The Copeland Ramblings/

Baptisms!

On Sunday we celebrated baptisms at our church. This was the first time we have had them since our arrival. Being baptized in a muslim country is not easy. If you have a Muslim family and support network and you switch to Christianity, you will likely be cut off from everything… housing, food, work. Life here in West Africa is much different than America. It is a relational culture. Everyone depends on everyone else. You can’t survive without your family network.

Five people were baptized at our church on Sunday. It was definitely the most rewarding and exciting thing since our arrival. One of the guys who was baptized converted from Islam. He has had so many problems. His family disowned him and the people he is living with had told him that he could no longer eat with them. But each Sunday, he come with an extreme hunger to learn more about God. He is so joyful. He never stops smiling. Sometimes after church instead of greeting everyone in the traditional way, he will be standing alone with his nose in the Bible… eagerly soaking it all in and asking many questions.

Several of the others converted from a mixture of Catholicism and Animism. Even though its not Islam. The Catholic families here in Senegal will also disown their family members who switch to Christianity. We heard some pretty awesome testimonies. They shared their testimonies in either French or Jola (their native tongue) and would then be translated into either French or Jola, whichever one they did not speak in. We recorded the testimonies and would love to show them to anyone who would like to see them. And we will do our best to translate them for you. They are so touching.

We sang, we prayed, we listened to a short message and then around 12:30, we all piled out of the church into the courtyard for the baptisms. They constructed a small crate with a tarp inside to use as a baptismal. Last year they did them at the beach. But most everyone is so poor it would be too much of a burden to have to pay for transport to the beach (a couple miles away). This way more people could be there and be witnesses to such a great miracle.

The baptisms themselves were so touching, we were all holding back tears of joy. I love experiencing things  like this in cross cultural situations. I love seeing the way they do it, instead of the way I grew up seeing it done and doing myself. I love seeing them love the Lord and serve Him with all their might and doing the normal “Christian” things but in ways that you would not see in my culture. They way we give offering, the way we sing, the way we pray, the way we take communion, the way a church service is run. Its all different and it is all still so pleasing to the Lord and based on the bible!

The frame work for the baptisms was very much the same. The person being baptized gets in the water. The people who are doing the baptisms say the typical baptism words (but in French!!) and they dunk! But it was so different to me to see what happened AFTER they came up from the water. Everyone would breakout into song and start dancing and shouting and cheering and clapping. It was truly a CELEBRATION! Such VICTORY! Wow! We had four young men get baptized and one woman.

The woman in our church are like sisters. They ban together. Its like a secret club. I love it. After the lady was baptized they all had branches from a tree. They sang and danced and celebrated together. One of their own was baptized. I am not sure what it is, but it seems that woman don’t get baptized very often in this culture. I really hope and pray that that will change!

We have a lot of photos and video footage. We are hoping to get it uncut and loaded onto the internet for anyone who wants to see it. We also hope to make a shorter video that has been edited, but I am not sure exactly when we will be able to get that up. But for now enjoy the sampling of photos. Also there are a bunch more on our flickr photos page. Feel free to check it out there.

Finally, PLEASE be in prayer for these 5. And also for all the other many many believers who are being persecuted daily here in Senegal and all around the world. They need our prayers and support. They face much difficulty on a daily basis. We live such free lives not being persecuted for our religion. Don’t take it for granted!

On this day..

• Food! - 2010
• Canaan's 'Pet' - 2008
• Canaan Loves Arrowroot Cookies - 2007