TWO SALVATIONS, ONE FOR ETERNITY

By Bobby Gilstrap

Southeastern Baptist Association in Monroe, Michigan's Baptism Rally began at Lake Erie's Sterling State Park pavilion on a warm mid-August Sunday afternoon. The rally drew over three hundred church members and several hundred more onlookers.

A biker arrived late, parking his motorcycle and walking to the front of the pavilion area to find a seat at a picnic table. He put his helmet on the table and began to listen to the music and the message. Tom Treece, a local musician and member of Monroe Missionary Baptist Church, led the music for the rally. He noticed the biker as he arrived and observed he had the logo design of the First Calvary Army unit on the front of his t-shirt.

This forced Treece to recall a traumatic day as a Vietnam solider in 1968. Treece and his battalion were pinned down by Viet Cong sniper fire. In the midst of the midnight battle, Tom Treece realized that a First Calvary Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) was slowly moving toward his position. As it reached him, he was able to leap behind the APC and eventually move to safety. Remembering this moment of salvation, he publicly asked the stranger if he served with the First Cavalry Unit. When he said he did, Treece publicly recalled his memory of that near fatal day when he was saved.

After the message on salvation and baptism, the veteran remained seated on the picnic bench. Tom Treece made his way over to him and spoke, but the stranger remained motionless and in deep thought. After a moment, he looked up at Treece and asked, "What must I do to be baptized?" Without hesitation, Tom Treece reminded him of the message he had just heard.

After speaking with Pastor Roy Southerland of Monroe Missionary Baptist Church, this veteran prayed to receive Christ and became the last in a line of seventeen baptismal candidates that marched into Lake Erie. Pastor Southerland asked the man about baptismal clothes and he replied he would be baptized in what he was wearing. He boldly marched through hundreds of observers into the lake wearing his jeans (with keys and wallet), boots and his First Cavalry t-shirt.

Tom Treece, writing in the local newspaper, said, "It was just like the eunuch in the eighth chapter of Acts." This veteran marched into the water immediately after accepting Christ as his savior. After being immersed in Lake Erie, this veteran came out of the water pumping his fist in victory. Treece later reflected on the afternoon saying he thought about that morning in Vietnam when this veteran's First Calvary unit saved his life in the jungle. Then he thought about how his unit (at the Baptism Rally) had helped to save this veteran's life eternally.

Reflecting on the day I thought, who would have ever imagined that a young soldier saved from a foxhole would have a part in the salvation of a comrade some thirty-eight years later. At our Baptism Rally, we saw and heard of two salvations, but one will be for all eternity.

Bobby Gilstrap is the Director of Missions for Southeastern Baptist Association in Monroe, Michigan. bgilstrap48198@earthlink.net.