Baptism Day!

Front row: Amy Stone, Victoria Rose, Jenna
Back row: Jeff, Brent Hawkins, Nick Proud, Sarah Kelly,
and Becky Espey.


Yesterday, Sunday July 8th was a very special day for the Tackaberry family. Our church had a baptism service out at West Overlook, which is part of the Iowa River. We had a huge all church picnic and then baptised 7 people in the midst of the boaters/swimmers and sunbathers. The most special part of the day was that Jenna was baptised. Each person was to write a personal testimony so the church had it on file. Here is Jenna's that she wrote.

"Hi, I'm getting baptized because I want to show the people in my church and the people who love me that I've accepted Christ into my heart. I'm very happy that I can be baptized by my Dad; a lot of people don't get that opportunity. I understand that you can be baptized at 6 or 90. There is nothing wrong with getting baptized at an older age. I was 6 when I asked Christ in my heart, I'm ten now. A lot of people know that I'm a Christian but I want to have a real ceremony so I can show others that I was once dirty of sin, but than was cleansed from my sin."

Jeff found it to be so special to be able to baptise his own daughter! It was a very special day. After the baptismal service we stayed at the beach for about an hour but convinced the kids that it was just too hot! It was 95. We all went home and we all slept (except for Mikki, who isn't a nap taker) and then got up, ate a quick supper and went back to the pool with our friends Bill, Kris and Mackenzie for a couple hours (6-8). We then went and rented a movie for the girls. We knew since they slept it would be a late night for them. Jenna was still ready for bed about 9. She was absolutely exhausted!

It was a wonderful day! The following pictures show Jenna's baptism from beginning to end. I missed the picture, because I wasn't expecting it, of Jeff giving Jenna a big hug afterwards!

These pictures are great ones to double click on so you can see it up close! On the last picture if you click on it you will see Jenna's wonderful smile. I know I'm her mom, but it brought tears to my eyes. She was so excited to be baptized. You will also notice in the background a "tuber" sitting there. We had an audience of a docked boat and this kid in the tube. They were watching pretty intensely. As you see, some of the guys are pretty big and tall and almost took Jeff under with him when he "dunked" them, we all laughed and so did the boaters. Then when Jeff was "dunking" Sarah he didn't quite get her head all the way under before she started pulling herself up, so Jeff re -baptized her. We all laughed...there were probably about 80 observers from the church. The boaters thought that was funny too. I thought that we were such a great witness to them, that we could have a lot of fun at such an important occasion.