Baptism Stories
There is too much to type to tell all the baptism stories. Some are super-personal (to me and to them). I often feel like highlighting some might diminish the others…and every one of them was a life-shaping decision. So I’m just going to bullet point a few highlights (some I shared Sunday at the St. John Campus) and share a couple others that have been passed on to me.
- A young woman who I had done a wedding ceremony for 6 years ago.
- A young man who had one of life’s “wake-up calls” in a serious accident a few weeks before.
- A lady who is often my teller when I go to the bank.
- Seeing a few “whole families” being baptized together.
- Watching a husband jump in to baptize his wife.
- People I had prayed for over many years…and People who were in their first few weeks at our church
- The person running mediashout/powerpoint in our sound booth walked down from there to get baptized.
A very personal one: If you were with us in the first week of the series, I told a story about a teenager I met with years ago and after a conversation I thought was good, I was so disappointed when he said Jesus was (on a scale of 1-10) a “5” in importance in his life. That very guy (now a young man) was in church and came up to get baptized…and made a commitment to follow Jesus (as a 10!).
A couple other stories that I think capture the morning…
From Jerry Jackowski…”When I decided to be baptized, all I could think about was who was going to do it. When I saw Gordon in the water, I thought how fitting. Gordon was the leader in my “Starting Point”. It is amazing how God placed Gordon at the “start” of my following.”
From Linda Barnett’s grand-daughter who now lives in Florida, but grew up largely at Suncrest made a surprise visit to see her. She tell’s the story…
On Friday the 5th, I went to Brenda’s for the evening. Once I got there, she took me aside and told me she needed to talk to me in the computer room. The door was closed, she opened it, and there in a chair sat my youngest granddaughter, Hayley (15). Unbeknownst to me, she had flown in to surprise me. She was worried since she had heard my diagnosis, and I had not seen her since Christmas 08. You can only imagine how I felt. Hayley had wanted badly to be baptized, and she wanted to be baptized at Suncrest. I don’t believe in coincidence, but I do believe in the divine providence of God. I just remember her saying at second service…can I go up now? She was second in line. I cannot tell you what peace it gave me.
Thank you again for baptizing Hayley. It was the number one thing I wanted to see accomplished on my bucket list!!
.Real.Greg.Lee. 