Cokie is getting Baptized today! Ironically, it is Chinese New Year. Is God showing us it is His perfect timing? His plan to bring a little orphan from the east to a country where we are still free to learn about and worship Him?
Yes, Cokie is already Saved, understands what that means and is sincere about being baptized. I have to admit, the emphasis on baptism threw me a bit when I first started attending a restoration movement Christian church. I was raised Baptist, and we never talked about being baptized without first saying saved. I think some people think our church believes the act of being baptized itself is what saves. We (at least I) don't think that. We understand acceptance of Jesus as your Lord and Savior comes first. In other words, if you've decided to be baptized and someone asks, "are you saved," it is a big duh! But Christians would never say something that smart alecky. : - )
Seriously, I have come to understand our church's philosophy on baptism and why there is so much emphasis on it. It is because of Acts 2:38. When Peter told people about Jesus, they asked: "What shall we do?" He answered, "repent and be baptized." Peter didn't say "or be baptized" or make it optional. So if God commanded it, we need to do it. Again though, Peter did put the "and be baptized" part after "repent." Repent means to turn away from sin and turn to God. Unless you've first decided to give your life to the Lord, the "and be baptized" never comes into play. Cokie gets that, and I know she's going to do great things for Jesus.
Cokie is the first of our 9-years old (we have 4) that has accepted Jesus Christ. She came to us 2 weeks ago and said she wanted be baptized. At 9 years of age, you have to wonder if they know what they are doing. We called Tyler, who is over our church's children's ministry. He talked to her extensively and gave her a pamphlet to study. We told Cokie if she wanted to accept Jesus it was up to her to come and tell us when she wanted to study it. Every night as soon as Mike would get home from work she would run and get the pamphlet for Mike to help her study. This week, Tyler talked to Cokie again. Tyler asked Cokie to tell him one thing she knew about Jesus. Cokie quickly answered, "He's perfect." They talked some more, and Cokie told him about Jesus' miracles and explained that we're all sinners. He asked her if her Dad sinned and without hesitation, she answered "yes." Tyler then tested her a bit and said, "what about Steve White (our preacher), he gets up in front of the whole church every Sunday and preaches. Does he sin?" Cokie again didn't blink an eye, and answered yes. She clearly gets that everyone needs Jesus. Tyler and Mike then prayed for Cokie and when they opened their eyes, Cokie was all teared up. Because of her tears, we knew Cokie understood.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
God has had His hand in Cokie's life in more ways than you can imagine. My next post will be the miracle we saw unfold before our eyes. And, I have witnesses!!
I took this picture of Cokie in the orphanage one year before we went back to get her. Anyone that adopts from China knows you're not allowed to pre-identify kids in person. Yet, God was in this. In this picture, I took one look at her and fell in love. She was in depression. I smiled, gave her a kiss and whispered "Don't worry. I'll be back." Only God could have given me that peace (and not only that I would be back, but that I wasn't even frightened that she was crippled and could not walk!!).
I got a little carried away on the Gap.
So many times when people adopt they worry about their kids being jealous of the new one. If any child had a right to be jealous it would have been Lyric. When we got Cokie, Lyric was not yet 3 y.o. and only 6 months older than Cokie. This picture says it all about how she treated Cokie from the first day we got her. Lyric was tickled pink over her new sister. Lyric took one look at Cokie's burned legs and has loved her every since. One day they were at the park and playing with kids they didn't know. The other kids raced ahead. Lyric ran ahead of Cokie and yelled to the kids "Guys slow down! My sister has bad legs." The other girls didn't stop, but Lyric did and waited for her sister.
Here we had went behind the orphanage's back and hooked up with Cokie's nanny. The white male is Felipe. Felipe is from Belgium, but he and his wife were living in Nanjing. They would take Cokie home from the hospital she was living in. He was a great guy and we really enjoyed meeting him. He helped arrange the meeting. Later Felipe's wife said he told her that our kids were better behaved than any he ever saw. Hmmm... I remember Lyric was asleep the entire time.
I guess the nanny was going to show me who the boss was. She immediately grabbed Cokie from me and unbandaged her legs that I had bandaged up. You can tell by the look on my face what I thought about that, but I held my tongue. I think even Lael was stunned. Poor Felipe.
Lyric and Cokie crashing after a hot, hard day touring Nanjing. What a blast (at least it was for me).
I didn't know the first thing about burns. It sure is true... God Doesn’t Call the Qualified… God Qualifies the Called!
This was her good foot sticking out... it only has one toe burned off.
Still in China. We went back to China a year later. We learned while we were in this hotel Cokie's former nurses and doctors were staking out the hotel spying on us (can't blame them).
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I think Cokie was thinking... these people are OK.
