Baptism & Bikinis

All day I've pondered what I'd write for today's memory, I kept comin' up dry. Well... tonight at my women's bible study we had to think up some stuff for the "ice breaker". One thing we had to share was a favorite memory. Then it came to me... I would write about my baptism. I think it's a pretty great story. My "salvation process" is far too long a story, (maybe save that for another time) so I'll begin with baptism. Through a turn of events my husband, I and our 7 year old daughter at the time all came to Christ and knew that our next step of obedience was baptism. I wasn't embarrassed about my decision to become a believer in Christ, but the thought of going into the baptismal and getting dunked in front of the entire congregation petrified me! Seriously, all those people would see me with wet hair and mascara dripping down to my chin. I was just entirely too nervous... but I would be baptised. I decided that if Jesus was baptised in the River Jordan, I could be baptised in a similar body of water as well.

It was 1998. We lived in Newton, Kansas at the time and Harvey County East Lake was just around the corner about 10 miles. So... we made the decision to be baptised there, all 3 of us. It would take place after the Sunday service and we and whoever else wanted to trek out to the lake would witness this blessed event. We pulled up to the beach area with about 12-15 cars trailing behind in procession. We made quite a spectacle... especially with what happened next. We got out of our vehicle and began to put on our white, zip up baptismal robes - ya know... "wash me and I will be whiter than snow" - the robe symbolized the purity of baptism and all that it stands for. Once we were in our proper attire we proceeded down to the beach. WHOA! There were some young women sunbathing in their string bikinis. Oh geesh... seemed a bit... um.... uncomfortable. I bet they were wondering what on earth was happening. They were sipping drinks and soaking up the sun and here come all these people, and "what's with the robes?!" ha ha. Comical don'tchya think?

It was October 11th and a as far as the weather was concerned... we were cuttin' it pretty close to be climbin' in the chilly waters to be baptised - but we were determined that we would do it before the temperatures began dropping even more as we neared late fall. It was clearly a pretty nice day, as evidenced by the sunbathers, but that water was COLD! Luke went first. He waded out to Brother Pat and was immersed. He came up smiling... and shivering. I was next... I waded out and brr.... it was colder than I had imagined, but I toughed it up - I was so excited it didn't matter. Brother Pat dunked me and I came up smilin'. Then was Ciara's turn... being 7 years old she was a bit more expressive than we were about the water temperature, but she did great. She held her nose and went under... as Brother Pat pulled her back up out of the water and exclaimed "raised in the newness of life"... a tiny little fish jumped right in front of her. It was the sweetest thing ever. All of our friends were cheering and hugging us, even though we were wet and cold, then everyone broke out into song, " I have decided to follow Jesus... no turning back... no turning back." It was a beautiful expression of our faith and obedience to God.

As memorable as that day was for us, I can imagine the girls in the bikinis will never forget it either. :)