At our August Picnic & Baptisms, sixteen people were baptized to show their commitment to live with Jesus as King. We had a great night together picnicking and witnessing families baptizing children, a mother being baptized after her son prayed faithfully for her for 13 years, and even a woman who attended BridgePointe on an invitation for the first time and being compelled to be baptized that same day as an expression of her faith in Jesus. We praise God for each story and hope you take the time to reach them all below. If you haven’t taken the step of baptism and want to know more, visit our baptism page and get in contact with us.
Giovana S.
I’ve been a Christian for a bit over 25 years and I have acknowledged Jesus as my Lord and Savior, but never really felt the need to shout it out with a baptism. I’ve been ignoring this inner voice for the past two years asking me to get baptized. Lately, I’ve been carrying a heavy burden in my heart, perhaps the Holy Spirit speaking a little louder and I think it’s time to do something about it. There are hundreds of commands in the Bible and the imperfect me cannot possibly obey all of them. However, the command to be baptized is one that I can, and will joyfully obey. I am taking this step now because I want to not only reaffirm my commitment to Jesus, but also deepen my relationship and connection with God and his Son. I’m thankful that God has been patiently waiting for me to finally “shout it out.” Amen!
Delilah P.
I decided to get baptized because I want Jesus to know that I love and trust him. I want God to forgive me when I sin and know that I try my best not to.
Ella B.
My name is Ella M. B. and I am nine years old. I’ve been going to church since I was three years old with my mom. My mom, brother and I read the Bible, we pray, listen to Christian music and go to church and Sunday School and church group. I really love Sunday school. I have learned in the Bible and at Church about God and Jesus and am grateful that Jesus died for me. God and Jesus do good things for us and help me when I am having a hard time. Recently, I went to my mom’s church service and decided to be baptized. I have been thinking about it for a long time and I really love God and Jesus. All my sins are washed away and I am committing to believe in Jesus and God forever.
Lourdes C.
Noah C.
My name is Noah C. and today I would like to take a next step in my faith. I've made this decision because of all my love and gratitude for all of what Jesus has done in the past year for me. Baptism for me is the first big step in my walk with Christ. I believe that God died for me and rose again washing me clean from all my sins. I can't wait to live my whole life with Him by my side.
Novelle B.
I wanted to get baptized when I was younger, but due to a series of events, I was not able to, but God had a plan. I fell into a very dark time and lost sight of my faith. He found me when I needed him most and it's never been the same since. I am extremely excited to share my commitment and I thank everybody for helping me get here.
Eleanor G.
I grew up in a big Italian Catholic family. I was baptized as a baby, made my first communion and confirmation, and was married in a Catholic Church. Ten years later, I had my son. My son was baptized as a baby and made his first communion and confirmation. I had been a Catholic most of my life because that was all I knew. I think I was comfortable being Catholic and frightened of change, even though I often thought of exploring churches other than Catholic. Then one day, my son invited me to BridgePointe. I never knew that church could be so uplifting. With every service I went to, my heart was filled with the Holy Spirit, more and more. The love I feel at BridgePointe is like no other church I have ever attended. After attending BridgePointe for over two years, I felt in my heart that Jesus was calling me to be baptized. The outpouring of love I felt when I got baptized was overwhelming. Thank you, Jesus, for washing me of my sins. I am now out of the dark and into the light. I am a disciple of Christ.
Tiffany A.
My name is Tiffany A. and this past Sunday my family and I did an amazing thing together. I was raised Catholic but once I completed my confirmation I rarely attended church on Sundays. My grandmother brought me to a Christian Church over 14 years ago and I finally felt like I could understand and it felt so relatable in the way that the pastor preached his message! It almost felt like the message was meant for me. In these past years I have attended a few different churches and while I enjoyed them all, I think BridgePointe will be the church my family and I belong to for the long haul. I have felt the calling in my heart for years to get baptized (even though I was baptized as a baby, it was now my choice). I continued to push that calling away and realized now was the time. I need God in my life and my family’s life, and if we are going to pray to Him for guidance then we needed to show Him that we believe He is our Lord and Savior.
