3 said yes

Tradition still means something in Denmark. So when three young teens announced together that they wanted to get baptized, people noticed.

After all, in their church, most children are sprinkled as babies. Like church attendance on Christmas and Easter, for some families it’s simply part of the culture, and has been for generations. But for whatever reason, the parents of Andrea, Tinke, and Nicoline had not arranged for their children to be baptized as infants.

Even so, the girls all agreed that was okay.

“I’m glad that I could decide this for myself,” said Nicoline Dabbagh, 14. “Because if I’d wanted to, I could have said no.”

Her friend Andrea Hansen also wasn’t disappointed at the way things turned out.

“I think it’s fine that I got to choose, myself,” she said. “Because if I didn’t believe, I would not have chosen to be baptized.”

So the three were baptized at Ansgars Church in Odense last February, part of a growing trend toward later baptism in the state Lutheran church. Until recently, this kind of thing was unheard of. In 2018, however, a record number of Danish teens — more than 3,000 — said yes to baptism. That’s an 18 percent rise over the same time five years ago.

Is something starting to happen among Denmark’s 10- to 19-year-olds? Let’s keep watching.

PRAY for young Danes like Andrea, Tinke, and Nicoline — that they would come to know the Savior they’ve confessed in baptism, and that they would grow in their new faith.

PRAY that more and more young people would respond to the gospel, in and out of the state Lutheran church.

PRAY for revival among Danish teens, that the Holy Spirit would move in Lutheran churches, free churches, camps, and neighborhoods.

PRAY for spiritual awakening among Danish teens this summer, and that many would be saved!