Beach Baptism

Guest post by Scott
The New Testament is pretty clear about the significance of baptism. Jesus himself was baptized by John the Baptist. After Christ’s ascension, his disciples each proclaimed a gospel that taught about the necessity of belief, repentance and baptism. In one interesting account in the book of Acts, Philip has just explained the good news of Christ to an Ethiopian man along the road in Jerusalem. After he believed, as they continued along the road they came upon a river and he asked, “Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” So he and Philip stopped the chariot straight away and went down and he was baptized. I have always thought that baptism must have been an important part of their conversation for the man to have wanted it so quickly.

Our church in Shanghai offers a baptism service a few times every year for anyone that is interested in experiencing this act of obedience. Last year, Madelyn heard about the service and asked if she could be baptized. It was a special experience for her and a neat time for our entire family. At that time, both Caleb and Seth commented that they thought they should be baptized too.

A few months ago, I saw in the church bulletin that there was another baptism service scheduled this Fall. After seeing the announcement, I mentioned it over dinner one evening to Caleb and Seth. Seth said he was definitely interested… however, he wanted to know if he could be baptized in the ocean in Vietnam during the vacation we had planned for the October holiday, instead of at church. After pausing for a minute to digest what he had asked, Lynne and I both thought that was a really neat idea.

Seth and I did a short study about what baptism is and why it is important. We resolved that it is a voluntary act of obedience, a profession of one’s faith to others, and a step of submission to God as a believer. At some point during further conversations, Caleb decided that he wanted to be baptized at the beach as well.



We were accompanied by 4 other families from our church on our trip to southern Vietnam. It made for a really special beach baptism service. As a father, it is a pretty cool thing to watch your two sons stand in front of a group of friends and testify to their belief in Christ and their need for His grace and redemption. It was with complete humility and joy that I baptized my two sons in the Gulf of Thailand on a beach on the tiny island of Phu Quoc in Vietnam in the rain. The presence of God was very near. I am thankful for His amazing love!

-Scott