BY GEORGE HENRY, STAR Writer

Left: Lorna Lewinson is about to be baptised by Bishop DaCosta.   Right: Some of the twenty four persons who were baptised on February 11 at the Sanguinetti New Testament Church of God. - George Henry photos

spaldings, clarendon

Sunday night February 11, 2007 will long be remembered by scores of worshippers who crammed the Sanguinetti New Testament Church of God, Clarendon and spilled over into the yard. It was the night when many residents and members from the six New Testament churches on the Sanguinetti District of Churches, witnessed 24 persons being baptised.

The 24 included 14 females, including a ten-year-old girl. Of the 10 males, a nine-year-old boy and an elderly man in his 70s, were in attendance on the last night of the Sanguinetti Church Crusade 2007. They were all invited to the altar by Evangelist Ucal Thompson after he had completed his sermon, which was centred on the theme, 'preparation for the judgement'.

Giving a clear description of what those who do not surrender their life to God before the day of judgement should expect, Evangelist Thompson who has been preaching since 1979 told the gathering that they should expect to encounter being burnt in a lake of fire and being amongst worms that cannot be burnt.

It was against that background that the altar call was extended to the unsaved, and several persons responded and were prayed for by Reverend Karl Humes, the pastor at the Wishbeach New Testament Church of God.

As if he anticipated that persons would have turned over their life to God on that final night of the crusade and would have asked for their water baptism, host pastor Bishop Barrington DaCosta announced that if anyone who got saved wanted to be baptised, he was willing and ready to climb into the pool.

It did not take long before persons started to indicate that they wanted to make the important step. The large group of persons who stood on the platform, though not carrying a change of clothe suddenly start to get smaller, as persons went to the downstairs section of the church one after the other to get garments for the religious act, while fulfilling the command of Jesus in the New Testament Book of St. Matthew for man to be saved and then be baptised.

It was a long night for Bishop DaCosta, who was having his first baptism since the start of 2007. The twenty four persons baptised on the night in question were more that the number who were baptised for the entire year last year, when less than twenty were baptised.