation called knowing God Personally that was all about how to become a Christian and after she went through this I wrote a prayer to ask Jesus into my life but it wasn't till I was older that I realised that there might be more to being a Christian than that for me.

 

I was brought up in a Christian home so naturally my parents wanted me to become a Christian and it's fair to say that it was a rocky road to where I am today. In fact, if you put it on a graph it would look something like this (at this point, Joel showed a powerpoint graph of static growth in his Christian life until he was 13!)- I don't think my faith really grew for quite a number of years between being 5 and 13.  But a couple of years ago while I was at a Christian conference in Estonia I decided to really follow Jesus. (at this point, Joel showed a picture of him standing on one hand, street-dancing in Estonia!)  This all came about one night when my sister and a close friend of ours decided that they would go to the prayer room and I decided to hang out with some friends. When I came back to the place we were all staying I walked past the prayer room and I wasn't intending on going in but I felt something telling me to go in anyway and when I came back out of the prayer room after praying I felt something which must have been the Holy Spirit .I had to choose to follow him and no one else could make that choice for me.

 

Even then, although I chose to follow him I didn't really show it as much as I should have. And getting baptised is publicly saying that I believe in the father the son and the Holy Spirit and that I intend to follow Jesus for the rest of my life so that's why I'm getting baptised."

 

 

 

 

Needless to say, it was such a fantastic event.  There were a total of 5 people baptised and balanced with the spiritual delight of the day, cake always makes a significant physical addition to the occasion.