By V.J Wakefield
On February 11th, 2018, I stepped into the water and was baptized. Which then would mark this year as my one year anniversary of being baptized. However, most of you don’t know the story behind my baptism and how I came to get baptized in the first place.

Our story starts about a year ago in January when I was sitting in church when they announced that they are holding a baptism after service on February 11th. At first, I wasn’t sure about getting baptized. Yes, I believed that Jesus is my one and only Lord and Savior, but I was scared that I wasn’t ready enough. However, this was beckoning me. I felt like God was telling me to get baptized. So I decided to do it. The following Sunday, I signed up for the baptism.

Leading up to the baptism, I was kind of nervous, but yet I was really excited. The day before my baptism, I had a dream, however, it was more of a nightmare. The first nightmare that I had was kind of strange it was like a boardwalk but it was during a hurricane filled with water and there was pretty much a lot of chaos. I woke up a bit then fell back into sleep and I had another nightmare again. This time it was detailing worries that I had that I would mess up the baptism. And then I woke up. I knew that something very sinister was trying to stop me from getting baptized. So I got up and got ready to be baptized.

On this day it was snowing pretty hard and it was pretty difficult to drive to the church I attend which is Willow Creek. On the way there, my mom jokingly asked me “Are you sure you want to get baptized today?” “Yes!” I shouted. I was kind of worried about what the snow and getting there on time since I was a bit shaken by the nightmare that I had the night before and was a bit scared that it might actually happen. So we went into the building and saw a white table with blue shirts. During baptisms, they handed out shirts to the people to signify that they are getting baptized, and there was a spot that was where we were supposed to write a word that describes what this means to us and what the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The word that I wrote on the shirt was life.

So then we went to the section in the pews cut off for the people who are getting baptized. It was like a small blob of blue from a bird’s eye view. Not a lot, but I can tell that something was going to happen. After we prayed and finished the message, it was finally time. We all went onto the stage in a line, and it started. My mom was recording of course. As the line shortened and shortened, my heart began pounding against my chest. I was nervous before, but it had actually turned into excitement. I was so happy and nervous and excited. And as my turn was coming around the bend, my adrenaline was through the roof. As my feet were caressed by the water, I felt like it was where I have belonged, that I was supposed to be there.

I don’t remember the questions that the pastor said but when he asked if I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior I said yes. Yes, yes, yes. Then his arm supported my back and I plugged my nose. He then said “I hereby baptize you in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Then I went under. When I came out, I did not feel the same. When I came out, I felt like I was cleaned out, and that I was seeing the entire world for the first time in years. And when I came up, I was calmed and I was no longer afraid. I was in fact so happy. When I went out of the tub, they gave me a towel and told me to stand next to the other baptized people.

However, to most of the audience’s surprise and my dad’s (more on him later), is that we weren’t the only ones surrendering to Christ. A few people in the audience decided that it was finally be baptized themselves. One person went up. Then two. Then more and more. There was even a person in a walker go up that ramp and boldly got baptized. It was a glorious day for the Lord. The reason why this is shocking to my dad is because he does not believe. My brother, mother, and I believe but he doesn’t. And hopefully, through this example of the love, we have for God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit, my dad would return to Him. So back to the story. During while all of this was happening, my knees started knocking together. Really hard. Inside of me, I felt something become awakened, and I think it was me being born again and my new life breathing its first breath.

After that day, every day was a new day and it is one of the best days of my entire life. A few months later I was telling the husband of my mom’s friend about the dream I had and he said that he had a dream similar to that and that it was the devil who was sending these doubts to my head. At the time, I had no idea about this until then. I am happy that I took a leap and got baptized, besides the threats that the devil was trying to out into my head. I am happy with my decision to be baptized and listened to God and ignored the evil threats. Hopefully, from now on, everyone might listen to God and gather up their courage and do what He wants them to do and be who He wants them to be.

Please comment on your stories and what you think about mine.

Thank you for reading!