Water baptism — October 2022
Water baptism is a sacrament through which a person becomes closer to God. The believer begins a new life, forever renouncing the sinful past. This step can only be taken consciously. And sometimes, it takes more than one year to make a decision. The last weekend of October for six volunteers of the New Life Christian Mission was marked by the sacrament of baptism.
Tatyana learned about the New Life Christian Mission from fellow villagers and offered her help in the form of a landscape designer — she has always enjoyed gardening. Here she planted flowers and took care of the plants. On Saturdays, she began to take part in the distribution of humanitarian aid. One day God touched her heart and she began to go to church for services.
Svyatoslava came to the Mission to receive a humanitarian aid. Seeing how volunteers work in the field of God, she wanted to become part of the team. Since then, Svyatoslava has not missed a single distribution of humanitarian aid, working hard, and on Sundays she goes to church.
Anton was undergoing rehabilitation in Mykolaiv and came with his mentor for some time in the summer to the Mission's personality recovery center in the village Velikiy Dalnik. The term of service was coming to an end and Anton decided to stay, continuing to serve at the Mission.
Ivan is a master carpenter, taking part in the construction of a town for refugees and migrants of the Mission.
Igor and Tatyana are a couple from the village of Usatovo. At the beginning of the war, Igor contacted the Mission, explained the problem of food shortages in the village and asked for help. He delivered food packages personally to the homes of those in need and then the Mission, seeing the scale of the problem and the growing number of people in need, decided to give out assistance there on Fridays.
All these people are united by love for God and a desire to help others.
Preparations for such an important event last a month. Every Wednesday, Alexander Yurpolsky mentored those who wished to undergo the celebration of baptism, talked about the basics of Christianity and that baptism is not just a ceremony or a symbol, God really does spiritual work with a person who receives baptism. Also, this period is given to people so that they can carefully consider their intentions and get stronger in their decision.
Baptism is performed by complete immersion of the believer in water. The water in October is quite cold, so the process itself did not last long.
After the sacrament, Pastor Fedor and the whole Christian family cooked meat on fire in order to spend the evening after baptism in joy and harmony.
