People going home after Noah's baptism

People climb back up out of the riverbank through thick buah merah groves and Perin and Alethea walk in front of their garden. Alethea is wearing her little school dress..my favorite.

Noah and Jimi feeding his new pet bird

Post-baptism joy, and the walk back home

Noah being baptized

Jimi prays, then I pronounce the Trinitarian formula, and then together we baptize Noah. Afterward, Noah prays by himself the following prayer:

"God, thank you because I am saved. Please save the K people so that they know about You, please save Ali, and please help all the people here who are sick get better. In the Name of Jesus, Amen."

Noah's Baptism - at the river

For a year now Noah has expressed spiritual desires and interest. Starting 6 months ago he stated that he would like to believe and he prayed almost every night for just such a thing. At that point he said, "I want to believe but I am not sure whether I do or not." So he continued to pray for true faith and true repentance. He often told me, "I don't know if I can go to heaven because I am not very good and I know I don't deserve heaven."

The last 3 weeks, however, he has initiated many conversations with me and was very very happy and told us that he is saved now, and that now he knows. Along with this seems to have come a greater love for Jesus too and a real joy. When he is playing alone he sings to himself ("how I love Jesus...because he first loved me..") and has even prayed at non-set times and un-encouraged by us. He wants to pray for sick kids here in the village and when he sees a naked kid or a particularly poor looking kid, he asks us to give the kid some of his own limited toys or clothes or some of his candy out of his (limited) candy supply.

There seems to be a sensitivity and a conviction for sin. For most of this year he stated "I cannot go to heaven by myself because I do bad things sometimes." Now he states that even though he knows that he cannot do enough good things to get to heaven, that he knows Jesus paid for his sin and Jesus is perfect so that he can go to heaven because of what Jesus did. When he does something wrong, he has come and reported it to us, and even when he doesn't know we are watching and he has accidently bumped into Alethea or when Alethea tests him or hits him (she is a bruiser) Noah has tried to apologize or hug or teach Alethea. One time when he thought he hurt a local tribal kid (they were playing rough) he came and sat and wept and told us that he was afraid that he hurt him and he didn't want to hurt anyone. He seems to be a very sensitive soul.

There is also a desire to hear more about God and the Bible. His ears perk up and he requests us to read the bible together. He likes to lay and talk at night and asks many theological questions.

He wanted to be a soldier earlier this year, but now since he has been saved he says that he desires to tell people about Jesus.


He says, "Daddy, you are old and will probably die sooner than me. But I am young and I might live a long time. This means that God can use me a lot longer. I want God to use me"

When talking about persecution that happens in many places here in this country, Noah has stated "It is better to die than to not tell people about Jesus. Daddy, if I tell people about Jesus and they kill me, then we don't have to worry because I will go to heaven."

Teresa teaches him daily and they pray together several times per day.

Noah and Daddy in church prior to his baptism

Noah has believed and has requested baptism.

This is his public profession in front of the church (the church has seen better days, the roof just blew off last week).