A New Sister

Camp is such a different experience than back home. Here’s how it’s different. It’s about 10 days long, and the staff brings their families and babysitters along. They wake up each morning at 9 am to the sound of silly Russian folk music, then with people calling them to come to the morning workout session. Breakfast is at 10am, lunch at 2pm and dinner at 7pm. There is a lot of free time, but the staff uses that time to build relationships with the campers. They usually have two daily sessions that have about an hour of songs and skits and then at least an hour or more of preaching. Also, the rooms and bathrooms are quite different than what one would expect for camp. Well the rooms aren't bad, it's just a different setup than normal. The bathrooms are what's really not for the faint of heart! But, hey I survived and so did Julie! It was a learning experience! :)

But you know with all of the differences there were some amazing things I got to see. One of them I wouldn't trade the world for, and it has to do with my new friend and sister, Anya, when she was baptized. Anya has a pretty rough home life, her mother is mentally insane and verbally abusive and her father is strongly against Christianity. So, it was such an incredible thing to see when she was baptized, because it was a step of faith.

Baptisms are done a little different here. First of all, there isn’t a baptistery with man made lighting and manually heated water. The “baptistery” was the ocean with the sun lighting up the day and heating up the water.

Everyone walked out to the beach and started singing, while the Anya, the pastor, and the photographer and video guy made their way out into the ocean. The ocean is very shallow where we were, so it took them about five minutes to finally get deep enough. When they arrived, the pastor turned and faced the crowd on the beach and raised his hands toward the sky. A hush fell over the crowd. Even though they were pretty far out into the water, you could hear Pastor Eduard's voice. As he was praying with his hands lifted to the sky dedicating our new sister to God, I an image came to my mind of what it was like for Moses, when he parted the sea. I realized, that this was what it was like during Jesus' day when he would go out a little ways from the shore and preach to the crowd.

Pastor Eduard amen carried in the wind, and all was quiet as we watched. The second she was lifted from the water, the praise music started back up. Then Pastor Eduard raised his hands again to the sky and Anya did the same. You could see a huge smile on her face and as she prayed to God. I could feel the Holy Spirit there with us on that beach and chills covered my body. Wow, what a sight to behold. That was the sign of true freedom! Even though her father threatened all sorts of things if she was baptized, she trusted in her Heavenly Father, no matter the cost.

Welcome to the family, Anya!