This is a day at the Wasatch Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church that won’t be forgotten by many of those who were there.
One of the energetic young people at our church, John Christian (JC) Griffin, was baptized with Ben Carson making a special trip from Oregon to do the baptizing, and we were treated to a very special message and music from world-renowned Cuban-born violinist Jaime Jorge.
It seemed like the two were meant to go together. A special day deserves a special service.
JC’s baptism brought back memories of my own, although JC was baptized at a much younger age than myself. I had members of my family make a special trip to see me being baptized in 1998, and so did JC today. For my special music on the day I was baptized, I requested “I Surrender All.” On the morning that JC was baptized, Jaime Jorge played a wonderful version of “I Surrender All.”
It started choking me up a bit when Jaime performed that particular song today.
I was very happy to have had a part in this service, being the one to fill up the baptismal font and making sure that every need for that part of the service was taken care of. JC is a pretty special young guy too, a very active and well-mannered boy. For Pastor Ben, who sat with JC for his Bible studies in preparation for baptism, it was a special day as well — the first baptism he had ever performed. He was somewhat nervous leading up to it, even having a bad dream about accidentally slipping the words “Mickey Mouse” into it at a bad moment, but it all went off without a hitch with no mistaken words thrown in subconsciously.
It all seemed so appropriate that Jaime Jorge played “I Surrender All” during his message portion of the service. There is no greater way to say that you are giving your heart over than to be baptized, to show everyone that you are a believer and you are ready to follow His will.
The day will also be memorable in a sad way, as Pastor Bernie Anderson announced at the end of the service that he and his family have accepted a call from the Florida Conference for him to serve at the Forest Lake church.
I was on the church board when Pastor Bernie came to Wasatch Hills. I was among those who helped him and his family move into their first apartment in Salt Lake City about seven years ago, and he’s called upon me to help his family move to different residences a few times ever since then — getting a phone call from him after one of those mornings when I’d hauled something for him in our pickup truck, with him asking me to be his head deacon. At one time, we shared the same neighborhood, living just blocks away from each other. Our families have become friends in that time, his middle daughter is one of our daughter’s best friends, and it will be very hard to see them go.
I joked with Bernie that after he told me on Friday via text message that they were moving away, the thought came to my mind that I should say that I was more than willing to help them move in to their first apartment, and I was happy to help them move to new locations throughout the Wasatch Valley in the years after, but I refuse to help them move away … although he knows that I will anyway.
Today’s church service had it all — joy in seeing a young member of the church being baptized and seeing someone perform a baptism for the first time, enjoying the message and the music of a positively brilliant violinist in Jaime Jorge and helping him in a very small way with his ministry, and feeling the sadness knowing that a pastor and his family who’ve brought so much to our church for several years will be moving on.
The best we can do is wish them God’s blessing, just as we were all so blessed today.
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A View From The Middle (Class) 
Forest Lake is such an awesome church already, they are so fortunate to have Pastor Bernie joining their team. We sure will miss him and his family here, though.
He and his family will be tough to follow here, thinking of everything they brought to our church especially in the area of children’s ministries. Time for everyone at Wasatch Hills to step up to the challenge.