HANNAH'S BAPTISM

Today was an amazing day!! Hannah has been asking to get baptized for about two years now. She has taken a Children's Baptism class and has a complete understanding of what it means. She has been SOOO nervous about getting up in front of the congregation and speaking those all important words - "I believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and I accept Him, as my Lord and my Savior". She has said those words for so long, but just couldn't bring herself to make that public confession. Well, today was the DAY!! We had an unbelievable service today, what we call at our church a "Baptism Splash". Typically, it is a day each year that many people get baptized on the same day, sometimes at a local river or lake. But today, we broke all tradiational rules of baptism!! (are there really any?) Our pastor gave a great sermon on exactly what baptism is, and gave a call for ANYONE to come and be baptized today. We disregarded our formal baptistry, and they set up an entire POOL on the stage of our church. Hannah had planned on getting baptized today, but there were literally HUNDREDS of people baptized today, that did not plan on it!! People were baptized in the only set of clothes they had! It was an amazing sight to see - people lined up around the church, many new-believers, waiting their turn to be baptized. I was fortunate to be able to capture most of them with my camera, and it has been so moving to review these pictures. There are some amazing stories already surfacing today - stories of a men's bible study that meets at Panerra every Saturday morning. For over a year, this group of men have invited the "Panerra guy" (who works there) to attend church. He came last week for the first time, and again today - and even HE was baptized today! There were even couples that were baptized, together, at the same time. I have so many pictures to share - but for today I will just share my precious baby girl getting baptized by her own Daddy while our pastor looks on........