Today is Guatemala's Independence Day. They are celebrating 191 years of independence from Spain. Today is also the day that almost my entire squad and I celebrated my dependence – dependence on Jesus. Today, Seth (one of my squad leaders), baptized me in a swimming pool in Guatemala.
Let me give you the run down of how it went.
A few months ago right after Training Camp, my church announced that they would be doing baptisms on August 19th. I really felt God calling me to get baptized before I left for the Race. I never signed up to be baptized. On that baptism Sunday, they went through the whole group of people that had signed up to be baptized and the whole time I was having an argument with God.
"Go get baptized today!" He said
"No way – I'm waiting until I get on the Race because it'll be cooler to say I'd been baptized in a foreign country while on the Race!"
"Fine! Well if you're going to disobey me, you're going to regret it."
And I sure did regret it. Wednesday night we had an epic night of worship and prayer session. During that prayer session, Seth Jr came and prayed over me. It was in that moment that I knew I had to be baptized as soon as humanly possible. I still was stubborn and didn't want to for some reason. Later that night, I went over to Seth and asked him if he would baptize me today. Thankfully he agreed.
Ricardo (Ricky) is seriously the best dude ever. He's one of our contacts here in Guatemala and, holy cow, this man is amazing. He runs the prison ministry here where the TUMBLERS started last week. He has such a passion for God and for helping people. Anyway, he took me down to the swimming pool this morning and negotiated with the owners to let everyone in for like 1/3 of the cost. Then he yelled out in the street if anyone had a truck, and someone said they did and would give everyone a ride. Next thing we know, there's a truck sitting in front of Agape in Action ready to pick up all 60 of us.
Seth and I hopped in the pool (which was a little on the chilly side) and even the locals began to watch the festivites.
Then Seth said it – "I baptize you in the name of the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit", and DUNK!
And that was that. Of course, we do things World Race style around here, and since Seth was already wet, he decided that the other Squad Leaders should probably be wet too….
