I have been reading the “Chosen” Pathfinder Camporee newsletters (2019) and saw the section of the plans for baptisms to be held at Oshkosh in August. That will be a very special time for hundreds of Pathfinders and their families.
This got me thinking to my own baptism and how excited I was to publicly give my heart to Jesus. The Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia list Baptism as this: (Gr. Baptisma, from baptizo “to dip”, “to immerse.”) “The Christian ceremony of initiation, traditionally either by immersion, pouring, or sprinkling.” Seventh-day Adventists “believe in baptism by immersion,” that baptism “typifies the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and openly expresses faith in His saving grace and the renunciation of sin and the world, and is recognized as a condition of entrance into church membership’ Church Manual pp42, 182.
Seventh-day Adventists believe that candidates for baptism should be thoroughly instructed in the Christian faith, in order that they may take the step intelligently and with resolute purpose. This is why hundreds of young people are currently taking Baptismal Classes. Youth and adults are being instructed by their Pastors and others that they may understand the step that they are planning to take at Oshkosh… baptism by immersion.
From the beginning Seventh-day Adventist had practiced baptism by immersion following the example of Jesus when he requested John the Baptist to baptize him in the Jordan River.
Back to my decision to be baptized… I was attending summer camp at Camp MiVoden on the shores of beautiful Hayden Lake in Idaho. Camp MiVoden is the camp site for the Upper Columbia Conference and when I was a child it was used almost exclusively for summer camps. Of course now, like many other Conference camps, the camp is used year round for many activities and various programs both spiritual and social.
The call was made, at the first campfire service, for all that were interesting in studying the Bible to be baptized to come forward. I signed up to attend these classes and as the week progressed I knew in my heart that I wanted to be baptized on Sabbath with others in the class. It was not a decision that I took lightly, I knew that I wanted to accept Jesus as my personal savior and be His child forever. I had grown up attending church from birth but as yet had not made a public stand for Jesus.
When Sabbath arrived I found myself looking forward with great anticipation to the baptism that would follow the church service. We were blessed in those days to meet in the C. Lester Bond amphitheater in the trees where we sat on benches on the hillside giving each person a wonderful view of the trees, the platform and the lake with its sparkling clear waters. I do not all these years later remember who spoke or what the topic was but I do remember well that following church we walked quietly to the water’s edge and one by one followed Pastor Manley Miles into the water where we were baptized. I thought of Jesus baptism and the way He shared the example by being baptized. I wondered what He felt as he came out of the water, dripping wet. I know I felt like I was changed forever in my pledge to follow Jesus all my life. I knew it would not always be easy, that I would still make mistakes but I also knew that Jesus would offer forgiveness for my sins if I asked. I remember that day as though it was just yesterday though in fact it was when I was thirteen years of age. I have never for a moment regretted that decision. My only regret was the fact that my parents were not there to share in my joy. I became a member of the Upper Columbia Academy Church Spangle, Washington where my membership was until I was married in 1958.
Years later when I married Arnold I learned that he had been baptized while attending Elementary School in Florida. Though he was born and lived in Colombia several times through his growing up years his mother who was born in Indiana took her two sons to the States for education in English. Arnold’s mother was a Seventh-day Adventist that was in Costa Rica at the Adventist School as the secretary for the Union President. Arnold’s dad was a Colombian who became one of the first, along with his brothers, to be baptized in Bogotá Colombia. Dad became the first Seventh-day Adventist School teacher in Colombia and at the suggestion of the American Adventist leadership attended the Academia Adventista Centro Americana at Alajuela, Costa Rica to enhance his Christian walk. His parents met at the school and were married, 29 June 1932, at the Canal Zone where the Division Offices were located. They then traveled to Colombia where Dad was the head of the Colporteur work in Colombia. Here several years later Arnold was born 5 July 1934 and on 30 September 1935 his brother Roger was born. The boys were raised in a Seventh-day Adventist home. His dad became an evangelist and through the years Arnold heard a lot of sermons. Arnoldtook Baptismal Classes at Forest Lake Elementary school in Florida where he was in 4th grade. His dad as a Seventh-day Adventist Pastor in Colombia and would no doubt have liked to baptize his son but he was far away in Colombia at the time preparing to build a mission launch that he used to travel up and down the Magdalena River to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the natives of that region. Arnold was baptized in Forest Lake across from the school – we went to see the spot a few years ago and were sad to see not much of a lake –it was only a small pond.
Mom, Frances Light Plata was a second generation Seventh-day Adventist. Her dad Elsworth Light had become an Adventist in Livingston, Montana when he was 28 years of age in 1889 when he was a single sheep herder. He attended meetings by O. A. Johnson at Livingston and was baptized following the meetings. Arnold’s Dad was a first generation Seventh-day Adventist making Arnold a second generation Adventist on his paternal side and a third generation Adventist on his maternal side.
My Daddy Donald J. Biggar became the first and only Seventh-day Adventist in his family so I became a second generation Adventist. My Mother Dorothy A. York Biggar was a third generation Adventist on her paternal side and a second generation Adventist on her maternal side, her mother had been raised a Catholic as was the family for many generations before her. The stories of their conversions are thrilling to hear.
We were blessed to be present when each of our children were baptized in Loma Linda, California and be thrilled once again about God’s saving grace. And dad, Pastor Eugenio Plata, was able to baptize our youngest son Arnold Jr. as by that time he had moved to and become a citizen of the United States of America.
I trust that each individual young and older that is currently taking Baptismal Classes will take this step seriously with the determination to follow Jesus all of their lives. It will not always be easy in this wicked world but with God’s help all things are possible.
