
More than that, I love the water baptism and celebrating changes in people's lives. Today we baptized 16 people. Marcus Danielson was one of them. His Mom took this photo (above) unbeknownst to me at the time when I was sharing a tender moment with him right after his baptism telling him how proud I am of him. I still remember years ago when he was just four and he came running towards me on the beach during the baptism and leaped in my arms and said, "Pastor Deanna...guess what? I've got God in my heart!" He had prayed the prayer of salvation at children's church that morning. He wanted to get baptized that day but Michele wasn't sure he understood it back then and wanted to wait until he was just a little older. So, today was the day! What a great day. I'm so proud of him. He's come so far! And I couldn't wait to spend a few minutes and tell him that, so this is what Mom captured on this candid pic.
I'm exhausted! We ate lunch under the pavilion and spend hours and hours in the water and on the sand and what a blessing it was to be with everyone. By the way, we had a GREAT service today! From start to finish...God did great things. Can't wait to see what's next, but I'm enjoying the present SO much. Did I mention I love our church? We have the best people in the world. We took hundreds of photos at the baptism and I'll post more this week, but I'm so spent that right now I need to get to sleep. Going now...g'night.