beach baptisms!

Today I had the great honor and privilege to baptize 2 of my college students in the Pacific Ocean.

Every year, my church does a huge beach baptism. We all meet out at the beach and roast hot dogs with a country band singing in the background.

Then we get into circles on the beach so we can hear testimonies from the ones getting baptized.

My two students, Zach and Parker, shared how they came to Christ. Both had been brought to church by friends. Zach when he was in high school, and Parker just 6 months ago. It was so awesome hearing their testimonies and what Jesus has done in their lives since they received him as their Lord and Savior.

We prayed for them and then all tromped down to the water. My co-worker Kevin (he was Zach's bible study leader in high school) and I were going to baptize the guys so we started wading in the water. But then suddenly Parker ran right by us and jumped in the ocean. We all started laughing. Is he baptizing himself? But he knew the water was going to be fah-reeeeeezing so he figured he'd just get in and get the cold-feeling over with. So Kevin and I followed suit and bounded in after him!

After baptizing Parker, we baptized Zach (blurry picture).

Then all their friends and family joined us with hugs and yells of "Congratulations!" and we took a million pictures.
Oh Happy Day! (Check out this song)

P.S. This is Parker's status update on facebook: "God is so awesome!!! Baptisms today were amazing!!! To my church family and brothers and sisters in Christ, I love you all so much, I can't put in to words how much you mean to me. Between you and God, I've been affected and changed in more ways than you could possibly know. Thank you all so much!"