Friday, June 6, 2008

Happy Water Baptism Day to ME! :)

This may be just another day for you...

But to me it marked the beginning of the greatest journey in my life - this was the day that I got water baptised exactly 9 years ago!

I still remember everything that happened that faithful day...

It was a bright and sunny Sunday morning. I woke up early, excited. But then cos I missed my own cgm on Friday night (I was actually taking Basic French @YMCA that time), I had to attend makeup cg. It was a long journey from my house to that place - Bedok. I still remember whose house it was (she's still a ZS in church now but at time she wasn't married yet). The makeup cg was kinda weird. Only had 5 members including the cgl. I had another member that missed cg so she was there. And my friend that brought me to church accompanied me there as well. So it was the 3 of us plus the cgl's own member. *hahaha*

Given that, the meeting was relatively short. The cgl also knew that I was getting water baptised that day so she let us off early to have lunch then make our way down to East Coast. So after the short meeting, my members and I went to eat KFC. The water baptism thing was like at 3plus so after our lunch at 1plus, we still had more than sufficient time. One of my member left so it's just left the friend that brought me to church and me, and we took a bus to East Coast - cannot remember what bus we took though.

And my friend was her usual easily excited self. *hahaha* I didn't exactly know where the thing was held and my friend assured me time and again that she knows exactly where the place is, where we are going and what we are doing. So before long, we alighted from the bus to walk along East Coast.

And this was what we did for a REALLY LOOOOOOOOOOOONG time.

I think we easily could have walked for close to an hour in the hot afternoon sun. All the while my friend assuring me that we are reaching. And you know in those days, the HP was not such a popular device yet. So both of us only had our pagers with us. Before long, it was already 3plus and the water baptism site was no where to be seen... While our pagers kept beeping as the rest of my cg were all looking for us, we had no way to contact them. I was already sun-baked and tired from all the walking when suddenly we saw scores of people standing along the beach.

*THE PROMISED LAND*

Since we were already late, we started to run towards the crowd. I had already missed the praise & worship, missed the declaration part that we always go through before water baptism. I was so afraid that I would have already missed my turn! Then suddenly I saw the cgl whose makeup cg I attended earlier. When she saw me, she was really happy and exclaimed, "Where have you both been?" With that she said a quick prayer for me and led me to the line where the rest of the candidates were moving into the sea. Before I could even compose myself, I found myself already half-submerged in the sea water approaching all the action.

Pst T was the one that baptised me. =)

Unfortunately heaven didn't split open and a thunderous voice didn't go, "this is my daughter in whom I am well-pleased". As I came out from the water, I only remember the salt water stinging my eyes cos I wore contacts. My faithful friend ran towards me with the towel and that was when I finally met my members. I was given a bag of salt, a big white candle (I still have it with me now), a card and an apple that I was supposed to finish eating. While walking to the toilet to wash up, another drama-mama incident happened. My slipper strap broke.

It must have been tough for it given all the walking that I did. I still remember my cg helper using some scrap plastic strips that he found along the way to tie my slipper as I hobbled along. Thank God I finally made my way to Marina Square where we ate at Kenny Rogers. But of course this was after I went to buy a pair of sandals.

And so this was my water baptism.

No fireworks or anything spectacular, but full of action & drama with God bringing me to my destination. And this has how it was been for me for the passed 9 years. Nothing spectacular but full of adventures as I continue my walk with God, who still brings me to my various destinations.

I still welcome belated water baptism gifts till now. =)

0 comments: