I was around 11 years old when I decided to get baptized. When I recount my testimony, I wasn’t even saved until I was 17 years old. I grew up going to church every Sunday and when I was 11(ish) years old, it seemed like I needed to get baptized. I don’t know if I did it to prove a point or because that’s what I felt like I was supposed to do, but either way it wasn’t because I had gone through this major change with God. I had grown up in the church but it wasn’t until the end of high school that my relationship with God had really started. Because I had been baptized before, I had never really given any thought to it; I didn’t even really know what the point of baptism was.
Have I really changed enough to merit a baptism?
These last six months have rocked my relationship with God. I spent a good portion of the other night trying to remember what my relationship with God was like before the race and I just remember it being really placid and apathetic. I would read my Bible every now and then and talk at God between classes; I had a relationship with God, definitely, 
but it was kind of one-sided. Now, everything about my relationship with Him has changed. It’s become more personal, more intimate; I know God way more intimately than I ever have, I’m not just talking at Him anymore but I’m hearing from Him too. I’m rediscovering my identity in Him and learning who I am in Christ, who He has made me to be. All of the things that were holding me back from going for it and knowing Him, anger, bitterness, pride, have been broken and I feel like nothing is holding me back from knowing my creator the way that He intended.
I think it’s safe to say that there has been a radical inward change.
gathered around Pastor on the lakeshore, a group of local kids congregated to the left of us to see what was happening. Pastor gave a short sermon before he, Amber, Tricia, JD, and Jared walked out into the water to start baptizing everyone. The ten or so people getting baptized lined up on the shoreline while the mamas who came to watch their kids sang upbeat African praise songs. One at a time, I watched each person nervously walk into the freezing cold lake and come out soaking wet with the biggest smiles I’ve ever seen. Finally, it was my turn. Amber and Jared walked me arm-in-arm into the bitter cold water and when we had walked out far enough, Amber and Tricia took their places on either side of me while Pastor stood off to the side and gave them directions. Laughing hysterically at how amazing this whole 
crazy situation was, Amber and Tricia said what they were directed to say and each with a hand on my back, dunked me in the lake. I came out of the water to the African-covered shoreline cheering for me and, with a smile so big it hurt my face, the six of us grabbed each other’s hands and prayed waist deep in water. We headed back to dry ground where all of us that were just baptized huddled on the ground while everyone else came around and prayed over each of us. Pastor wrapped up this ridiculously amazing morning with a prayer, we all hugged, and then changed out of our cold, wet clothes before piling back into the packed van and heading home.
February 27, 2011: Easily my favorite moment on the race, maybe of my life.
