Free A Season of Love by Amy Clipston

steps toward his waiting buggy.
    As his buggy bounced down the driveway toward the road, Lindsay smiled. Her heart fluttered as she wondered how her relationship with Matthew would change once she was baptized and allowed to date.
    For the next six weeks, Lindsay attended baptism classes at the bishop’s house on Monday and Thursday evenings and also before the church service every other Sunday. She felt her heart swell with love for the Amish culture every moment of her lessons. The more she learned about the traditions, the more she knew she was meant to become an official part of the community.
    Finally, the day arrived. Lindsay’s hands trembled as she sat on a bench near the front of the room during a regular Sunday service, which was being held in her aunt Sarah Rose’s and uncle Luke’s house. The walls downstairs had been moved to make room for rows of benches. More than one hundred members of her church district were there for the service. Today was the day she would be baptized and truly become Amish. Her heart thumped in her chest and her eyes filled with tears.
    Earlier that morning, Lindsay and her baptism classmateshad met with the ministers one last time while the congregation began singing hymns. After their meeting, they filed into the church service together, first the young men and then the young women. They had taken their seats on the benches reserved for them, divided by gender as their elders were, at the front of the congregation near the ministers.
    “Are you okay?” Lizzie Anne whispered while sitting next to Lindsay.
    “You don’t seem like yourself,” Katie chimed in from the other side of her.
    “I just wish Aenti Rebecca were here,” Lindsay said as Katie took her hand.
    “I miss her too,” Katie whispered. “But you know the doctor said it’s not safe for her to get up. She’s thinking of you and praying for you right now. Just remember the rest of your family is here, including Onkel Daniel.”
    “She’s right,” Lizzie Anne whispered. “You can tell her all about it later.”
    “Shh,” Katie warned. “It’s time for the service to begin.”
    Lindsay and her classmates bowed their heads and covered their faces with their hands, a symbol of their willingness to submit to God and the church.
    She did her best to concentrate through the two sermons based on the Book of Acts, but her mind buzzed with thoughts of how much her life would change once she was a member of the church. She would participate in the fall Communion service coming next month. It felt so right, her heart soared.
    Glancing to her right and left, she found her best friends staring at the minister with serious expressions. She inwardly smiled to herself and silently thanked God for her special friends and for the opportunity to share this important day with them.
    Once the sermons ended, the deacon left the room to retrieve the pail of water and a cup.
    “Go down on your knees before the Most High and AlmightyGod and His church if you still think this is the right thing to do to obtain your salvation,” Bishop Chupp instructed Lindsay and the rest of the candidates.
    Once on her knees, the bishop stood by Lindsay first. She held her breath with anticipation. The moment had come.
    “Can you renounce the devil, the world, and your own flesh and blood?” the bishop asked.
    “Ya , ” she said, her voice a quavering whisper.
    “Can you commit yourself to Christ and His church and to abide by it and therein to live and to die?”
    “Ya , ” she whispered.
    “And in all the order of the church, according to the Word of the Lord, to be obedient and submissive to it and to help therein?”
    “Ya , ” she said.
    Lindsay closed her eyes and tried to calm her heartbeat as the bishop moved to Lizzie Anne. Once he was finished asking the questions of each candidate, he directed the congregation to stand. He read a prayer from the traditional Swiss Anabaptist prayer book before the congregation sat again.
    The