Months before Marcie stood on stage to take the step of baptism and declare that she would follow Jesus anywhere, she sensed a small but growing voice leading her there.

At first it was a occasional whisper, she explained. And then it was an overwhelming desire in her heart.

It started when she joined a dinner group at the beginning of the year. The connections she made there, helped strengthen her relationship with God and reaffirmed the path she was on.

But the small nudges she felt toward baptism were mostly brushed aside until she could no longer ignore them. No matter how many times she stifled them, they only grew stronger.

And after several “baby steps” over the past few months, she realized she needed to take another step forward in her walk with God, or risk coming to a standstill.

“I needed to grow,” she said.

Once she decided to get baptized, several things in her life began to fall into place. What’s more, she knew she didn’t need to be perfect to take that step.

Weeks later, she emerged from the water, hands soaring through the air as she was flooded with a sense of peace unlike any she had ever experienced.

“It was like it was just me and God,” she said of the experience on May 31.

She’s still taking steps forward, working alongside one of the teams at Hoboken Grace, planning a missions trip and waiting to see where God leads next.

And that overwhelming sense of peace? It hasn’t left her.