It was a baptism of sorts.

The rain last Saturday morning was torrential as Jerry and Karren left the motel where they’ve been staying to move into a house apartment. Driving up to the motel, I found them sitting outside with all of their belongings, waiting for me and Robby to arrive. Most of their things fit into my Honda Civic – we loaded their belongings and drove off to their new home.

The rain did not let up, reminding me of Costa Rica’s rainy season and the mission trip I took in 2003. Each afternoon, the team would stop for a while as the rains poured down, but that one day we kept working. Loading dirt and rock into the wheelbarrow, we kept moving to mix cement in the ground and make a floor for the new Sunday school building. It’s natural to resist getting rained on…to run for shelter…to shudder at the first drops falling upon you. But that day, we all just embraced it, laughing as we got soaked and continuing the work for which we came. The preacher and his wife, their small daughter, the foreman and other workers were shocked. When we left the small community, some of them spoke about that day and what it meant to watch us working through the rain.

Baptism brings one into community – making visible the need for that person in Life’s Circle … to complete the great connection. Duane Clinker said that baptism should be public because it is a “coming out as a follower of Christ.” Rain is a very public thing…filling ponds and creeks and rivers…filling potholes in neighborhood streets for children to splash and play in. Rain, as baptismal waters, ushered Jerry & Karren into a new community that day with possibilities of new life. From their isolation on the streets, to a motel room with constantly changing neighbors and now into a neighborhood where children play and roses grow, God’s grace is present…with mercies as new as the morning dew. It was a day of new beginnings.