NEW

New Life ... New Beginning ... New Level

August 17, 2011

One of the fishing vessels on site at the baptism ... hmm

It's not the Jordan, but the River Nile is also a worldwide known river.  The Source of the Nile River begins here in Jinja, Uganda, out of Lake Victoria, the second largest fresh water lake in the world, and flows 4,400 miles north into the Mediterranean Sea.


Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River a couple of millennium ago.  Sarah (17), Rose (16), and Hannah (18) were baptized in the Nile River just days ago!  On Saturday, August 14, 2011.  It was not the novelty of it that motivated their request for baptism.  It was a desire for a public expression of the substantial spiritual changes accomplished by the Lord Jesus in them while here in Uganda.  Each of these amazing young ladies have spent nearly 7 weeks living life with Pam and me.  None of them are the same girls they were when they arrived in Africa back in July.  Each has a story to tell.  This blog can't tell the story, but it can give you a summary ... in their own words.

Sarah ... valuable member of the New Creation

SARAH:  "I grew up in a life of fear, not trusting anyone.  But, God has taken the ugly of my past and is transforming it into something beautiful, giving me worth and value.  He is teaching me how to trust and how to love and be loved ... especially by men.  God has given me a new beginning.  I want to dedicate this new life to serving and glorifying Him wholeheartedly ... letting Him speak through me.  My past does not define me; what happened to me doesn't make me who I am."  newsonguganda.blogspot.com


ROSE:  "I grew up in a Christian home  with fabulous parents and grandparents that nurtured me and taught me, and brought me up to love Jesus. I asked God into my heart when I was 3 years old under the conviction that I didn't want to burn forever in a lake of fire in hell. But I still lived like an orphan. I lived as a walking dead man on the inside for almost all my life. I was baptized by my Dad when I was 12 years old along with several other kids in our church, but it wasn't significant for me.  It didn’t mean anything to me.  It was just something that every Christian did and it was cool to be able to tell people that I had been baptized.   It wasn't until I started planning this trip last year that I realized how much trouble I was getting myself into.  I realized what a mess I was creating for myself and other people by the way I was living my life.

Rose ... new beginning!

I've never dated and never been intimate with any boy.   I’ve never wanted to get into drugs or alcohol. I've never struggled with depression.  I've never been abused … so the World would say that I’ve never experienced HARD TIMES or difficulties and until I came to Africa I believed it.  Since coming to Africa God has done a miraculous work in my heart. He has opened my eye’s to see the real me.  He has used so many people here in Africa….specifically Papa-Paul and Momm-Pam, Jeff and Lyzette,  my sisters Blair, Robyn, Hannah and Sarah, and the Dove Voice Band, in a very powerful way to change me …. to help me turn my life around and start a new beginning.  I want to live now as one who has been forgiven ... I want to live like a SON, not an ORPHAN.  I know that fear  builds walls instead of bridges, and I have let my fear build too many walls in my life (that I am now having to knock down)……but, I am God’s child and I don’t have to be afraid anymore!

Hannah ... new level of living!

I want to live my life wholeheartedly for God not because its the right thing to do, not because my parents want me too, not because its what everyone else is doing or wants me to do……but because its what I want to do! God has put a lamp to my feet and I cant stay here any longer, I need to move forward or else my feet will get burned. He has put new dreams in my heart and pointed me in the right direction and I’m so excited to do work for HIM! ... so that is why I wanted to be baptized.  I want to rededicate my life to the Lord.  This is a new beginning for me and I want to give it all, 100%, to Him."  http://1girlpassion84god.blogspot.com/

Amazing SEVEN weeks!

HANNAH:   "God has given me a new song ..." (Psalm 40:3)  "I no longer want to conceal what He's done in my heart ..."  (Psalm 40:9-10)  "My baptism in the Nile River wasn't meant to start off my new life.  That's what this whole trip to Uganda has been about.  I got baptized to symbolize what God has done in me.  So many of my old ways have died and been buried and He's given me new life, a new song song to sing.  I didn't think I could ever testify of what God has done in me, but now I know I can.  I don't want to stay silent.  I want to let His glory shine through me."  newsonguganda.blogspot.com

THREE changed lives!

Praying Together