Adapted from the New Life Blog

We always love the final Sunday that New Life church is here in Los Anonos. Worshiping together, Gringos, Ticos, and Nicos side-by-side is always great. This past Sunday, however, instead of worshiping at the church, New Life helped take the entire congregation to a local club house and pool. We filled 1 bus and 2 cars!!

So right there in middle of families gathering for a pleasant day at the pool we had a worship service. Musical worship, a message from I Thessalonians on "How to Live in Community" and then the highlight of the day...
BAPTISM!! 9 adults, teens and children (from a grandmother to an 8 year old)followed Christ's example of proclaiming their faith publicly as they were baptized in the pool. It was still early in the day and the water was VERY cold!! Amazingly cold for this part of the world!! So this was a challenge.

Each was asked 2 Questions:
1. Have you received Christ as your Lord & Savior?
2. Why do you want to be baptized?

Following their verbal answers, they were baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As they came up out of the water, the congregation applauded their step of faith. This is ultimately what partnership with Los Anonos is all about -- people coming to know Christ and taking steps to obey Him in all things.

Then came the FIESTA!!! For the next 3 1/2 hours, everyone swam, played soccer, ate lots of food! This was a great time of fun and relationship building -- very much an important goal of trips here.

This year really showed how the relationships have grown over the last year. This year Dona Francisca invited many of the New Lifer's over to her table where she had prepared an abundance of food! (This was a new step!) People also seemed to mingle more. It was really neat to see people forming long-term friendships.

As always, here are the photo highlights!!!

 Doña Fransisca and Katy were the first two in the pool.

 Carlos (above) and his wife Carmen (below) were baptized together. First Carlos, and then he participated and helped baptize his wife.

 After the baptism, all bets were off. The guys had to show off their mad belly flop and jumping skills.

 No picnic is complete without juicy watermelon!! 

Chi Chi (left) and Itzel (right) sure enjoyed it!!

 At the end of the day, it was time to get back on the party bus and come back to Anonos. What a great day!!!!