A Dad's best Day

While I was deployed to Iraq, my young children changed a great deal and did a tremendous amount of growing. Of my three awesome kids, my daughter, Carlie, experienced the most significant change and growth. More significant than her baby brother, James's successful potty training and more significant than Jay Allen's two advanced belts in Taekwondo, Carlie accepted Christ as her savior and became a Christ follower. Only those who have experienced this personally understand the significance. Only Christian parents can understand the emotion and righteous pride (through Christ) that a dad feels when his children enter into that relationship with Jesus.
Most of my days in Iraq were very similar and are a blur in my memory - months of my life that seem to have vanished. This past Easter stands out from all those days. It was the only day I was able to break free from my routine and attend the protestant services at the main chapel. It was an awesome service and I can remember being filled with a spirit of humility and thanksgiving for all that God had blessed me with. The music, the message, and the fellowship of my brothers in arms made me feel twenty feet tall, but that was just the beginning. As I left worship and returned to work, my euphoria continued. I hummed praise music in my head and had a much better attitude than I did before going to worship, and then, I got the news. Cammie sent me a note that Carlie had accepted Christ.
I emailed everybody in my address book to share the news. Though I am known to be a little over-enthusiastic, my enthusiasm surprised me and seemed completely appropriate all at the same time. It was my best day in Iraq and why not, God had sacrificed His Son to save my daughter and it happened all on the same day years apart.
Most new believers are baptized at their current place of worship. Because I have served in the Army for 20 years, we do not worship at a home church, but have worshiped with over a half dozen churches during that time. So, Carlie could have been baptized at our current church in Virginia, but Cammie and I recognized that as much as we love the people there, we are only a year away from another permanent change of station that will take us away from Southview. We have no roots there at all and wanted to have Carlie's grandfather baptize her in Alabama. Luckily, that is exactly what Carlie wanted, too.
Well, Carlie's baptism was my best day back in the states. My father pastors Chulafinnee Baptist church, which is near our hometown. It is also near our last duty station, Warner Robins, Georgia. The people of Chulafinnee Baptist are an amazing congregation of believers who could not have made us feel more at home. So, without a real claim to a hometown, my daughter was baptized in front of all of her grandparents, all of her aunts and uncles, and her cousins. We also were thrilled to have friends from Warner Robins, Todd and Nancy Howell, bring their daughter and Carlie's best friend from Georgia to the Baptism. Cammie and I were honored to have in attendance many of our friends from high school (Paula Barker Brooks and Sandra Roberts) and friends from our home church, Pine Grove (The Truetts) and friends from past military assignments (Margaret Kucia and Bob Poling) and friends from all of the above (April Truett Poling). A home church could not have done more than Chulafinnee did by welcoming all of us.
All of our friends, family, and fellow believers overwhelmed our family with the outpouring of affection and support for our daughter and her decision. As a church we had never attended hosted the biggest event our family had experienced together, it was a great reminder that we are truly citizens of Heaven and only visiting here for a little while. God's hand was involved in that day in ways large and small and some ways that we may never know. We are thankful for having such a day to reflect on our many blessings and for all who helped. We would especially like to thank Gail Barker for stepping in to help Carlie in and out of the Baptismal pool at a time when Carlie's baby brother, James, appeared to be on the verge of shutting down the entire service. Gail freed up Cammie to take charge of James and quell the rebellion that almost broke loose. Everything from that point on went perfectly.
I usually like to incorporate a lot of humor in my writings, even on serious subjects, but this time, I really don't have much humor to share. I will say that could have been different if AJ and Jennifer had managed to convince Carlie to do a cannonball into the water. If you wonder why an aunt and uncle would encourage such a thing, I have a confession to make. Though it totally slipped my mind this past Sunday, it seems that I might have offered a monetary reward to my nephew, Aaron, to cannonball into the water at his baptism. It seems that the negotiations by his parents to get him to fore go the cannonball were a lot more intense than I realized and the final decision whether to cannonball was in doubt until the very last second. So, now, AJ and Jennifer have two more opportunities to repay me for that little gesture as I await the day of decision for my two sons. Even if one or both decide to cannonball into their citizenship of Heaven, it will still be one of my best days!