See? Here is water ...

I get to baptize someone today.

Bernice first came to Gospel Mission just after last Christmas with an amazing healing testimony. While in Winnipeg, she fell ill, and the doctors were somewhat at a loss as to what to do. Her mother and grandmother are Christian leaders on their reservation and started praying over her -- the power-packed healing prayers that Charismatics can get into -- and Bernice, miraculously, recovered.

Since then, she's come to the Mission often, if not exactly regularly. She's talked about her marriage and things that have happened between her and her husband -- which haven't been all pleasant, from the sounds of things, but she doesn't go into detail, and she seems to have struck a balance between forgiveness and wisdom.

A couple of weeks ago, she came up and said she wanted to be baptized, and she wanted me to do it. We're doing it today at the Mission, where there's a baptismal tank.

About an hour ago, it hit me, that this is quite an honour. The act of being baptized is many things:

-- a public declaration of faith and acceptance of new life in Christ

-- the actual physical "washing" of one's life and emerging clean and renewed

-- the act of emulating Jesus' death, descent to Hell and His resurrection

That last one, of course, wasn't the kind of baptism performed by John the Baptist, but the first two were -- even the "new life in Christ" part, although I doubt many of the people who came to John at the river understood it. But what else could account for the new life, as they repented of their sins and then had their lives washed clean by the dunking in the river?

Even Jesus -- the One who had no sins to wash away -- got baptized.

And to be the one presiding over that baptism is both an honour and a responsibility. I'm honoured that Bernice specifically asked me to do it; it's also a responsibility to help disciple her and be there if she has questions or worries or concerns or just something to share in the years to come. It's a responsibility to say the Right Words or pray the Right Things over her -- and for that, I'll have to put it all in the Holy Spirit's hands and let Him guide me.

I'm grateful for a sermon Cal Weber preached at Westpointe a few weeks ago, talking about the Ethiopian eunuch who was led to the Lord and baptized by Philip the Evangelist. Cal pointed out that being black, from a different country and culture, and missing the "male parts", the eunuch would likely have been barred from worshipping at the Temple in Jerusalem -- which is why the eunuch was on that road in the first place. Yet the message of the Gospel is that Jesus sacrificed Himself to remove any impediment anyone might have to a relationship with God. Those who may have been rejected by The World are more than welcome with Jesus.

Like it or not, being a native Indian woman living off the reservation and on Vancouver's Downtown East Side, one might say Bernice is in a position of being similarly rejected. By being baptized and declaring she's surrendering her life to Jesus, she's saying that what The World thinks doesn't matter anymore.

Even those who don't immediately pigeon-hole a native woman on the Downtown East Side in a certain way often look on her with pity, as a victim of something. Bernice is also saying that she's refusing to be a victim, but rather is an overcomer. Read what it says in the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation about what God promises to overcomers. God loves victims and has compassion for them, but He sent His Son to give us the power to overcome the things that victimize us. Today, Bernice acknowledges to the world that she has received that new life, that "overcomer" status ... that power.