Our Picture of the Summer

When we debrief each evening with our visiting missions teams almost without fail we ask them what their "picture of the day" has been. By that we mean, what God-moment, what interaction with a child, with a team member, or what insight did you gain today that you are fairly certain will remain "burned" into the slideshow of your mind for a long time to come.

Even for us it's good to ask ourselves this question on a daily basis. It keeps you aware of what God is doing around you, and it keeps you asking God questions like, "What do you want me to be learning about You, about me, and others".

As we look back over the summer there are several of those "pictures of the day" that stick out to us - but one day that will remain burned into our minds for the rest of our lifetimes is June 16th, 2011. On that day, our four oldest children, and our nephew Mike, visiting from Florida were all baptized in our pool here in Cancun.

For years, a couple of our girls have been asking about being baptized, but we always found ourselves wanting to make sure they were really old enough to understand the decision they were making to publicly declare their faith, and to claim Jesus as their King, and to declare their loyalty to Him, to follow Him, to love Him, to serve Him.

So before we headed out to the pool that evening, we sat down with our children and Ryan Massey (who would baptize them) to be sure that they understood exactly what baptism meant. To be honest, it was a surreal evening. As a Christian parent you begin to raise your children to know who the Lord is, but to watch them knowingly and publicly make the decision on their own to follow Him is a whole different story. It was amazing to recall their stories, and to share with the witnessed gathered around that evening how we have watched our children grow in the knowledge and understanding of the Lord. It was a celebration of praise as we remembered the days they had each prayed to receive Jesus as their savior as young children, and now as we waded in the water with them this night to take "their next step" - it was awesome.

We are so very proud of our children - and were so excited to celebrate this very day with them! Corinna, Chloe, Jacob & Cameron (and Mike, our nephew): We continue to declare each of your lives as SET APART for the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray you'll always remember WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST, that you are co-heirs with Him, and that ALL the spiritual gifts and blessings available to Jesus are available to you too! May you learn to walk in that truth, and function in that power as you grow to be warriors for the Kingdom! We love you all so very much!