Sunday was a day of celebration at Balboa Baptist Church in Hot Springs Village as nine students who accepted Jesus into their hearts followed in believer’s baptism.
Before stepping into the water, each of the students shared their testimony. One of the students, Meadow Sanders, shared she grew up in a non-religious household. She didn’t really know about Christianity.
Then she met Abbi Elder, another of the students baptized on Sunday, in class. Elder talked about the Lord with Sanders and got her thinking about Christ. She then found a Bible study.
“Though I was super nervous about being judged, I went. I was surprised how warm and accepting everyone was. It really opened my heart to what Christ teaches,” she shared.
Since committing her life to Christ at a Fields of Faith event, Sanders said she has gone through “such a transformation. Sure, I still have rough days but now I turn to the Lord for help instead of seeking fulfillment somewhere else. I feel so much joy and a sense of completeness I never felt before.”
“Deciding to get baptized just felt like the right next step in my faith journey. With all the love and support in my community and learning the good works of the Lord I felt ready to show my commitment to Christ through baptism. Baptism is a symbol of my new life in Him, and I am real excited to take this important step,” Sanders shared with the church.
In her testimony, Elder said she came to learn of the Lord at a young age, but it was not until later in life that she experienced a genuine change in heart.
“Growing up in church I was familiar with Jesus, but it wasn’t until I fully devoted my life to Him that I began to understand the depth of His love and grace,” Elder said. “Before I surrendered my life to Christ I struggled deeply with anxiety and loneliness. Since devoting my life to Jesus, my life has transformed beautifully. Through Jesus I have found confidence not in myself but in His love for me. I also gained the blessing of true, Godly friendships that serve as a reminder of God’s faithfulness. I am truly grateful for all God has done in my life and all the countless ways He continues to work in me. Now, I want to publicly declare my love and commitment to Christ through baptism. I want to share with everyone that I am His follower, He has redeemed me, and He is the source of hope and joy in my life.”
To view all the student testimonies and baptisms, check out the Balboa Baptist Church Facebook page.
“We have been seeing a tremendous growth in our family ministry over the last nine months, and we are seeing the fruit of that,” Family Ministry Director Denise Hussein said. “We’re just praising the Lord. We’re so thankful. We’ve got a tremendous ministry now growing and continuing to go.”
Balboa Baptist was just one of many Arkansas Baptist churches to celebrate baptisms on Statewide Baptism Sunday.
At Friendship Baptist Church in Conway, they celebrated nine baptisms and five salvations on Sunday.
“WOW, A Sunday I’ll never forget! One of those special days where God moved with great power! I don’t even have words to describe today. I’m in awe!” Pastor Sean Mills wrote in a Facebook post. “One of those days, you just had to be in the room! Thank you Lord for changing lives! PRAISE THE LORD!”
At First Baptist Church in Crossett, they celebrated three baptisms on Sunday. “We are incredibly grateful for what God is doing in Arkansas,” Pastor Phillip Slaughter shared in a comment on an Arkansas Baptist State Convention (ABSC) Facebook post celebrating salvations across Arkansas.
Fellowship Southern Baptist Church in Hardy celebrated seven baptisms. In a Facebook post, they wrote, “It’s always a great service when you start off with a baptism.”
Kibler Baptist Church in Alma celebrated 24 baptisms on Sunday. “That’s 24 people boldly declaring their faith in Jesus and stepping into new life with Him,” the church shared in a Facebook post. “Heaven is rejoicing, and so are we! Let’s continue to encourage and pray for them!”
Spring Outreach
Statewide Baptism Sunday was the culmination of the ABSC’s Spring Outreach Strategy, which kicked off in March as pastors were invited to share the message of John 3:16 on March 16.
Spring Outreach Strategy is a comprehensive initiative designed to help churches engage their communities and share the hope of the Gospel during key moments in the spring season.
As part of spring outreach, several churches hosted serve local and community missions events. On April 19, Horseshoe Bend First Baptist Church held a spring festival. The event took place in the church’s gym, which Pastor Mike Nelson said they have been renovating for the past six months.
“Our church has the only gym in the entire city of Horseshoe Bend. It was sitting idle. It had not been used for about 25 years,” said Nelson, who took on the pastoral role at Horseshoe Bend in September 2024. “God impressed it on my heart that we needed to revitalize that facility and start using it to try to reach our community.”
The church got behind the idea and, though they still have some work to do on the facility, opened the gym back up to the community to be used as an outreach tool.
For their spring festival, the gym was filled with a ninja warrior obstacle course. The church partnered with a ministry called Overcoming Obstacles, which uses obstacle courses to talk with youth about overcoming obstacles in life.
Over the course of the day, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Nelson estimated more than 300 people came through their facility.
“It was a giant hit. The kids absolutely loved it,” he said.
From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. they had open gym. The kids played and were fed hamburgers and hotdogs while Christian music played in the background.
At 1 p.m., they gathered all the kids, 98 at that time, and did a Gospel presentation. They had 21 pray to receive Christ.
After that, they opened the gym back up for kids to continue play. Additionally, they held an Easter egg hunt for the children. “It was a giant success,” Nelson said.
“God put us here to be a lighthouse in this community,” he said. “We’re trying to do everything we can to reach our community, to impact our community, and this was just another way of doing that.”
Nelson said the spring festival was also an opportunity for the church to let the community know their gym is open and available.
“We’re going to use it as an outreach tool to reach the children and the youth in this community,” he said.
Another outreach the church has is its Go ministry, which they started last month. Twice a month, they now go out into the community and knock on doors, looking for people they can share the Gospel with.
Nelson said “God’s brought a little revival” to the church. Since Oct. 1, they have had 66 professions of faith, 25 baptisms, and 45 new members join the church.
“Everything we do in our church is going to have a Jesus hook. We’re not going to do things just to do things. Everything we do, we do with a purpose to expose people to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We’re going to have a hook in everything we do,” he said. “We want to bless our community. The greatest blessing we can give our community is to introduce them to Jesus.”
