Pool Shenanigans

A few weeks ago, as I’ve mentioned before, I got baptised! It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for a dip in the pool – but nevertheless I was quite nervous/excited, and had only gotten 3 hours sleep! About lunch time I rocked up to a lovely house, full of lovely people from church who were there to support me and the four other peeps who were declaring their love for Jesus. When the time came us Baptees lined up along the pool and one by one shared our testimonies, the stories of how God had made himself known to us and how that had changed our lives. It was great to hear the others stories as I hadn’t heard a couple of them before. Here is what I shared:

Jesus was very generous in making himself known to me from a very early age. I remember believing even before the age of 5. But it didn’t hit me until about yr 5 that having a personal relationship with Jesus meant praying and reading the bible during the week, not just relying on church, youthgroup and scripture. During early high school the youthgroup leaders started handing out bible studies to do, and this was when my relationship with Jesus really started to grow, when I started to be more committed and to grow in my knowledge of Him who has saved me. What really encouraged me to keep persevering was the Christ like example of my youthgroup leaders, who I could tell genuinely loved Jesus and had a joy and purpose in life – and I really wanted that joy and purpose to be a reality in my life.

Earlier this year I was having doubts whether I was a Christian, as I felt that I hadn’t grown and I didn’t feel close to God. This was quite a worrying and upsetting time, but with the help of Christian friends and God’s word I could see that I was a child of God, I was just quite lazy and stubborn. But I don’t want to settle with being someone who just escapes the flames, I want to be a child of God, and for my heavenly Father to say to me, “Well done, good and faithful servant”. I really want to live fully for God!

As some of you know, I have been sick for quite a number of years with constant colds and viruses, glandular fever and a parasite. With the sickness brought many days in bed doing nothing and as a result depression, as most of the time I was stuck with just my thoughts, and only the energy and concentration for a bit of a quiet time. With this as my past and sometimes present experience it was hard to think that I was living fully for God, when I could hardly so anything! God has a plan though, as I know that I am weak and he is strong. He has grown me in faith, as he is sovereign over all even the pain and the hardships.

A few months ago God used a couple of books to really open my eyes to the reason I wasn’t growing and to see how great God is. Whilst reading the Prodigal God, He helped me to see that I had religious tendencies, and to see how awesome His forgiveness and compassion is through reading What’s so Amazing about Grace? Since realising these things, having this changed perspective has really opened me up for God to grow me to be more in the likeness of his Son Jesus – through whom I love and am forever grateful that he took the punishment which I deserve. Thank you Lord for your extravagant love!

After we shared, we each got dunked by our ministers in the pool, which was a tad cold! We had an interesting array of attire for the dunk... one guy wore a suit(!), I wore a jumpsuit with tights (when else am I going to wear it?! So I thought I would crank it out), but mostly t-shirts and shorts or boardshorts were worn. This display of public affection was then followed by some beautiful prayers for each Baptee, and then a delicious array of culinary delights for the taste buds to num num on – my favourite being tandoori/yoghurt chicken on a roll, delish! There were also some fancy salads, but I don’t do salad – you don’t make friends with salad, you don’t make friends with salad...!

Until next time,

Your friend Liz : )

P.S. My posts are have been living in the past lately... as I have soo many things to share but didn't share at the time of shenanigan... hoping to catch up soon!