Both of my children Jacob and Hailey were dedicated when they were younger and both felt like they wanted to be closer to God and this was the way to do it.
Hailey says, “I wanted to be baptized because I love God and he is my savior.”
Jacob says, “I wanted to get baptized because I wanted to give my life to my savior Jesus and to be washed and made new for Jesus to be by my side.” Yes, those were direct quotes from my children and it makes my heart so happy.
Being baptized and then being able to baptize my children was such an experience that I will never forget. I know our lives are on a positive path full of love and compassion with our goal of living as He would with God as our light.
Jacob A.
I wanted to get baptized because I wanted to give my life to my savior Jesus and to be washed and made new for Jesus to be by my side.
Hailey A.
I wanted to be baptized because I love God and he is my savior.
Lisa H.
Bridget B.
I went to Catholic Church as a young one on Sundays. I went to church, listened to the Gospels and stories about God and Jesus, but I remember it not having much meaning to me. I was told that I needed to go in order to make my first communion and be confirmed. If I didn’t do what the church was telling me to do then I wasn’t going to be accepted in the in the eyes of God and my sins would keep me from entering the kingdom of God. I would not live an eternal life with Jesus unless I was a perfect, sinless person. It seemed as though I was being set up for failure.
Once I made my confirmation, I stopped attending church. I still believed in God and Jesus, but that was it. I was raised in what I considered at the time to be a broken home. I was mistreated from childhood all the way through to my early college years. I experienced physical and emotional abuse for years. For years, I would lie at school, telling teachers , guidance counselors and coaches that bruises were from some sport related activity. I learned to hide behind lies, shut people out and not let anyone become close to me. My relationship with both of my parents was strained and chose to move out on my own at the age of 18. I found work, lived in my first apartment, was a full time college student and began figuring life out, so I thought.
Although I believed in God, I didn’t prioritize this as something that needed to be important in my life. Between the age of 18 and into my early 20s, I found myself working multiple jobs, moving around to different apartments, eventually relocating back to Rhode Island where my sister came to live with me. At 23-24 years old, I felt a responsibility to provide her with some stability because I didn’t want my experience to be her experience. I felt that this still better than what we were experiencing prior to living on our own. It was challenging and stressful. Although I had “friends”, I felt alone. No one could understand what I was experiencing.
My father passed away unexpectedly when I was 24 years old. He died thinking I hated him and the guilt burdened me beyond words. I became so busy working and finishing school that I didn’t make time to try and repair the strained relationship with my father, or anyone. I began going to bars and clubs every weekend. I felt as though that this had become my support, my relief and way to minimize stress. I was hiding pain that I didn’t want anyone else to see. Before Jesus, I was bitter, angry with the world and refused to let anyone in or build a relationship with me. I thought mostly about myself and often became involved with people who hurt me. At the time, I truly believed that “if my own parents couldn’t love me, who else would?”. I didn’t love myself or believe I was worth anything. I was bitter and didn’t let people in to my life. This way no one could hurt me.
Eventually, everything caught up to me and I hit the lowest point in life. One night, I fell to my knees and cried in a way that I’ve never cried before. For the first time in my life, I prayed and asked God to help me, to save me and turn my life around. In that moment, I surrendered and let go. I was tired and didn’t have any more fight in me. I realized I couldn’t live the way I was living or fix my situations by myself. In that moment of surrender, this overwhelming feeling of peace and calm came over me. Throughout that week, situations were resolving and becoming better. These were situations that were otherwise out of my control. I witnessed God working and intervening in my life. He put people forward and removed those who were not good for me. I started to give more of myself to God and Jesus. I prayed more, turned to God for guidance rather than making my own decisions and did my best to put Jesus at the center of my life. It wasn’t perfect, still isn’t but in that moment, I felt God in a way that I’ve never experienced before.
