Drainage Ditch Baptism

Recently one of our contacts in Laos was invited to visit a village to minister to three people who’d recently decided to follow Jesus. The small house church in their village had no pastor, and so this brother went to disciple the three new believers and other Christians in the village.

The pastor taught for several hours, and at the end the three new believers asked if they could be baptized. Nine other believers also said they had not yet been baptized and asked if the pastor would baptize them, too.

The village is not located near any body of water, so the only place they could find for the baptism was a drainage ditch with just barely enough water to submerge someone.

There was one problem: the drainage ditch ran directly in front of the home of the village leader, a communist. However, these brave Christians were determined to be baptized, and all 12 of them were. But shortly after they returned to their meeting place, a messenger arrived, demanding that
all of them report to the village elder immediately. They found police officers waiting and all of them were taken for questioning.

The most severe questioning was for the visiting pastor. Was he the representative of the official church for their area? No, he told them, but he had been invited by the villagers to come.

Thankfully, our brother was not arrested. He was, however, given a strict warning NOT to return. Village officials in Laos sometimes give grudging acceptance to existing Christians, but they are firmly against evangelism activities that lead new people to faith.

These new Christians knew where the village elder lived; they knew that holding a baptism service right in front of his house would be noticed. Yet they wanted to complete the physical demonstration of their spiritual transformation even if it meant inviting hardship.

Hearing their story reminded me of the story of Philip and the Ethiopian official in Acts 8. I could hear my Laotian brothers and sisters echoing the words of that official: “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” (Acts 8:36)

Philips answer was this: “If you believe with all your heart, you may.”

These new Laotian Christians believe with all their hearts. They didn’t care if the village elder was watching or not; they wanted to fulfill Christ’s call on their lives. May we also be so bold in carrying out the things He calls us to do, regardless of who’s watching.

Todd Nettleton has served the persecuted church and VOM almost 15 years. He has been interviewed more than 1850 times by various media outlets. He's the author of Restricted Nations: North Korea, and served on the writing team for FOXE, Extreme Devotion, Hearts of Fire and other VOM books.

Comments

[S.F.]

They're not the only ones watching..."Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us thrown aside every weight, and the sin that so easily entangles us..."
Someone else is watching, too...and He will hold all accountable.

[STAR777]

question : if no water no baptism, only believe ?

question : which Kind baptism of water is Truth ?

question : is very important to baptism of water ?

question : what the purpose of baptism of water ?

question : what the meaning of baptism of water ?

question : what the purpose of baptism of SPIRIT ?

question : what the meaning of baptism of SPIRIT ?