Graham and Mairi McBain are church planting in Albania – and having a great time by the sound of things! They write:
Today was a fantastic day in the life of ‘Light of the World’ church as five people were baptised in the sea. In January we started the year as a church praying that we would have baptisms and within weeks, one woman, ‘Lindita’ asked if she and her 13-year-old daughter ‘Eni’ could be baptised. Shortly after that three girls in their teens said they would be interested in learning more about baptism. In April we began a short four-week course on baptism, it was hard to get all six together every week, but through keeping a flexible diary and a relaxed attitude to days off, we managed to meet with all of them and run the course. The big idea was to make a whole day of it and take the entire church down to the beach for the day, have the baptisms in the sea and enjoy a day out of the city. May seemed a good time to do this as the weather is good but not too hot. So this morning we all met at church at 9.30 and loaded 52 people into two minibuses and three BMS vehicles. What a day! Fifty two of us standing on the beach at the edge of the sea, singing worship songs and praying together. Passers-by came to join us to see what was going on and what all the noise was about. Then after the testimonies it was straight into the sea. All five declared their love for Jesus, and their dedication to serve and follow him and, to cheers and claps, we baptised them in the waves off Durres beach. Pray for Lindita, Eni, Jona, Kamela, and Erisela. Its amazing to think that just a few years ago in the time of Enver Hoxha’s communist dictatorship, people were arrested, imprisoned and even executed for being a Christian. Yet today in 2008 in the shadow of some of Hoxha’s own bunkers, five people were declaring their faith and being baptised in total freedom. After the day at the beach, one of our teenage boys commented, ‘I’d really like to be baptised too’. So hopefully we’ll be running another course soon