Baptism at Lossa Bas
As we believe, baptism is an important event in the life of a Christian. The bible commands us to follow the Lord in baptism signifying our belief that He died, was buried and rose again on the third day for us. With this being the subject of teaching for three consecutive Sundays, we were able to question a handful from the church that had not yet followed the Lord in baptism and of which, four of them were ready to get baptized.
Putting my vehicle into first gear, shutting off the truck and pulling the parking brake, I glanced over towards the clock and realized that it was ten till seven in the morning. I crawled out of my vehicle and opened the large gates and started making my way towards the back of the property. Walking through the damp grass and attempting to avoid the mud puddles left from the previous night’s rain, I passed the church’s large auditorium and continued towards their baptistery. I lifted off the cover revealing the crystal clear water inside and so I being tempted dipped my hand for but a moment to test the temperature. After having confidence it was both sufficiently full and sufficiently warm enough, I turned around and headed back to the truck.
Navigating the roads I began searching for my turn off. Having found it, I slowly turned off onto the dirt path that made its way to the church. Several minutes and several small stream beds later, I pulled up to the church and found myself being greeted by a little Kabiye girl. We chatted for a seconds before I walked into the church and others eventually made there way. The morning service did not miss a beat. It was very much normal in its tempo and attendance. The children were well behaved and we had a visitor or two due to the baptisms.
After both the Sunday school hour and the preaching service were concluded we headed out towards my vehicle and Lisa’s truck. I can’t recall how many she put into her truck but I found out that mine, which is supposed to hold 10 had 15 people. We departed the church grounds, fully loaded, spirits high and headed for Tomde. The Tomde church is relatively close, less then 2 miles but due to the roads and being fully loaded we took our time and about 10 minutes later we pulled up the church.
We all started unloading and heading into the church as their services were concluding. Pastor Moussa walked up to me and welcomed us all and gave some last minute instructions to the four men that were to be baptized. A few short minutes later as the service had concluded and everyone from both the Lossa Bas church and the Tomde church were outside and standing around the baptistery. In Togo here, it has been rare to see a baptism done outside of Christmas or Easter. That is just a traditional time to do them. However, on a perfectly nice, warm and sunny Sunday morning with everyone standing around, we proceeded. I slowly waded into the waters and one by one the four men descended down the stairs into the baptistery and one by one they gave their testimony of how Christ had saved their souls and were baptized out of obedience to God’s word. It was really a great moment for each of the men and a reminder of what it means to be a follower and obedient to Christ.
