I love baptisms! On a Saturday in June, I had the honor of witnessing the baptism of seven of our Mitendi girls! When we headed out of Kinshasa to the church early Saturday morning, I thought we were going to see only our girls baptized. I was wrong. In fact, they were part of a huge baptism celebration involving 8 churches. There were 46 baptismal candidates in total! To start the service, the head pastor gave a great message about what it means to be a follower of Christ. He explained the meaning of baptism and its place in the life of the believer. He also explained that baptism wasn’t a spur of the moment decision for these candidates, but that each one had attended classes at their respective churches before deciding to make this public statement of faith.

The candidates were then called up one by one to give a short testimony. It was inspiring to hear them express their statements of faith. Each one said, “I am a follower of Jesus!” Many also added another proclamation like “I was lost in the dark, but Jesus brought me into the light” or “I was enslaved to the world, but now I’m free!” or “I was among the goats, and now I’m a sheep!” or “I was lost in the jungle, but Jesus put my feet upon the path!” At each statement the crowd cheered them on.

Jill