Fayetteville Ozone Student Baptized

The following was written by long time CWE Camper and Fayetteville Ozone student, Baylea Cantrell, a senior at West Fork High School:

I’ve grown up in a great home with amazing parents who love God and me very dearly. However, we were never really involved in a church. I had been to churches before. I would go with friends, but I always felt like I was simply a visitor there and not like I belonged.

A few months ago, it seemed God was leading me to become involved in a church. “Ok God!...how?” I asked, having no idea how to start that process! So, as I do with many of my spiritual conundrums, I looked to Ozone. I asked Fayetteville Ozone Director, Alyssa if I could accompany her to church and she said that she would love to have me come! Going to New Heights, I was able to experience and learn so many things that I never had before. A complete stranger came and prayed with me. I was able to take communion for the first time. I had found a church to call home!

After about a month of attending New Heights, I was privileged to witness water baptisms every Sunday. As each person would come up out of the water, symbolically out of their sin, every single one of them would have a look of pure and utter joy on their faces. Just being able to watch that happen was a powerful experience for me. I had wanted to be baptized before, but I had never belonged to a church to be able to do so.  Now, however, I did have a church! I wanted to make this happen! But how? This sounded like a spiritual conundrum to me, so again I looked to Alyssa.  We talked and she said she would help me make it happen. This was actually going to happen! I was going to get baptized! I was beside myself all week waiting for the next Sunday to roll around. Then Alyssa told me I had to choose who was going to baptize me. If you don’t this know already, I am terrible at being decisive, especially for important situations. Needless to say, this was an important one. She had told me that I should pick someone that had a large impact on my walk with Christ. As with everything else, I went to Alyssa. I wanted her to baptize me.  She has been a mentor and a friend. She is a person in my life that I can go to with any spiritual questions, and I wanted to be baptized by no other.

The day finally arrived--September 23. That morning God woke me up to the most amazing rainbow I think I have ever seen.  It was like He was jumping up and down, waving at me and shouting to the world, “Baylea! Look at me! Look at how much I love you!” It was incredible. I watched that rainbow until it disappeared and then got ready for church. I was so excited, and it just seemed like the sermon was lasting forever. Then it was time. We walked up to the baptismal tub, me with my heart in my throat. I stepped in the water.  Everything that had happened, my struggles and my triumphs, my victories and failures, my sin and my salvation, everything had come down to this moment. As I went under the water, I felt my sins being broken away, being buried with Christ in death. I was raised from the water, out of my filth, into the light of Jesus. I stepped out of the baptismal into the arms of everyone who came as a witness to my public affirmation of my faith. God had used so many of those people to impact my walk with Him. That day, I walked out of that church cold and wet but obedient. I am thankful every day for that moment and I am so, so incredibly and undeniably blessed that on September 23, 2012, God chose an unworthy, messed up sinner to experience the cleansing power of His amazing love. Praise God for baptisms!