God @ Work: Baptisms at Emmaus Lutheran
- 11 minutes ago
- 2 min read
This past May, members of Emmaus Lutheran Church and School in Alhambra, California celebrated with joy and thanksgiving as nine children (8 students, 1 sibling) were reborn through the gift of Holy Baptism during their Eight Grade Blessing Service. We’re glad to pass this good news along throughout our District, since a number of these children come from homes with little or no prior connection to a church.
Moments like this show what a Christ-centered, Gospel-grounded education can do. Young lives are reached, drawn in, and reshaped by the love of Jesus. It was a genuine delight for the Emmaus Lutheran team to spend time in conversation with parents whose own children and grandchildren now attend the church and school – a living legacy carried forward through the generations.
Emmaus Lutheran Church has been rooted in the Alhambra community for more than 100 years; its school, offering classes from Preschool through eighth grade, has been operating for more than 80 of those years since 1941. The congregation today is made up of English-speaking worship communities alongside a Chinese-speaking congregation.
Emmaus Lutheran School organizes its program around their four "Comet Commitments" – Christ, curriculum, character, and community – keeping their commitment to have Christ be the head of everything they do, provide academic success for the future, establish behaviors that shape adulthood qualities, while giving back to their communities for life.
Mrs. Cynthia Spiva, School Principal, shared that the baptism was a powerful reminder that our Lutheran schools are not only places of academic excellence but also mission fields where the Holy Spirit is continually at work through God's Word.
For many of their students, the desire to be baptized grew from hearing God's Word in their classrooms and asking questions about the Christian faith throughout the school year. Additionally, having Rev. Jim Swinford, their transitional interim pastor, regularly on campus allowed students and families to know him personally, making conversations about faith and baptism both natural and encouraging.
Rev. Jim also reflected that much of what God accomplishes through a Lutheran church and school unfolds quietly, out of view, so a celebration like this one is a rare and welcome glimpse of the harvest. The full measure of what God will cultivate in these children over a lifetime is impossible to calculate.
Emmaus Lutheran gives humble thanks to the One who said, “Let the little children come to me” for having the privilege of taking part in God's kingdom work across our District—seeking and saving the lost, one soul at a time.
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