Howdy Art,
I have been enjoying the testimonies from your FBI event! I was helping Dennis with the beach baptism that day, and I thought maybe he would have passed along some of our testimonies to you. But I think he went for a family trip to the Grand Canyon afterwards. So just in case you haven’t heard these stories, I’ll relate them to you.

When Jerry and I got to the baptism tent we met two young gals (maybe late teens), and they were dragging a suitcase through the sand. They said they were from Montclair and were going to meet up with several marines later on when they got released from the base. We rapped a bit about why we were there and we got to talking about God, and found out that one of the girls had a strong Jehovah Witness mother, and she seemed to have more respect for her Mom, than the religion. Anyway, neither had been baptized and we invited them to the FBI event and encouraged them to get baptized if they wanted to later on. We saw them later on and they needed to charge their cell phone so the marines could get in touch with them. Much later on we saw them again and the marines had pulled a no-show (God’s plan!) and I asked them if they were thinking about getting baptized. They said, naw, they were afraid of getting drowned. I yelled at Dennis, that these girls think you’re gonna drown them, and by the time I got back he had discussed baptism with them and they were going to get Baptized! When they came out of the ocean we found out they were going to try and stay in Oceanside, so we found a guy that found his wife that hooked these girls up with a woman’s Bible study in Oceanside! These girls came to the beaches of Oceanside to dabble in life’s pleasures, but ended up meeting God head-on! Please pray for these two (Patsy and Megan).

My job was to fill out the certificates of Baptism and plug their names onto a prayer list, and I settled in to this fun and happy routine, until, as I asked this guy for his name, he started to break down crying. He said that he was so glad he was coming back to the Lord, that life was dealing him some heavy blows and he said that he had been having suicidal thoughts. About 6 of us surrounded him and laid hands on him and prayed for him, and after the baptism counseled him a bit and then invited him to our Saturday men’s breakfast/Bible study. He acted like he would make it. Pray for Bryant, as he has not yet made it to our study.

At one point a gal was brought over for Baptism that was inebriated. She was kinda bossy about “getting this show on the road” and we hesitated at first, but asked her questions and instructed her, and then they headed for the water. When I looked up from my duties, I could see them in the shallow water on their knees and when a small wave hit them, they ended up rolling around like logs and floundering a bit. It wasn’t a pretty baptism, but she got some extra “cleansing” from it all. And the cold water seemed to sober her up some, and she was happy that she did it. Later in the day she came by again, this time looking much more sober and she wanted to say again how happy she was that she got Baptized that day. Then she started  to share with others on the beach her good news! Pray for Rene’s continued blessings!

Art, you did an amazing job at the FBI event, and you are right, God definitely showed up that day!!
God Bless you brother!
Tim