Belief Leads to Blessing and then to Baptism

We had another baptism at our little house church in Plaang Yaow!  Just writing that makes me smile.  One was a young woman in her 20s who has struggled with the decision to follow Christ for some time, but finally saw her hopelessness without God and decided to follow Him.  The second was a 14 year old girl who has come to meetings for a long time with her aunt, but never wanted to follow Christ.  Finally, in April, she told her aunt, “I believe in God now, and if I get into Benja (a private high school that takes only the best students) I will get baptized.”  The day came, and Benja announced the names of all the students they had accepted.  Bam, our little 14 year-old’s name was not listed.  It was a painful blow to Bam and her family.  College acceptance is greatly related to the quality of the high school one attends, so failing to enter Benja put a cloud over Bam’s future.  A couple weeks later, as the family discussed the matter again (it was hard to talk about anything else), Taew, her aunt, said, “perhaps you should not make deals with God.  You either believe in Him and choose to obey Him or not.  You shouldn’t make conditions for God saying you will only obey Him (and be baptized) if He helps you.”  Wonderfully, Bam agreed.  She called me at almost 10 o’clock that very night (it was a Saturday) and told me of her faith and asked to be baptized in the morning at church.  I talked with her about her faith and made plans to talk with her more in the morning before baptizing her after the worship service on Sunday.  Less than an hour after talking to me, several friends excitedly called her.  “Bam!  Benja is accepting more students!  They just announced it on TV.  Go on their website and see if you got in!”  Bam’s whole family went into an upstairs room together and went to the school’s website together.  And there was Bam’s name.   She had been accepted.  Her fledgling faith had been immediately rewarded – and we baptized her the very next day.     Her uncle, our national leader the Plang Yeow House Church,  was given the honor of Baptizing her.  What a wonderful family event!