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Baptized by My Brother
April 6 2008 / ShareHim in Dominican Republic A, Mar. 14 - Mar. 29 '08 #278by Daniel Glassford
Personal Testimony of Daniel Glassford.
I was 15 years old, and my Mom was the trip coordinator. We were driving to Arizona when one of the teen participants called my Mom to tell her that she could not go on the mission trip due family issues. My Mom then asked me if I wanted to go. I found myself flying on a small plane headed to the Dominican Republic along with a whole bunch of teens I didn't even know. I don't know why I took my Mom up on this trip, and I was really nervous.
I got to worship on Friday morning, and the day went far faster than I wanted it to. When I got to my site it seemed that I would be preaching in a primitive location. The site looked drab as I was preaching under a black top tent. It didn't even have a pulpit. What was weird was that I was nervous until I got up front with the microphone in my hand. But then everything became normal as if I had preached 100 times before. It was amazing to me to see how God could take away my fear so quickly!
I was church planting in a very poor section of a small town. The whole area had about 100 people, and of those 100 about 30 people consistently came. I think mine was one of the most primitive sites. The people sat in white plastic chairs on a very dusty ground. Every night my computer equipment came back brown from that dust.
I had an awesome translator, whose name was George. He was a theology major from the Adventist University. We worked well as a team, and I miss him. George and I went on visitation a couple of times. It was great meeting people in their homes and encouraging them to accept Jesus.
During the meetings, I had three baptisms, and personally, I had no computer trouble. I think God made sure I didn't have computer trouble so I could help others with their computers. But as a result, I often didn't get to go over my sermon most days more than two or three times. I also got so hoarse that I could talk lower than my Dad, which was funny.
After the last meeting, I went around town to ask people to decide for baptism, and there were four more decisions for baptism. It was really cool how fast the Holy Spirit can work! It took maybe one hour to get four more decisions for baptism!
Back at home before this trip, I had always said that I wanted to my baptized by a Pastor in NY because his daughter and son were friends of mine, and the whole family was like friends of my mom and dad since college… So, I thought it would be perfect. Well, I didn’t ever do it because we never had the time to go all the way across the US to do so, and so I decided it was good to have it on this trip because I wanted to give my life to God then and not later. And so, I got baptized on the beach of Dominican Republic! The neatest thing is that I have an "older brother" from Columbia that I met on a trip three years ago. He is just finishing his theology degree in Dominican Republic and the conference president gave him permission to baptize me. So I was baptized by my "older brother." It was also the first baptism he had ever done, so it was extra special for both of us. The reason I decided to be baptized in Dominican is because I knew I was now close to God. I can base my everyday life on what I learned from preaching the campaign. I will never forget how to come close to God again.
One man, who lived across the street from the tent, didn't come to the meetings till the end. He has a marriage situation he has to fix before he can be baptized, but at the end he made a decision for baptism. He had been listening from the privacy of his home all along.
I saw God work at my meetings, and it was exciting to see people baptized. I hope that the new church plant will continue to grow.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to preach in the Dominican Republic. I couldn't have done it without ShareHim or the Quiet Hour. I know this won't be my last time preaching a campaign!
I got to worship on Friday morning, and the day went far faster than I wanted it to. When I got to my site it seemed that I would be preaching in a primitive location. The site looked drab as I was preaching under a black top tent. It didn't even have a pulpit. What was weird was that I was nervous until I got up front with the microphone in my hand. But then everything became normal as if I had preached 100 times before. It was amazing to me to see how God could take away my fear so quickly!
I was church planting in a very poor section of a small town. The whole area had about 100 people, and of those 100 about 30 people consistently came. I think mine was one of the most primitive sites. The people sat in white plastic chairs on a very dusty ground. Every night my computer equipment came back brown from that dust.
I had an awesome translator, whose name was George. He was a theology major from the Adventist University. We worked well as a team, and I miss him. George and I went on visitation a couple of times. It was great meeting people in their homes and encouraging them to accept Jesus.
During the meetings, I had three baptisms, and personally, I had no computer trouble. I think God made sure I didn't have computer trouble so I could help others with their computers. But as a result, I often didn't get to go over my sermon most days more than two or three times. I also got so hoarse that I could talk lower than my Dad, which was funny.
After the last meeting, I went around town to ask people to decide for baptism, and there were four more decisions for baptism. It was really cool how fast the Holy Spirit can work! It took maybe one hour to get four more decisions for baptism!
Back at home before this trip, I had always said that I wanted to my baptized by a Pastor in NY because his daughter and son were friends of mine, and the whole family was like friends of my mom and dad since college… So, I thought it would be perfect. Well, I didn’t ever do it because we never had the time to go all the way across the US to do so, and so I decided it was good to have it on this trip because I wanted to give my life to God then and not later. And so, I got baptized on the beach of Dominican Republic! The neatest thing is that I have an "older brother" from Columbia that I met on a trip three years ago. He is just finishing his theology degree in Dominican Republic and the conference president gave him permission to baptize me. So I was baptized by my "older brother." It was also the first baptism he had ever done, so it was extra special for both of us. The reason I decided to be baptized in Dominican is because I knew I was now close to God. I can base my everyday life on what I learned from preaching the campaign. I will never forget how to come close to God again.
One man, who lived across the street from the tent, didn't come to the meetings till the end. He has a marriage situation he has to fix before he can be baptized, but at the end he made a decision for baptism. He had been listening from the privacy of his home all along.
I saw God work at my meetings, and it was exciting to see people baptized. I hope that the new church plant will continue to grow.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to preach in the Dominican Republic. I couldn't have done it without ShareHim or the Quiet Hour. I know this won't be my last time preaching a campaign!