And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name. Acts 22v16

I think today was my best day yet in San Salvador. Usually, the last day of a mission team’s week is spent at the beach, enjoying each other’s company and relaxing after a long week of hard work. But today was different. Today, the church filled a school bus with children and adults from Guayabo, a village on the side of a volcano where our first and largest Children’s center sits, and drove them to the beach to be baptized.

For most of the children, today was their first time at the ocean! Any beach is my absolute favorite place on earth, so to share in the childlike joy of the waves crashing into your chest and the sand squishing between your toes, well that, dear friends, would have been enough to sustain my happiness for weeks. But because God is working in all the nooks and crannies of His creation, I got to witness the joy of six people (three kids!) dropping their sins at the foot of Jesus’ cross and walking away drenched in salvation.

As soon as the baptisms ended, what had been a gray and cloudy morning became a bright, sunshiny day! It was truly as if God parted the heavens to let us know that He and His angels were rejoicing with us. (Luke 15v10)

After the baptisms, I walked the beach with some missionaries and played in the pool with the kids. Although I still believe wholeheartedly that God created me for Youth Ministry, there’s just something about a child yelling my name and entrusting me to carry them to the deep end of the pool that makes me wonder if God might just have something extra planned for me here.

Jesus tells us to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Today, I began to believe that I might just be able to obey that command (as long as they’re always beach baptisms 😉😎).