The Difference a Year Makes tagged: , ,

The Difference a Year Makes

Posted by in Church & Missions

Dave stepped out from among the crowd with a certain purpose in his step and he made his way to the shoreline.  Without hesitating he continued forward stepping into the chilly water, his gaze fixed intently on the man already standing about twenty feet in front of him out in the water.

What a difference a year makes!  A little more than twelve months previous, a devastating tornado swept through Windsor damaging more than six hundred homes and businesses.  Dave lived in one of those homes along with his wife and two children.  He had been attending Cornerstone for a few years along with his family.  Dave had a drinking problem that created some chaotic situations at home.  The stress of the tornado, a damaged house, an already struggling family—it was just too much.  While disaster relief teams were busily moving out of the Cornerstone Church and into the storm ravaged community, Cornerstone’s pastor was meeting with Dave’s wife.  A story was told, a counselor was invited in, and the police were called.  Dave’s life was about to change…

The next day, having been released from jail, Dave headed over to Cornerstone to pick up his car.  It had been left for him in the church parking lot—his keys left on the pastor’s desk.  Dave stormed down the hall to get his keys with his first words to the pastor being, “I don’t know whether to hit you or to hug you!”  After several hours of meeting with the pastor and with Martin–a member of Cornerstone who helps with addiction recovery–Dave finally left the building with a new plan for transforming his life.  He would stop drinking, he would attend Celebrate Recovery meetings, he would meet regularly with Martin, he would pursue a relationship with Jesus.

What a difference a year makes!  Dave had crossed many difficult oceans in the previous year and had seen amazing transformation in his life and in his family’s.  As he waded out into the water of Windsor Lake, he wanted the world to know about the transformational power Christ.  Each new step took him deeper into the lake even as his life had gone so much deeper over the past twelve months.  Dave turned and faced the crowded beach focusing in on his young family watching from the shoreline.  His eyes glance skyward as he is laid back and pushed under the water symbolizing his own death.  Just as quickly he is brought back up picturing the rebirth of a new man.  The crowd explodes with cheers and applause.  Like so many others who have gone before who have also experienced the resurrection of Jesus, Dave has been buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life.

Dave was just one of forty individuals who waded out into the chilly water and were baptized in Windsor Lake on June 14th.  This was the second year in a row that Cornerstone has invited the community to join them for a worship celebration at the lake.  The event is the brainchild of the Cornerstone children’s’ minister, Sheila Bowman.  The idea was to follow their week of Vacation Bible School with a fun and informal celebration where the VBS kids could invite their families to join them for a taste of VBS at Cornerstone.  This year almost 450 people showed up the “Beach Service” at Windsor Lake.  Normal attendance at Cornerstone is closer to 250.  The service includes the VBS kids singing their songs and quoting their memory verses, lively worship music, a brief Gospel presentation followed by a call to publicly profess faith in Christ.  An explanation of believer’s baptism is presented and then all who will are challenged to join the pastors out in the water to receive baptism.  When the baptisms are over the celebration continues with a roasted pig, fellowship, swimming, and lots of families just having a great time together.

For Cornerstone, Vacation Bible School is one of the strongest outreach tools that they have found.  Along with the many children who profess faith in Christ, there are also a number of youth and adults who find Jesus through VBS and the corresponding Lake Service.  Parents come to support their kids and end up finding their purpose in life—Jesus.  One grandmother was present at the lake service who flew in at the last minute from Montana in order to watch her granddaughter’s baptism.  Her son and daughter have indicated that they will now be worshiping with Cornerstone each Sunday.  A single mom stopped by on Wednesday and asked about the big tent that Cornerstone had set up.  She had been thinking that she needed to get her kids in church and when she saw the tent filled with kids; she just had to stop and see what was going on.  Her fourth-grade son was baptized at the lake on Sunday with mom proudly looking on.  Perhaps she will be next.

Forty individuals were baptized at Windsor Lake, and each one of them–like Dave, has a story to tell.