I had been studying with Flexon and Daniel every week since I met them at Ken Garage (they are the mechanics who worked on our truck). One Wednesday night after a church devotional, Flexon got into the truck for me to take him home and stated, "I want to study baptism." Such a statement might never be heard in the United States, but here in Vanuatu people really are seeking the truth. I inquired as to what prompted his request. "I was sprinkled as a baby in the Presbyterian Church, but some people say sprinkling isn't really Bible baptism," was his reasoning... "plus I have never studied baptism before."

Though I had met with Flexon and Daniel the previous three Tuesday nights for Bible study (we had already covered An Overview of the Bible, How Does God Communicate With Man Today?, and The Old and New Testaments), a special meeting was scheduled for that Friday night to honor Flexon's request. As usual, I picked them up from work at 5:00, brought them back to his house for supper, and afterwards we studied for about 2 hours.

After quickly covering sin (its condemnation) and the church (its importance as Christ's body), we studied The Two Parts of Bible Baptism - Right Way (Immersion) and Right Purpose (for the forgiveness of sins). Both Daniel and Flexon quickly realized that their so-called baptisms were not Bible baptisms at all, as they had both been sprinkled as babies by the Presbyterian Church. With that understanding, both stated their desire to repent and be baptized. After that, I talked about the importance of "counting the cost" (Luke 14) - that they needed to consider the cost before making such an important decision. This was especially important as they had not yet had a chance to really look at the one true church Jesus established. Once they realized the seriousness of their decision and that it was a life-long decision, they both decided to wait and think about it to make sure they were making the right decision.

During the regularly scheduled study the next Tuesday, we studied the church that Christ built - its importnace (salvation is found within) and its characteristics (specifically its organization, its worship and its terms of entrance/salvation). It was then that they truly realized the Presbyterian Church was not the church that Christ built - that He only established one church and that we read about that church in the New Testament. So, they decided that they wanted to be baptized so their sins could be forgiven (Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16) and so that they could be a part of Christ's body (Romans 6:3). It was about 7:00 when they decided to be baptized. We got some towels, called a Ni-Van Christian man (Morris - who was in town from Eton) to baptize them. We drove out to Malapoa Point, to the same place Yoland was baptized, and we all witnessed a beautiful baptism by moonlight. I will continue to study with his two new brothers in Christ each Tuesday.

EB