When Johnny Chang reached out to George Janko with a simple proposal, to “baptize Arizona,” neither man could have anticipated what God had prepared. Approximately 1,500 people arrived from across the country and beyond.
Children. Adults. Drug addicts. Pregnant women. Broken people. All of them came to the water.
That was the greatest day of my life. — George Janko
Janko described the sacred weight of standing with each person as they went under the water — tears streaming down their faces, hearts pounding so hard he could feel it. He was witnessing something he had no words for: the last look of a person’s old life, and the first look of their new one.
When I’m putting them down into the water and when they come back out of the water, and I look at their eyes, I see different eyes.
Why water means everything
On stage that day, Chang unpacked one of the most striking biblical threads either man had shared publicly — tracing a line from Noah’s Ark to Jesus walking on water to the baptism pool. Water in Scripture carries a double meaning: judgment for the condemned, cleansing for the saved. Being in Christ, Chang explained, means walking above that curse entirely.
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Anyone in Him will not be harmed by the curse. It symbolizes that we can walk on top of the curse just like Jesus was walking on top of the judgment.
The week the devil came after him
George’s joy on that day didn’t come without a fight. For the entire week leading up to the event, he battled crushing fear — terrified he was doing something wrong before God. He broke down weeping in front of his pastor before it began. The response his pastor gave changed everything.
He hugged me. He prayed over me, and then he said, ‘Go have the best day of your life.’ And that was nothing short besides it.
You can’t save yourself — and that’s the point
The deeper the conversation went, the more both men returned to the same liberating truth: this was never about what they could do for God.
Chang challenged the idea that repentance means simply feeling bad and trying harder, and called believers toward a fuller surrender, reminding them of the only thing that actually changes a life.
Christianity is not me sacrificing my life for God, me dying for God. It’s actually Jesus dying on the cross and sacrificing His life for me. And when I thought about it in that way, it changed my whole perspective of how I moved.
Janko echoed this with raw honesty, describing what it feels like to know his own weakness completely — and to be grateful for it.
If you strip Jesus away from me, in a second, I’m back to the old me. I’m popping off. I’m doing whatever. But yet, it’s you, God, who has to take care of me.
For both men, 1,500 baptisms was not a finish line. It was a beginning. The real work — nurturing, discipling, walking with people through fire — starts the moment they step out of the water.
To watch the full interview, click here. (Editor’s note: Mild language).
Abby Trivett is a writer and editor for Charisma Media and has a passion for sharing the gospel through the written word. She holds two degrees from Regent University, a B.A. in Communication with a concentration in Journalism and a Master of Arts in Journalism. She is the author of the upcoming book, The Power of Suddenly: Discover How God Can Change Everything in a Moment. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
