Adene Banton clasps her hands and prepares to be baptised by Bishop Clive Reid at Alligator Pond in Manchester recently.

Adene Banton had always wanted to be baptised and to follow Christ. However, her mind was not made up prior to the start of a tent crusade by Bishop Clive Reid of the Emanuel's Hope Restored Church of God. After Bishop Reid's announcement that the church would have a baptism at Alligator Pond, Banton and several other converts made the journey to the site and were baptised.

Unlike the other converts who were able to enter the blessed water to receive their baptism, Banton had to be helped by four church leaders seeing that she had suffered a broken leg in a motor vehicle accident.

repent of sins

But nothing was going to stop her from receiving her baptism as a command from God and as part of a request for man to repent and be baptised for the remission of sins. The disabled woman decided that even if she had to be carried by persons into the water, she was not going to leave until Bishop Reid had baptised her.

"I was in a motor vehicle accident and was in the hospital. I lay on my back for over two and a half months, but God called me from there and brought me home where I had to lay on my back for a long while before I was able to move," said Banton.

The convert said while she was bedridden, she read her Bible and acquired a lot of inspiration from it. Praising God was not difficult because, although she was not able to walk around, she said she at least had the strength to do so.

She testified that God has always been calling her into His vineyard to serve Him and that He had done a lot for her during the period she was admitted in hospital.

felt like walking

Banton noted that she had faith that God had the power to heal her and that such healing was upon her even at the time when she got into the water to be baptised. She testified that prior to her entering the water, for days she felt like trying to walk.

"Even this morning as I entered the water and was put down on my feet, I was feeling God's healing power," noted Banton who called on those present to pray for her because she meant well and wanted to serve the Lord for the rest of her life.

Her testimony was met with loud and long shouts of praises to God by the large crowd, but more forcefully so from Bishop Reid who appeared touched by the testimony given from the convert filled with the Holy Ghost.

'She had faith that God had the power to heal her and that such healing was upon her even at the time when she got into the water to be baptised'.

Bishop Clive Reid (second left) holds Adene Banton while other men who helped her into the water look on. - george henry