One of our students, Raelynn Chambers, has been through quite a journey with the

Lord lately. She has experienced more of Christ's love, peace and miracles in this past semester than in her whole life living as Christian. I have had the honor to walk with her through some of her past hurts only to see the freedom and redemption that Jesus has given her.

The day before she left to go back home to the U.S. for Christmas, Raelynn experienced the depth of this freedom when she got baptized. She asked Chris and me to baptize her in the oceans of Jeffrey's Bay, which literally translates into "healing waters". We have seen God do so many healing miracles in this town, both physically and emotionally, but this one was uniquely powerful.

Raelynn had a chance to share why she wanted to be baptized in the midst of our whole team. Several other teammates read passages of scripture that reflected Rae's journey until this point. We sang songs of worship, and prayed over Raelynn. It was a beautiful moment of a community loving and supporting their sister in Christ. Soon, Rae headed toward the ocean once again in obedience to God before she got baptized. She had a pile of rocks in her hands, on which had been written different struggles, temptations or addictions. One by one, she threw them in the ocean, claiming her freedom against these past sins that at one time held her in bondage. As she threw them away, she experienced God's sweet forgiveness and relentless love knowing that she no longer was a slave to sin but now to righteousness.

Now that she had, as Hebrews says, "stripped off the sin that so easily entangles", we proceeded into the biting cold waters for the baptism. We walked out into the crashing waves, holding hands. Chris prayed, thanked Jesus and asked Him to come and fill Raelynn with the power of the Holy Spirit. As Chris held her, she was dunked under the waves and came up a new creation! As we turned to walk into the shore, the most amazing sunset came forth, declaring God's glory and His delight in His daughter, Raelynn.

Please pray for Rae that she would continue to experience the depth of God's love for her and experience absolute freedom of walking in His presence. Amen!