Shan Chen Harder Baptism

Matthew 28:19-20 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

A few years ago, Wayne and I thought that God might be calling us to the mission field. Instead of calling us to overseas missions, God decided to use our home as our mission field. Raising our children to love the Lord was our first mission field, then Wayne's brain cancer became an opportunity to share with others what God had done in our lives, and finally, the adoption of our two sons brought the foreign mission field right to our door. Shan Chen has told us that before we hosted him in America, he had never heard the name Jesus. He wasn't sure who this Jesus was that we kept telling him about, but we would sing Jesus Loves Me every night to him. Later when we returned to America with him as our forever son, we also watched the Jesus Film in Mandarin. Shan Chen looked at me and said, "Oh, that is Jesus! I didn't know who you talked about when I came last year. Now I know! Let's watch it again."

Over the last two years, we have seen Shan Chen not only increase in his knowledge of English and watched him grow scholastically, we have also seen his understanding of Jesus and the Bible grow. A few weeks ago I shared that Shan Chen had come to know Jesus as his Savior. He has been pondering the thought of getting baptized. He decided he wanted to take that step to show others that he loved Jesus and that Jesus had transformed his life. He called our pastor and asked if he could be baptized. So, yesterday at church, Shan Chen was baptized. It was a very emotional morning. It was beautiful to hear his testimony and realize that our obedience to God in adopting Shan Chen, made it possible for him to learn about Jesus, right at home! 

All of us are called to be missionaries right where we are at in life. That may be at the baseball field at your child's sports games, in your home with your children and grandchildren, in your neighborhood, at work, etc. Be faithful to be obedient to God right where you are at...because you never know how God will use it to bring someone to the saving knowledge of Him!