In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit..oooh watch the ice

Hello to all my family and friends monitoring the blog. Can't wait to talk to you in person. I'm glad to hear you've been following the blogs. It's hard to capture everything that went on in just a few lines. I hope you're getting at least a glimpse of the wonderful experience this has been. Hey, if you're tired of rain in winter this is the place for you around Christmas. The snow hasn't even thought about melting since we've been here and several layers of ice have been added since Jan. 4th.

Speaking of ice...we had a very interesting, uplifting and wet experience today. Two of our team members have accepted Christ as their Saviour - Brian and Julie. Brian wanted one of the two guys with him from our team this summer to baptize him. That was either Bill Bedi or myself. Bill, you were first choice. You should know that. I think you probably would have done a better job than I today, but glad I could enjoy the experience. We literally had to break the ice on top of the lake. Not sure how thick it was but there were people walking on it. The Americans didn't seem to be too shocked by it, but I'm afraid we scared our Moldovan friends a bit. Anyway, back to the story. When I baptized Brian in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we either slipped on the bottom of the lake or misjudged the room. Let's just say Brian knocked loose some ice on the under and floated on me. You know us Baptists...had to go all the way under. What happened next was quick but I dunked him and we celebrated briefly before running to the buses and changing into dry clothes. It wasn't exactly what you would expect to see at BBC but we celebrated nonetheless.

That had to be one of my most interesting Moldovan moments so far. I'm looking forward to more in the future with family and with friends - hopefully not all of them will be baptisms in sub-freezing water! Becky, Gretchen, Van & Connor, your dad is coming home tomorrow. I can't wait to see and talk to you. I love you very much. See you soon.