Missionary Andrew Ferguson baptized Placido and his four wives this week.
My first reaction when I read about that was, “Wait a minute, what?”
I sent an email to Andrew’s co-worker, Barry Wingo, who had shared the news. “How could you baptize a man with four wives?” I asked.
Barry’s answer was great: “The same way I could baptize someone who got saved but has been addicted to heroin, porn, a glutton ….”
Then Barry boiled it all down to what was really important: “Andrew was convinced of their understanding of the gospel and of their repentance and trust in Christ, and so he baptized them.”
I actually already understood that. I just wanted to see what Barry was going to say.
At the same time, I thought back to my time as a church deacon. I wonder how I would have reacted if one of the pastors had said, “Hey, I’ve been sharing God’s Word with a family, and now they want to be baptized. Oh, and by the way, the man of the house has four wives.”
I think I might have fallen out of my chair.
Thank the Lord that Barry and Andrew are more mature than I was.
“Placido would go home in the early days to his wives and share what he was learning from the Bible,” Barry wrote, “and his wives asked that Andrew himself come and teach them. So Placido was not only helping translate the lessons into his language, but also would hear Andrew teach his wives and enter into the discussion for a period of around a year.”
“Through the Holy Spirit working through Andrew as he patiently taught the Word, Placido and his wives were convinced of the truth and trusted Christ,” Barry wrote.
The challenge now is to help Placido and his wives “learn to read, grow, and become strong disciples.” Barry and his wife, Cindy, are in the city where they live roughly two of every six weeks, and recently left the city to spend time in a Southern Tepehuan village.
“But we rejoice in what God is doing and trust Him for helping us see Christ formed in these new believers,” Barry wrote.
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