I sat quietly to the side while Daniel kicked off the meeting welcoming everyone and preparing their hearts to meet with God. I watched from the back as Kristine helped lead the room packed full of young people from 5 different cities to passionately worship God.
Soon, everyone filed up the stairs to the roof where a small inflatable pool was waiting. Then Lili stood up and taught a short lesson on baptism.
Chen and Gloria, who recently gave their lives to Christ in our city, stood up and boldly shared the story of how Jesus had rescued them. Then the whole room grew quiet as Shawn stood up to share his testimony. He was from a minority people group. A small group from the church had led him to Christ last February as they shared the Gospel up in the mountains. He told of the ways he’d seen God answer his prayers since he has followed Jesus. Then the 3 of them were baptized as everyone else cheered them on.
Finally, XiaoZhu stood up and led the three newly baptized believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit… and He came just like He promised He would.
Daniel, Kristine, Lili, XiaoZhu… each of these are young people that have been saved in our city over the last 3 years, and now they were leading the National Gathering for all our churches as I watched from the sideline, proud as a papa. God is changing lives… and then using those same lives to help change others.