THE MOST EXCITING part of our time in Quito was when…
My squadmate Karaline got saved! She has an awesome testimony, and during our time here at Launch she realized the difference between a relationship with Jesus and following a religion, and let me just tell you guys, I’ve never seen someone with more joy in her heart after coming to truly know the Lord.
So… this is perhaps even more awesome, on our last night in Quito, she decided she wanted to be baptized there and then. All we needed was to find some water (obviously)… so we looked on a map and found a park with water that we thought was close (perhaps a half an hour walk when we actually did it), and snuck into the park late at night. (Seriously, this all happened. It’s the only water we could find.) We tried to be quiet, but… first off, there are sixty of us. Second, lovely Karaline was skipping with glee and giggling and saying “yay! yay! yay!” I’m telling you, the girl’s adorable.
We get to the water and stand around, while a couple of the guys stand watch for police. Billy, our squad leader tried to test the water, and could not even touch the bottom. So while I was taking pictures with my left hand, videotaping with night vision with my right, my friend Jeff was holding up Karaline while someone else held up Billy, and the girl got baptized then and there, in the freezing water, ridiculously quiet, and perhaps against the law. It was amazing. It was so right. And it was one of the best nights of a lot of our lives. Once we got far enough away from the park we let out our cheers of joy. Awesome, awesome, night.
Go therefore, and make disciples of every nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
P.S. I didn’t want to post too many blogs, so let me just add that the next morning at church, the Ecuadorians anointed us with oil and prayed for us. Nothing is more humbling than when an old woman with a walker and a cast is putting oil on and praying over your head, hands, feet, and heart, as you head into her country to tell people about her Jesus. Whoa.
