Baptism at the Beach

A few days before our planned departure from Arizona, we sent emails to our friends in Mexico.  We wanted to give them an idea of our return time -- everyone likes to show up to welcome you home if you've been gone a long time.

The note I got back from our friend and sister, Eugenia, was encouraging and funny at the same time -- and it was SO Mexico!  "Hermanos," she said, "we are so happy that you'll be home soon!"  She then shared all that had been going on in the Church since we left.  She concluded with this sentence, "So we're having a baptism on Sunday afternoon at your house."  I love it!  Of course we were excited about the baptism; we were also touched that the people know us well enough to know that we would not have any problem with 80 people coming over to our house for a fish fry and baptism.

 The youth all got together to play a little basket ball before lunch. 

As it turned out, the fish fry happened in Alamito -- which I think worked out much better -- and folks only came over briefly to baptize one brother.  It was a great time of fellowship!  Having all three of the Vida Nueva churches together at once was really special.  I love how these three congregations work together as a family.

 It took a while to get the gas tank set up.  It's always a challenge to get all the tools and parts necessary to complete a task! 

With the gas working and a windblock set up, Brother Mailo started frying the fish.  He fried a A LOT of fish!!!

On a Sunday afternoon, the beach at Ensenadita is generally pretty crowded.  This Sunday was no exception.  However, when we pulled out the guitar and began singing praise and worship music, people stepped back and let us have a little patch of beach to ourselves.

After baptizing 3 people at the beach, we piled back into the vehicles and headed over to our house.  We even picked up a few new people, as some of the people at the beach wanted to come back to our house -- they were old friends we hadn't seen for quite a while.

It was fun to have such a big group at our house!  We haven't done it for a while, and I realized how much I've missed big get-togethers.  I'm thinking that we need to do this more often!!!

River Baptism

Baptisms here are a really big deal! Our church was invited on Sunday to attend a baptism at our sister church in Compuertas, which is a small town near Los Mochis -- about an hour and a half away. Several believers had come forward to be baptized. Yeah!!!

Early Sunday morning, we piled people, chairs, ice chests and of course lots of food -- it was a picnic, afterall -- into our van, Pastor's station wagon and Braulio's car and headed for Calvary Chapel Compuertas.

Along the way, we were pulled over by a federal police officer. He just asked where we were from and where we were headed and then sent us on our way. We figured that he was making sure we weren't kidnapping American kids, since the van was full of Mexicans with a bunch of little white kids peeking out the back window. Ricardo and Braulio got a chuckle out of it. Anyway, we arrived at the church without further incident and then took off for the river which was a few miles north.

As we turned off the highway, we saw this mountain. It's hard to see in the picture, but it says, "Jesus te ama" -- Jesus loves you!

Here are some photos of our very full day...

Pastor Israel shared a message explaining the importance and significance of baptism.

The youth shared a skit depicting the things which stand in the way of our coming to Christ and His ability to overcome those things.

We took some time to pray for the 12 people who were to be baptized.

Pastor Israel talked a few moments with each person. While the baptisms were going on in the water, on the shore folks were singing and clapping.

This is Adrian. He's a phenomenal guitarist. Notice anything about his guitar? I didn't realize it until we got home and were talking about his amazing gift...the guitar's upside down. Adrian is left-handed and plays the guitar flipped over. And I was impressed before!

As soon as the baptism was over, the kids ran for the water. We had a huge group -- well over 100 people -- and pretty much had the river to ourselves most of the afternoon. We had grabbed the spot where an old rope swing dangled over the water. After we determined that there were no submerged rocks or logs and that the water was deep enough, the swing became the focal point of the kids' time.

Armida almost went off the rope swing. Just as she was about to jump, her foot slipped a bit and she said, "No puedo!"

Of course not everyone was really into the rope swing. Some people just splashed in the shallows, some played with the volleyball and everyone ate...a lot!

We headed home in the late afternoon -- tired and a bit sunburned, but praising God for a fantastic day and a great time of fellowship with our Christian brothers and sisters from Compuertas!