No ordinary family day at the beach

Saturday 4 May 2024 seemed like any other autumn weekend morning at coastal Seacliff in suburban Adelaide. Some brunched al fresco on the esplanade, looking out at the waveless sea. People young and old walked, skipped or jogged along the sand. Surf lifesavers went through their drills. Dogs chased tennis balls up and down the beach. Various watercraft traversed the glassy waters of Gulf St Vincent. Chatter and bursts of laughter filled the cool early May air.

But some beachgoers noticed there was something different about this Saturday morning and asked those on the fringes of a group of 20 or so people gathered on the shoreline what was going on.

As they explained, it was anything but an ordinary Saturday morning – especially for the Bruning family, who were about to be baptised at the beach in front of friends and members of their church family of Faith Lutheran Warradale.

After preliminary rites and explanations by Pastor Tim Klein (joined by a couple of wet dogs wanting to shake themselves off after a swim), John Bruning, his wife Nicole and their children Olivia and Matthew, waded into the water with Pastor Tim and Faith member Russell Gay. John, who was baptised as a teenager in the United States, had his baptism reaffirmed, while Nicole and their children Olivia and Matthew were baptised and joined God’s family, greeted by joyful cheers from their supporters and sponsors watching on.

Originally from Cleveland, Ohio but having moved to Nicole’s home city of Houston, Texas, at the age of eight, John was not brought up in the church. His parents came from different faith traditions and couldn’t agree on how to raise him, but he was inspired to attend church in his early teens by his grandmother and decided to be baptised at 16. As an adult, he stopped going to church and, he says, ‘was absent from faith for over 30 years’. Similarly, Nicole’s parents were not practising Christians and she wasn’t baptised as a child, although her grandmother, too, was a devout Christian.

John and Nicole did not attend church after their marriage and did not raise Olivia, now 17, or Matthew, now 9, in the church until very recently. Having moved with his family to Australia in 2012 for his work as a scientist and academic, John says he ‘began feeling the call of God again in late 2023’. At that time, John began exploring churches with Nicole and the couple immediately gravitated to Faith Warradale. They then began bringing their children to church and soon were discussing the importance of baptism with them, along with Pastor Tim and other members.

The family decided to be baptised in the last days of summer this year. And, while they had never heard of anyone being baptised at the beach, John says the sea has always been ‘deeply symbolic and attractive’ to the family, so they asked Pastor Tim about the possibility.

‘The sea is vast and expansive like the universe, perhaps like God himself. It is calming and brings one back to your centre’, explains John, whose family have lived in the Brighton/Seacliff beach area since moving to Australia. ‘Since then, we have found the local beach very beautiful and meaningful. Our children have played on the beach since they were small children.

‘I also liked the idea of being dunked rather than sprinkled, as it is the way it was originally done, and sprinkling wasn’t carried out until the 1300s. Being immersed in the cold and beautiful water seemed like a deeper experience, a deeper connection.

‘I felt this would be an appropriate rebirth with my family in Christ and Pastor Tim was very supportive. For me, having my baptism reaffirmed means repentance and reminds me I am reborn in the Spirit. For the rest of the family, it means they have been accepted as children of God with Christ for the first time and that they can move forward with their lives with these incredible foundations.’

Among the Bruning family’s supporters on the day were John’s friend and work colleague Dan Peet, a Christian who John says played a part in getting him back to faith in Christ. They were also joined by Mick and Flora Thomas, close friends since the family’s move to Australia, who are the Bruning’s godparents.