Kate's Baptism

Today has been a long but good Sunday.  Church was good, we had a great lunch afterwards at our favorite Mexican joint, and in the afternoon, I took the big kids to the grocery store to get dry goods to donate to our local food pantry.  I will blog more on that tomorrow.  However, the highlight of the day by far was Kate's baptism.

Our church is really blessed to have a lot of young families.  And, as young families do, we are having a lot of babies.  Thus, we do a lot of baptisms.  And I love it.  I am constantly encouraged and humbled during this part of the service when I see families bring their young babies up and make a commitment in front of the local church body to raise this child to love the Lord.  And the church in return also makes a commitment to the family to encourage and support them in this endeavor. 

The month before we left for China to get Kate, I remember being really moved by the one or two baptismal services.  In fact, when the church had us come forward to pray for us before we traveled I shared how I looked forward to the day when we would bring Kate forward to present her for baptism.  Well, that day finally arrived.  And it was a blessing.

 In our church, before the sacrament of Baptism is performed, our pastor will explain what Infant Baptism is and what it is not (and for the purposes of this blog, I am not going to get into that...I know it is a sensitive issue for some).  Then he invites the family forward which in our case was done with some trepidation taking two toddlers forward for the service.  Once we are on stage the pastor asks the mother to read a portion of Scripture that is to be a blessing or encouragement for this child.  Marti read from Psalm 139:14-16 today.  It reads:

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
       your works are wonderful,
       I know that full well.

 15 My frame was not hidden from you
       when I was made in the secret place.
       When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

 16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
       All the days ordained for me
       were written in your book
       before one of them came to be.

Then our pastor asks the father to pray for the child.  The following is what I prayed for Kate:

• Thank You That You Are Our Father
• Thank You That You Choose Us, Spiritual Orphans
• Thank You That You Are The First Adoptive Father 
• Thank You For Moving Our Hearts to Adopt
• Thank You For Meeting Every Financial Need for the Adoption
• Thank You For Ministering to Us While We Waited
• Thank You For Adding Kate to Our Family

• We Praise You for Her Good Health
• We Praise You for Her Growth Since We Returned
• We Praise You for Her Adapting to Her New Family
• We Praise You for Her Siblings Accepting and Loving Her
• We Praise You for This Body Who is Encouraging US and Loving Kate

• We Ask that You Continue to Blend Our Family
• We Ask that You Continue to Help Kate Grow Physically and Spiritually
• We Ask that You Help Her Meet All the Challenges that Lay Before Her As An Adopted Daughter
• We Ask for Guidance, Strength, Patience, Love to Bring Kate Up To Love You
• We Ask that Kate Love You With Her Whole Heart
• We Ask that Kate Would Never Know A Day without Your Love 
• We Ask that Use Kate as an Example of YOUR Adoptive Love for Your People

• We Pause and Lift Up China
• We Pray For the Thousands and Thousands of Children Orphaned Because they Were Born a Girl, or With a “Defect”
• We Pray that China Would End their One-Child Policy
• We Pray That China Would End Their Persecution of Christians
• We Pray For The Chinese Church to Grow in Maturity and Love
• We Pray That The Chinese Church Will Show Love to the Orphans in China

• Finally We Pray For Grace Covenant to Continue to Become a Place that Ministers to the Orphan, the Widow, and the Oppressed 
• We Pray for Other Families Here to Consider Adoption and That the Church Will Help These Families With Encouragement and Resources

We Come to You as Joint-Heirs With Jesus,

In His Name We Pray,

Amen

Finally, the pastor will perform the sacrament and then pray for us.  Even though it only took 5 minutes of the service time it was an incredible time to stop, commit ourselves publicly to raise Kate to love the Lord, and for Kate to be welcomed into the visible church as a covenant child.  Yes, some day she will need to accept Christ as her Lord and Saviour, but today was an incredibly important and meaningful day for her and our family. 

Comments

[Jon B]

How wonderful! The traditional Chinese jacket is very cool too Tim. Wish I could have been there.