Baptism

So I got baptized last week.  Here's why...I was baptized as an infant and grew up going to church but thinking that it was mainly about following the rules and being good enough to get to heaven.  When I came to college I fell into a pretty deep depression.  I used to never want to admit that but God has shown me how he used that time and now I'm proud to say what he saved me from.  Even though everything seemed to be going great...school, relationships, life in general, I felt completely empty and alone.  Through multiple friendships and events God eventually showed me that what I was longing for was an actual relationship with him and a real belief that Jesus already took care of my salvation by dying on the cross.  I didn't have to work hard and earn forgiveness so I could go to heaven, God had already given it to me, freely, even though I didn't deserve it. 

So God really changed my life about 7 years ago when we started to have a real relationship with each other.  It's been a while now, and I had not really thought of getting baptized because my parents had taken care of it when I was a baby.  I also thought people might think it was weird to do it now after I had "been a Christian" for so long.  A few months ago we were at the First Tuesday Prayer service at our church and they were doing baptisms.  An acquaintance stood up there and said that she had been a believer for a long time and recently felt called to baptism.  I realized through her testimony and time in the Word that baptism was about proclaiming Jesus' saving power in my life and declaring my love for him.  God really put it on my heart to go through with it.  So I was lucky enough to have Vince baptize me and have the majority of our missional community family, my mom, aunt, and a few other friends celebrate with us.  It was an amazing night of testimonies from everyone getting baptized, worship and prayer with the hundreds who came to First Tuesday, and time reflecting on Jesus' sacrifice with communion.  It was truly wonderful.  We didn't take too many pictures but here are the best 2.

Giving my testimony before getting "dunked" ;-)

Cody and Bethany brought Max out to celebrate with us.  He's the first baby of the group and we adore him!

Mack's 1st Birthday!

July 29th was Mack's 1st birthday!  He didn't come home with us until September but we wanted to celebrate anyway.  We invited quite a few people with their dogs but luckily many weren't able to come.  That's not to say that we didn't want them there but it was crazy enough with only 3 couples and 3 dogs.  Mack's best friend Emma came over even though her mom and dad weren't able to.  Jane and Ben and Stacy and Will came over.  I know Jane and Stacy from grad school and Stacy also works for Leander ISD with me.  Stacy and Will's puppy Frankie also came to play.  Even though he was about a fourth of the size Mack and Emma he liked instigating then hiding under Stacy's chair.  They all had fun and so did we!  Here are some pictures...

Best friends!!

Yummy birthday cake

Tug-of-war with the present from Frankie

Frankie is so cute

Loving his new super durable toy.  It lasted almost a week before he got to the stuffing...a miracle!