Over the last 10 years, I’ve learned to trust in God more and ask Jesus for His guidance in situations and daily life. When I reflect back, I can see where I was brought out of suffering. I stopped engaging in activities that harmed me and numbed the pain I was experiencing. I let go of people who were not good for me. My relationship with my sister has grown strong over the years. My fiancé came into my life at the right time. Having him as my life partner has been a blessing the last 14 years. I am better able to build relationships with others and understand why certain people are in my life. God placed certain people in my life for a reason and a purpose.
God is still working in my life, as He is for all who are on their own path towards Him, and their relationship with Jesus. I am a work in progress and don’t know what my purpose is yet, but I am grateful for being saved from where I was. Although I still feel the scars of my past, I don’t feel that bitterness in my heart. I am not alone when I am with Jesus. I have learned that I am not my past and don’t need to be a reflection of that. These experiences didn’t define me and without God intervening when He did, I don’t know where I’d be today. I am still working towards not being in control of my life and ask Jesus to help me let go of that control daily. God has spoken to me in so many ways through His Scriptures, through people, through preaching, the church communities, through worship, in nature, witnessing His works and His thoughts joining my thoughts. Without Jesus, I truthfully do not know where I’d be. With this baptism, I am taking a step of surrender and taking that step of giving control over to Him.
Jamie C.
My life before Jesus, I was broken, l had no confidence in myself, and I was a lost soul. Just hanging on and thinking my life was going to go nowhere. But as I processed through a lot of hard times God was always on my side. Now that I know Jesus and am beginning to walk with Him I have never felt more peaceful in my life. There is a process that’s so much bigger then me but I am so excited to walk with Him. Amen!
Marguerita
Scott W.
I grew up in a Christian family. We went to church every Sunday and I genuinely believed in Christ as child. My life was good and I lived comfortably as a Christian. Looking back, I realize the one problem I had was I never chose to follow Christ for myself, I did it because I thought I was supposed to. Because of this, my foundation was weak and I gave into temptations more and more as I grew up.
By the time I was graduating high school, I had become a different person and I would continue to chase worldly desires throughout college and my young adult life. The changes happened so slowly that I didn’t see them happening. I slowly turned away from Jesus. I stopped reading the Bible. I stopped praying. I stopped going to church. I stopped making Jesus the center of my life. Once I had completely abandoned Jesus, that’s when my life really got bad. I turned away from my family and friends. I stopped caring about my health and my job. I did things to sabotage my marriage. I looked for ways to be happy despite all of this but the methods I chose only made things worse.
In 2017, my wife gave birth to my son James. It was at this time that I started to reflect on my life growing up as a Christian and my life now as an adult without Christ. The difference was startling. I knew I wanted my son to have the Christian life I once had, not the life I had now. I was still struggling with a lot of things and I felt like I didn’t know how I could fix everything. The reality was I was too weak to make those changes on my own. I began praying again because I didn’t know what else to do.
One day, God surprised me with an answer to my prayers. Without getting into details, I was cut off unexpectedly from one of the things that had been tormenting me. Since then I have not looked back. God has continued to strip away the things that have troubled me. Sometimes it happens suddenly, and other times it is a slow gradual change. I continued to pray and make Jesus my focus and I watched him transform my life.
Hearing Jared talk about baptism has caused me to reflect on why my faith as a child didn’t last. Back then, I never really had a moment where I chose to follow Jesus. I did what I thought I was supposed to do. Now, I am choosing to follow Jesus for myself. I have seen what life is like without him and I have seen what life is like with him. I have seen the power he has to transform our lives and I will never turn my back on him again.
Tom F.
As I continue to read the Bible, I see over and over again the words, “and they were baptized”. While baptized as an infant, I feel it is time for me to publicly show my belief in God, and that I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I don’t know that baptism is necessary so be saved, but just in case it may be, it certainly doesn’t hurt to be get baptized. Jesus himself was baptized as an adult. I want to be know as a follower of Jesus. I want to be like Him. I want to be baptized.