Last year our team met Jake [right] through several Bible studies held in Etas village. A Good News Meeting was being held in Epau village (45 minutes down the road) in which Eric would travel to Etas each night and pick up a truck full of people and head to the meeting. Jake attended each night of these meetings and we thought last year he was going to make the decision to become a Christian. Jake, however, was not quite ready.

Common in the islands of the Vanuatu, is the cultural trait of being shy. It is difficult to get people to speak up and ask a question. Often times, people are just shy and/or afraid to talk in front of other people if there is a crowd or people, especially those they do not know. This was the case with Jake. Not that Jake was afraid to speak, but Jake was shy. Jake’s fear of becoming a Christian stemmed from his fear of talking in front of people. Jake thought that once he became a Christian, he was going to have to preach or teach right away. To do so, struck fear into his heart.

Though Aaron and Cindy visited Jake often, it was not until nearly a year later that Jake finally felt he was ready to become a Christian. He knew that in order to be saved, he had to be baptized into Christ (Rom. 6:3, 4; Gal 3:26, 27). He could no longer let his fear hold him.

The funny thing is that Jake was too shy to tell Aaron this until after he had decided he was going to do whatever necessary to become a Christian, even if it meant speaking. After Aaron spoke to Jake for a few minutes, it was communicated to him that he would not have to do anything (like speaking) that he felt he was not ready to do. Jake breathed a huge sigh of relief and said, “in that case, I’m ready.”

We jumped into the truck (despite it raining) and drove to the ocean where Timothy [left] proceeded to immerse Jake.

On Sunday April 8, 2007 Jake Long was baptized into Christ.

AB