Adventist Review Online | Triplets Get Baptized at Once in Moving Ceremony

June 30, 2017

Gabriel, Ethanael, and Janelle Morency now want to get to heaven together.

By: Lael Caesar, Adventist Review

Sabbath, June 17, 2017 was a delightfully historic day for members of Emmanuel Brinklow Seventh-day Adventist Church, in Ashton, Maryland, United States, as they watched Antony Medley immerse three baptismal candidates at once during the morning’s worship services.

Medley recalls how intrigued church members were about four years ago when a husband and wife chose to be baptized together. But June 17 was even more exciting for all. “Never in my 30 years of ministry have I had the delight of immersing three candidates at once,” Medley said. “The most phenomenal thing of all to me is that these three kids, born May 3, 2004, chose to be born again in Jesus while they are still young, just like Solomon says, ‘Remember your Creator in the days of your youth’ (Eccl. 12:1).”

The three Morency kids—Gabriel Elijah, Ethanael William and Janelle Eliana—each offered their own written testimony of what brought them to the baptismal pool. Attendees reacted with ‘oohs and aahs’ as a church clerk read each testimony out loud: Gabriel’s told of being both saddened and happy the day he went forward in answer to Dwain Esmond’s appeal to give his life to Jesus in baptism. He said he was happy because the devil didn’t win by keeping him in his seat, but sad because his parents had always prayed that their triplets would be baptized together. Now he feared that he would be going it alone, because Ethanael and Janelle had not come forward.

Ethanael told everyone that his baptism is part of his long-term plan. At birth, he was the strongest of the three and the first to go home. Gabriel, coming in at 2lbs 8 oz., needed seven weeks in the hospital and could not even breathe on his own at first. Now Ethanael wanted them to stay together: He said, “I don’t want my brother and sister to go to heaven without me.”

Janelle’s compelling story includes being severely burned in the NICU when she was five days old. She said, “The doctors recruited a world-renowned hand specialist to take care of my hand,” she said. “The hand specialist told my parents that my hand would require reconstructive surgery and I would mostly likely have limited mobility in my right hand my entire life. [But] prayer opened heaven’s gates and not only did I not have reconstructive surgery; I am able to use my right hand without limitations.”

Janelle shared how she feels God showed the doctor that He was in control. “God has been watching over me before I ever knew who I was and whose I was,” she said. “The scars on my hand are a reminder of what God has done in my life before I even knew him personally.”

The triplets’ baptism brought great delight to the Morencys and the Emmanuel Brinklow Church family.

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