Illustrating the diversity of the global Alliance family, baptisms are taking place in a variety of venues.
Waves of Growth
A new multinational work was launched two years ago in Italy, where Alliance international workers mentor the church plant leaders, equipping them for ministry. At the Ancona church, the believers do street evangelism, distribute government-provided food to hungry families, and visit prisoners.
As a result of the team’s ministry, eight people were recently baptized in the Adriatic Sea.
A Long Wait Is Over
Last month, 16 individuals from an unreached people group were baptized in a pond in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Because of a lack of ordained pastors, these young people had to wait two years to take this important step in their walk with Christ.
These new disciples could be the ones who reach their people group for Christ.
No Excuses
“I spoke on Jesus’ command to be baptized immediately and then covered all the excuses that might keep someone from doing it,” Pastor John Braland wrote in Alliance Life last year. After reading aloud Acts 2:38–41, Braland challenged anyone in the congregation who had not yet followed the Lord in baptism to step into the aisles.
Nearly 200 Minnesotans were baptized that morning in two hot tubs set up in the sanctuary.
Make Disciples
As we celebrate these baptisms, and many others, let us also reflect on the privilege and responsibility we have in obeying one of Christ’s final directives: “‘go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’” (Matthew 28:19–20).