Hot Baptism

You can bet that this passed Sunday the angels were a-singin' and the 'saints' were cheering when they saw our sister Merle get baptized, and while both her and her husband professed their faith and became 'members' of New Hope. Talk about the highs and lows of life! Ask members of New Hope what the last couple of months, even half a year (if not more) has been like, and they will say its been the 'highest of highs and the lowest of lows'. We are continuing to feel the tension as a body of New Hope as we work through how to love each other, support and encourage one another, and communicate with each other, when we have different ideas and hopes for our community, different experiences that filter our expectations, and different giftings. And believe me, it hurts. At the same time, we laugh with our friend Calvin at his awesome sense of humour. We enjoy the bonds created in our small groups, the fun we have in our community events and the collaboration we establish working alongside of each other picking up garbage to clean up our streets. And we get to celebrate the work that God is doing in our lives, particularly this Sunday, what he has done in Merle's life. Merle shared her story of how God has been at work in her life to bring her closer to Him as his child, and so we celebrated this through her baptism. As Merle puts it, although she wandered, he never let her wander too far. There has got to be no more of a unique and simply beautiful way of getting baptized, then in a hot tub! And so, 50 plus people crammed into Merle's home to celebrate her baptism with her family. Faces plastered up against the windows of the small hot tub room, a few children were able to fit inside to watch, cameras capturing highlights of the celebration to be used as a continual reminder of God's love. As Merle was brought under the water in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit, and up again, we were reminded of how God calls his children to die to our hurtful, selfish and broken lives (symbolized by going under the water) so that we can be made clean and forgiven - made new (symbolized by coming up out of the water) to have life together with God, forever. Thanks Merle for sharing this day with us, and for singing from your heart about giving your everything to Christ! (Oh, and for being soooo steamy after you came out of the water that we could visually imagine the Spirit alive and radiating from you! :) )