Yesterday, I had the privilege of baptising two young girls. Both go to the same school. Both are about 10 years old. Both had clear and encouraging testimonies.

One of them came from a Christian family, the other was raised in a family without any professing believers. One of them had grown up in the church, the other had no church background. One of them has been brought up to read the bible and do all the kind of things the children of believers might do, the other had no spiritual input to speak of. Both, however, gave similar testimonies about the work of the Lord Jesus in their life.

You can watch the clip from our live stream below to hear their testimonies below:

Let me briefly share three things that were particularly encouraging to me about all this.

First, you may not know, Aurélie is my daughter. She is the one who was raised in the Christian home with Christian parents. I am not sure there is much more special than seeing your children profess faith in Jesus, for the church to affirm the profession and to then obey him by going through the waters of baptism. This was a particular encouragement and joy. To be able to be the one to baptise her into the church was all the more special.

Second, her friend Maddie (as you will pick up from the testimonies) cites my going into their school to take an assembly as the thing that first got her thinking about Christianity. You will also pick up from those testimonies that I have no memory of doing it. I don’t remember going into the school, what the occasion was nor what I said. And yet, the Lord used that little, insignificant event from my perspective in a decisive way in Maddie’s life. It is so encouraging to know that even little acts of not particularly significant faithfulness may be quite significantly used by the Lord. What a privilege it is to be used in his kingdom, even when we have no idea that he will do anything with it at all!

Third, I was particularly encouraged by the three sets of family present in the room. Aurélie – who is at least a fourth-generation Christian now – had two sides of her family present, with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all there to see her witness to the work of Jesus in her life and what he has done for her. What a thing it is to see whole families in whom the Lord has been at work and is, by his grace, still working. By the same token, Maddie – who doesn’t come from a believing family – had grandparents and parents, siblings and others all present too. It was lovely to see her family come and support her as she takes this step of faith and to see them engaging with her testimony and the word as it was preached. There was also the church family to which Aurélie and Maddie have now been joined. It was wonderful to see so many of them there, seeing how the Lord has worked and how they have served the kingdom in the lives of these two new members.

It is always good to be encouraged on a Sunday and there is little that will encourage us more than seeing a baptism. Perhaps the only thing that beats it is when there is more than one!