For the love of Fulani: Almost drowning

In October I had the privilege of translating for a team in a village about an hour away. I love translating, although it can be very hard, because it sometimes gives me that extra push to be bold that I need. Anyway, I was translating in the compound of a man that had heard the Gospel a year prior and he listened intently to everything that was being said and kept saying "This is good. This is good." which we hear all the time. But as the volunteers were leaving, he pulled me aside and said, "I accept." That was it.. "I accept." In those two words, any desire I had to leave evaporated and we stood there talking about what he meant. Long story short, in those few minutes after the team left, this man accepted Christ. I was privileged enough to be there when he did. I was privileged enough to be the reaper of many others including me and my B who had sowed the seed. What a rush!!!

Unfortuanately all of October, November and December was filled with teams and so we didn't have a lot of time to get back out to his house. But we'd given him an audio Bible and had called him every month. So when we finally had time, his house was our first stop. We took a friend,"Michael" with us so that he could share his testimony and talk about baptism. And sure enough, our new friend was ready so off we went.

We got out to the pool of water, which was dirty, murky and white from the soil and the two men started walking down into the water. At this point a nice little bird decided to fly down and disrupt the surface of the water which caused both men to literally jump and come running back to the shore. HIL.A.RIOUS! "Michael" has baptized people before, but apparently he forgot to really explain what was going to happen. So we prayed and our new friend bent at the waist as "Michael" pushed his head down....and held it! Our new friend just stood there, bent at the waist with his head completely submerged and "Michael" just held his head under. He started yelling at him "Bend your knees. Bend your knees!" but seeing as his head was under the water he couldn't hear. So finally after what seemed like minutes (actually it was probably only 15 seconds), our new friends bent his knees and went all the way under. They came up laughing and carrying on like two old friends and I sighed a huge sigh of relief that we hadn't just drowned our new friend!

So note to self: When having someone perform a baptism, even if they've done it lots before, make sure they explain what is supposed to happen so they don't accidentally drown the person!