Baptizing.....My first time......

[taco_harvell]

Well, I said awhile back that I would try to share this story sometime so I finally decided to.

My first baptismal service:

I was the youth pastor, and also serving in the capacity of assistant to the pastor when he was injured on the job which lead him to rely on me even more for help. We had 2 teen age girls who wanted to be baptized and one almost 40 year old man. Our little church had no baptismal and being the only Apostolic church for miles around we couldn't really just call someone up and ask if we could come over. It was the dead of winter and we were left searching for somewhere to baptize these three. The pastor asked if I would do it and of course I said yes.

He calls me about mid-week and tells me we were given permission to use an outdoor swimming pool at someones house locally the following Sunday. We had church that morning and then drove over to the house where I would be doing the baptizing at. The high on this day was 40 degrees with a strong wind making it feel like it was below freezing.

Now, the next part is partially my fault, I new this man and should have known better than to listen when he said "Bro. Jason you get in in and I am just going to say a FEW words and pray".  So, I obediently climbed into the iceberg which somehow had managed to stay in liquid form while still clearly being as cold as ice . The pastor then proceeds to say a few words, and a few more words, and a few more words, and literally 26 minutes after I climbed in the pool of ice water he finishes his bible study on Jesus name baptism and decides to pray. At this point I literally had zero feeling from my stomach down.

The first person to get baptized was a 13 year old girl. She got into the pool walked out to me, you could tell she was cold but she hid it well. I baptized her in the Glorious Name of Jesus and she got out as quickly as possible. Next, was a 14 year old girl, she got in was a little slower to get to me than the first girl but she did well. I baptized her and she got out quickly.

Now it was time for the almost 40 year old man. He stepped up put his big toe in the water let out a girlish scream and began reconsidering this whole thing. After about 10 minutes of coaching he was finally on the first step of the pool. With every step he took farther into the water he would let out a squeal and with every squeal I couldn't help but snicker at him.

Now, I think it's time I should tell you about the one that didn't make it out of the waters that day. When i got in I noticed a dead lizard on the bottom of the pool. So knowing how teen age girls are sometimes I positioned myself to where they would not be able to see it. It worked and they were none the wiser. Well apparently either I moved or the shifting waters moved the lizard to where it was now visible and I was unaware of this.

When this man finally got to me after what seemed like an eternity of waiting for him. I began to tell him to hold his nose and the so ons and so fourths of every baptism. I was just about ready to put him under and both of us out of our misery (the parts of me that were once numb now were not and I was in agony) when he suddenly lets go of his nose points in the pool and yells "look there's a lizard bet he froze to death too". Everyone lost it including me, I quickly put his hand back over his nose and put him under in the Wonderful name of Jesus before he supplied any more comic relief and before I had to go to the hospital to have my feet cut off from frost bite. He came up running for the stars squealing about the frozen water all the way.

It was definitely not the most spiritual baptismal service I had ever been to, but all three were baptized the right way. After I got out a saint came to me and whispered they had been praying for me cause according to their watch I was in that pool for almost an hour. I wont ever forget my first time to baptize someone that is for sure. (Oh, yes there is a video of it floating around somewhere.) The next time was much better and I will share that story later. 

[Kloey]

Poor little lizard.  It's a great story, though.  I was baptized when I was a child.  Mind you, I was a child in the 80s.  My Mother had curled/poofed my hair like there was no tomorrow.  Think Aqua Net...lol.

[Chseeads]

Sounds like a glorious time in the Lord. lol

Was that in AL or where? 

I've heard of various ones up here where they were baptized when there was snow on the ground and/or they had to cut holes in the ice. 

Lord. 

[MelodyB]

Thank you Jesus for the heated tank we had when I was baptized! Hehe.

[taco_harvell]

Okay now my second time to baptize..........

We had 2 young ladies in our youth group that wanted to be baptized. So our pastor realized another winter baptizing outside was probably not something I was looking forward to, and decided to reach  out to a baptist church a couple of towns away. The pastor agreed to let us use there church as long as he could be there. My pastor agreed and on a Sunday night after both services were over me the pastor and these two teen age girls headed over there when we got their the baptist assistant pastor and pastor were both there. The baptist pastor actually asked if he could sing and my pastor agreed and he sang "The Old Man is Dead". I then climbed into their nice warm heated baptismal tank and baptized both girls in the marvelous name of Jesus.

After I got out dried off and changed the baptist pastor rushed me, grabbed my hand shook it and his exact words were "You are the only person i have ever seen baptize the way the bible says to do it". This began a long conversation about Jesus Name baptism which the baptist pastor seemed to enjoy but the assistant didn't. We finally left there about an hour after that. From that point on though if that pastor saw me in public he called me "the baptizer" he said it was because "I knew how to do it". It wasn't long after that he left that church and this area rather abruptly. I have always wondered what happened to him and if he ever started to "baptize the way the bible said to do it" himself.

[EricShane]

this reminds me.. an apostolic person told me the other day "If you didnt get baptised in the name of Jesus, you only got wet!" lol