It was the last few minutes before our Asian friends were set to arrive for our special Saturday evening fellowship. This wasn’t going to be just any fellowship, for four of our guys who made decisions to follow God in the previous weeks were going to take the big step and get baptized! We were rushing around filling the pool, peeling fruit, and cutting up schedules. We were excitedly talking about how awesome it was that all the people getting baptized that night were guys (women far outnumber men in the Asian church), to which I shouted out, “It’s a man-tism!!”
While the night had a few hiccups to start-most of the guys showing up late, one guy not having clothes to change into, etc., it all quickly faded away in the light of what God was doing in that place. Not only were we doing a baptism, but it was the first time our fellowship was being completely led by our Asian brothers and sisters in Christ. They did awesome! I was so proud to watch each of them step out to be used by God in such a powerful way, and I know that He is going to use them more and more in the future.
It would take too long to share ALL the awesome details of last night, but I want to share a few stories with you.
The first is about our friend R, whom you may remember from a previous blog I sent out. R decided to join the family after attending our fellowship for over a year, and watching him get baptized was so special. One of the girls in our group even cried, because she was so moved that he had finally made the decision to follow Him.
The second story is about a new brother named A. Before A was born, his mother and father tried for years to have a child but were unable to, a circumstance which is frowned upon in Asian culture. Even though they weren’t believers, they went to a church and after the people there prayed over them, A’s mom became pregnant with him. Both his parents decided to follow God, but they didn’t want to force their beliefs on their son and instead allowed him to choose for himself. After going back and forth for years and years, A finally committed his life to God and was baptized as part of the man-tism!
God is so awesome! This was such a powerful night for our city and the church God is raising up here. He is doing a mighty work right now, and it is only the beginning! Please stand with us and our group here in the X. Ask that God would give our people boldness, and nothing would stand in the way of His movement going forward!