An Indian Ocean Baptism - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

When I was just a few months old, my parents made a wonderful decision for me. They had me baptized. By doing this, they were declaring to the world that they would raise me in the church and show me God’s love. Fast forward 7 years. My 1st grade teacher Miss Wonders shares the gospel with me, and I make a decision that changes my life forever. I accept the forgiveness that Jesus offers all His children and make Him the Lord of my life. About 6 years after that my parents encouraged me to get up and declare my belief in Jesus Christ before our church.

Let me be clear, I don’t regret any of these decisions that I made. However, for the past few years I have been thinking about Baptism. It seems that there are many different philosophies on the matter. You should be fully immersed in water, sprinkling of water on the head is ok, you need to be an adult to make the decision, your parents can make the choice for you when you are a child…. you get the picture. So where do I fit in? What does God want for me?

In Swaziland, God pointed out to me that one of the ways I hear from Him, is by being obedient to what He has called me to do. It can be something as big as going on the World Race or something as small as praying for a friend. At the end of the month I wrote in my journal, “God I want to continue to be obedient to you.” So of course I knew something big was coming.

Right before we left Swaziland, I felt the Lord call me to complete a fast- from food. I want to put this in perspective for you. For the past few months I had eaten a lot of meals that contained rice, an assortment of vegetables, some meat, and my personal favorite, mashed potatoes. Now if you know me at all, you know that I don’t particularly enjoy any of these options. However it was food, and I was grateful to have something to eat. As a result, I was looking forward to our next location, Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa. One of the reasons I was looking forward to it was because of the promise of access to foods that I might enjoy more. So when I felt God calling me to this fast, I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy. But I also remembered telling God that I wanted to continue to be obedient. And so, for 3 full days, I fasted from all solid food- I got to drink fruit juice, I still had ministry to do 🙂

At this point you may be asking yourself what in the world does this story have to do with baptism??

I promise, I’m getting there.

In the mornings, while my team was eating breakfast, I would go and find a spot outside and have a bit of quiet time with God. I started reading a chapter of James each day. So here’s my big secret. For the longest time I didn’t really get anything out of reading my Bible. I mean yeah, I knew it was (and still is) God’s word and I should be learning from it. It’s not that I didn’t believe or anything, it was just that reading my Bible didn’t really excite me. So as I’m fasting and reading God’s word, it hits me square between the eyes. God’s word is LIFE. Sure our physical bodies need actual food to survive, but our spiritual bodies need the word of God. It was in this moment that God completely redeemed my relationship with Him. Suddenly I wasn’t just reading words on pages, I was reading something that is alive and brings life to those who look for it.

And so after 3 days of fasting and diving deep into God’s word, it became clear to me that it was time to be Baptized. This time it was different for several reasons. First, it was something that I felt God was calling me to do. Second, it was solely my decision, it didn’t come at the prompting of anyone else. Third, it was at this time that my relationship with Jesus was completely redeemed. For so long I had allowed myself to simply know who Jesus is and the sacrifice He made for me. I had never really taken the time to build a relationship with Him. It doesn’t simply stop at the cross. Yes, salvation is a key component and you can’t go anywhere without it. But it keeps going. Jesus wants to know us and wants us to know Him in return, and the only way to do that is to spend time with Him.

On the morning of the big day I found myself sitting in the sanctuary of Victory Church. We had arrived a little bit early, so I found a spot to sit and opened up my Bible. I read a little bit from 1Peter and then I just sat with Jesus. It sounds a bit cliche, but really I just sat with Him for a while and it was in that moment that I realized I was falling in love with my Savior. I had always loved Him on some level for the gift of Salvation that He had given me, but now it was different. It was deeper and more beautiful than anything I had every experienced before.
And so, on the afternoon of Sunday, October 16, 2016, my team and I walked down to the beach of Jeffrey’s Bay. We were met by a few of our squamates who were also staying in the area and one of our Squad leaders, Andrew. I had asked my good friend Braham Miller to do the honors. Together we waded out into the Indian Ocean where I declared that I was a daughter of the Most High King, and I was not ashamed to declare it to the world. I was baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirt. Amen!