Cory Bertram - Baptism
My name is Cory Bertram. I am 34 years old. I’m married to my loving wife, Kristin. We have 3 beautiful children, Kaylan, Liam and Elora. Before I found God, I was extremely distracted and did not have my priorities straight in my life. My life was faithless and always felt like there should’ve been more to it spiritually.
A few years ago I found myself hit a rock bottom and didn’t know what to do with my life. At that moment I found myself in prayer but struggled to understand or believe in what I was praying for. God answered my prayers and guided me in the right direction to clean up my life. I want to thank God and my family for their forgiveness and strong faith in me. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to do it alone. I am here today to be baptized and submit myself to my Lord and Savior and to be washed of my sins in the presence of God, my family and the New Bridge Community.
Stephanie Ashley - Baptism
Today I identify and declare my belief in Jesus. Growing up, I did not know Christ. In our household God was only spoken when using his name in vain, as both of my parents also grew up without knowing Him. I was not taught about Jesus, other than what I briefly saw in movies or what felt like a foreign language when people spoke of Him, but He has always been with me. He was with me every time I convinced my friend Katie to do weekend sleepovers at her house, knowing her parents would take us to church service the next day. He was with me at 12 years old when I pulled my dad’s best friend, Matt aside, who is a Believer, to convince him to talk to my dad about his faith in hopes it would begin to unburden his stress and pains. Without realizing it, he was present every time I felt like I was in control of what was happening or going to happen in my life. Or when I held the idea that when I get into that school…get that job…buy that house…fill in the blank, that maybe then I will be whole. He was present when those things did not feel enough and I was lost.
The first time I really heard Him was in the middle of the night when I was new to motherhood. I was holding my 2 month old baby boy. I hadn’t slept for what felt like weeks. My body, mind, and heart were exhausted. All barriers were down and I was exposed. I felt His gentle presence wash over me, speaking to me to put my trust into Him. For the first time in my life, it felt like I was able to really exhale. I want to be baptized to surrender my need to control to God and have faith in His journey. Since doing so, I have gained a child-like curiosity and openness to Jesus’ teachings.I give my mind, my heart, and my whole being to Jesus as the Holy Spirit surrounds me with love, safety and healing.
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding . In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make straight your paths.”
Robert Kelly - Baptism
I am a green beret with first special forces group and have been attending your church with my wife for about a month now. I am returning from my third deployment and have been suffering with a lot of issues that I’ve finally let come to light and reached an all time low. My wife has brought me to church and introduced me to Jesus and the Bible and I feel like I’m finally on the right path in my life and feel more fulfilled than I ever have. It’s very emotional for me to discuss what I’ve seen and done but visiting your church and listening to the sermons have opened up something inside of me that makes me more confident in sharing issues I have with my wife. I want to give myself to Jesus and allow my old self to pass and become a new man who follows Jesus Christ and lives a life of fulfillment. Being baptized is my expression of following Jesus and starting this new journey in my life.
Seth Bailey - Baptism
I feel like I have known Jesus my whole life, well at least I have known of him. Like many people in this world, my parents raised me and my siblings in a home with Christian values, centered on Jesus. We went to church every Sunday, said prayers every night, and said a blessing every time that we set down to eat a meal as a family. Unfortunately for my parents, I got older, left home to join the Marine Corps and never moved back to Baton Rouge, LA. I started living the life that I wanted to live when I left home. I got involved in drugs, alcohol, being promiscuous with many different women, lots of physical altercations with people, etc. Throughout this time, I have had moments where I gave my life to Jesus and accepted him as my Lord and Savior, but I always backslid and went right back to the sin.
I am married to Rachel and have two children Tyler and Savannah. Until a few months ago, I can honestly say that I had not been the father that both my children deserved, and I was a rotten husband to say the least. Interestingly enough, a few months ago, I was driving home from work, and the Holy Spirit placed on my heart that I needed to stop impure behaviors driven by lust and stop using chewing tobacco immediately. Furthermore, it was very clear that I needed to repent immediately. For the first time in my life, this choice seemed easy. It is hard to explain why this seemed so easy. I just listened and stopped both. That night, for the first time in my life, I repented for my sins and completely surrendered myself to God. I have not looked back since. Life since surrendering my life to Jesus has had ups and downs, but I am happier, free from bondage, and I can see the power of the Lord moving in my life, the life of my children, and my wife’s life.
Rachel Bailey - Baptism
I grew up with a single mother who instilled Christian values even though we never attended church. My mother worked full time, and that often meant we were left at family members' homes or with sitters, and unfortunately, people took advantage of that. My past is filled with horrible events that no child should ever have to endure, and it caused me to turn against God and my Christian beliefs. While serving in the Army, I attended church every Sunday, but I still had not committed my life to Christ and I still didn’t fully believe that God existed since he had allowed such horrible things to happen to me in my childhood. Now that I have a family of my own, I have become more aware of how broken the world is and how broken my beliefs in God had become.
As a family, we have made the choice to commit our lives to God, and being baptized not only shows others my commitment to God but also reinforces my commitment to my family. Jesus is the savior of my life and is helping me heal from the events of my past. I want to be baptized to symbolize that I am letting go of the past strongholds and moving forward with my family in our faith.
Tyler Bailey - Baptism
My name is Tyler and I am 13 years old and am in 7th grade. My journey of coming to faith in Jesus started when I was getting in trouble a lot for lying. I asked God to help me and kept saying, “God please help me!" every time I got in trouble for lying. I realized that my lying was sin against God and those I was lying to. After a while, I felt myself wanting to follow Jesus so I accepted Jesus as my Savior. Since then, my whole life has changed. I felt like a new person and my life has been amazing ever since. I am growing in my relationship with God. I have recently been going through the Living Free class along with my mom and dad and I want to continue to grow to live who Jesus originally designed me to be.
Dyllan Donze - Baptism
Hello, my name is Dyllan Donze. I was raised and grew up a Christian, going to New Bridge most Sundays. I haven't been baptized yet for a couple of reasons, mostly because of pride and stubbornness and wanting to do what I want, feeling like I wasn't ready to give my life over to Jesus and His will. I would say I really got to know God around mid-way through high school during a presentation that I was under-prepared for (I am very much a procrastinator). Selfishly, I prayed to God that he would help me to do well on this presentation and not look like an idiot in front of the class. So I go up and was supposed to have this story about the kraken memorized but I was reading off a laptop. I don't know how or why but I did terrific and I put on a pirate type accent that I had never practiced before and it all worked out.
God answered my prayer in a way that was very real and visceral to me. From that moment on, I was praying all the time and over the years I have felt like I have developed a relationship with Jesus. In the past 8 months to a year, I have found myself wanting to read the Bible and love re-reading many parts of it including the Gospels. Reading through Mathew, Acts, and Romans has shown me the importance of baptism in the process of becoming a Christian and dying to myself and my sin. When Jesus was baptized the Lord said"this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased". I want God and my father to think that about me too. I want to publicly admit that I believe that Jesus is Christ our King and I want to live in accordance with his law and plan for my life.