As his face went under the water in the cow trough baptismal, I smiled as I thought back to the first time I saw this boy ...

Four years ago, as I was teaching English to the kindergarten students in my son's Paraguayan school class, I noticed one boy who pronounced the words very well and was quick to memorize vocabulary. I could tell by his humble, shy demeanor that he was from one of the poorer sections of town. But his dark brown hair and face, shining brown eyes, and bashful yet gleaming smile drew me to him.

A while later, I visited a new friend of mine who had just had her 5th child. She was one of the poor in town, and in her dark little one-room house, this same little boy be-bopped in and out as if very familiar with her. Another lady, whom I had never met before, sat with us in that tiny house. She had the little boy’s dark hair and skin, and those same dark, yet shining, eyes. Her demeanor and voice exuded gentleness, humbleness, and shyness. I pieced together that she was the mother of this boy and the sister-in-law of my friend who had just had a baby. I told her how I was so impressed with her son. She seemed to be impressed herself—that this foreign lady could speak her language and was in her territory.

Months later, the people of our fledgling church built a new house for my friend who had the new baby. She asked if we would do a Bible study at her new house. We were shocked at how many came for that first study—lots of them were kids. This shy little boy and his gentle, shy mother were among the crowd. For many months we studied the Bible.

Sometime after that study was underway, we began another study on marriage. We thought that it would be with one couple, but four showed up, and lots of their kids. Again in this group was this shy little boy and his gentle, shy mother. It gave me hope to think that four whole families might get their marriages and lives in order and raise their kids to love God. During this marriage study, I learned the lady’s name—Rosarina. Antonio is her son.

Antonio began coming occasionally to Sunday school and to some children's evangelistic outreaches. At the Bible studies at his aunt’s house, I began to teach the children memory verses. Antonio was always one of the first to memorize them.

After the marriage study, Rosarina got up the courage to come to our Sunday morning prayer meeting, bringing her husband, Alcides. More months went by of the family studying the Bible at her sister-in-law’s house and coming to prayer meetings on Sunday mornings. They also came to our monthly Encuentro meetings, the half-day Sunday gathering of all the Bible study groups from around town. Here they saw some others from our group get baptized. Then one day, Rosarina and Alcides announced that they wanted to get baptized too because they had given their lives to God. That same day Antonio also wanted to get baptized, but was just too shy to go through with it.

The next month, though, at our monthly Encuentro meeting, many great things came together at once. Rosarina and her husband made their marriage vows formal in front of God and this very large group, and Antonio decided to overcome his shyness enough to get baptized. As Rosarina and her husband stood on either side of Antonio in the little cattle trough baptismal, they ever so gently and tenderly let their son’s body down into the water as if gently putting a sleeping baby down in his bed.

And as his face went under the water ... I smiled as I thought back to the first time I saw this boy ... and all that had happened since then.