Down to the River

It all began two years ago with a woman who came to the hospital when she was very ill. Not only was she cured of her physical sickness, but she also came to understand the gospel and put her faith in Jesus because of the evangelistic efforts of the hospital - such as the showing of the Jesus film in the wards in local languages, the chaplains visiting and talking with the patients, and the love and bold witness of providers. 

When she was discharged to go home, she asked the chaplains to come and share with her village what they had shared with her. 

So for the past two years, a team of faithful believers have taken motos and traveled 40 minutes to this village every Friday to share the gospel and study the Bible with the attendants. The village chief is a part of this group, and he was one of those numbered among the forty-seven that were baptized today. 

I’m not sure who invented the baptistery, but I’m beginning to think they missed something.  

For there is just something about a crowd walking down together to the rivers edge, a message being preached from the banks, old lives dying in muddy water and being raised to new life in Christ, the church singing praise songs with African harmonies that echo off the water and the opposite side of the river, and onlookers doing laundry and taking canoes across the river witnessing the whole event...all this makes me think about John the Baptist and Jesus and the way it might have been done in the New Testament times. 

But what I love about baptism is that it doesn’t matter where it is located or what kind of water is there or how many people are there, for it is not the water or the words spoken or the manner in which it is done that saves. Jesus has done a work on the cross and a work in the heart, and when the person confesses belief in Jesus, they are saved and moved to a baptism by water in obedience. 

So whether that’s done in a river or a pool or a baptistery, it’s all well and beautiful because it’s not about what we do but rather all about what God has already done. What a privilege to celebrate it in so many different ways in different countries according to different cultures, and yet there is one Jesus culture. Therefore, no matter the differences (as beautiful as they are), an element of unity is woven through it all. For there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. 

And there was just one woman who was healed, both physically and spiritually, and who wanted her village to receive what she had found.