Actor Kel Mitchell recently baptized his daughter on her eighth birthday, an experience that he said made him cry “tears of joy.”
Mitchell, known for starring on the Nickelodeon sitcom “Kenan & Kel” alongside Kenan Thompson of “Saturday Night Live” fame, published an Instagram post on July 22 in honor of his daughter Wisdom’s eighth birthday.
He said she gave him “the greatest gift” over the previous weekend.
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“I watched you get baptized and I cried tears of joy,” he proclaimed. Mitchell said her baptism is “a moment I’ll never forget.”
Video footage posted to Instagram on July 27 by Asia Lee-Mitchell, Mitchell’s wife, shows the actor and his daughter standing in a baptismal pool along with Pastor Garry Zeigler of the Los Angeles-based Spirit Food Center. Zeigler and Mitchell, who serves as youth pastor at Zeigler’s church, fully submerged the daughter in the water as she wore a shirt reading “Baptized in Christ.”
The 8-year-old answered in the affirmative when Zeigler asked her, “Have you made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ?”
“Based upon your profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we now baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name,” Zeigler said as an enthusiastic crowd looked on and cheered.
“Wizzy did something I am beyond proud of,” Asia Lee-Mitchell wrote in a caption accompanying the Instagram post. “She gave her life to Christ and asked to be baptized on her 8th birthday!”
Lee-Mitchell acknowledged that the 8-year-old was “nervous” but highlighted how she “fought through her fear and is excited to tell the World she is God’s very own.” She thanked Spirit Food Center for “making her feel free to learn, love, and express her faith in Jesus.
The baptism of Mitchell’s daughter comes nearly a decade after the actor posted a testimony on his website outlining how he came to embrace Christianity.
“I have been through so many ups and downs in my life,” he explained in his testimony.
“Suicidal, divorce, drug and alcohol usage, deep in sin, dealing with the [loss] of [loved] ones to gang violence, debt, hurt, pain, vanity, lust, heartbreak, feeling LOST looking for answers. I have seen, felt and been in all types of sin and have been done wrong by others,” Mitchell added.
Mitchell said he “was trying to figure it out all on my own,” but discovered that what he needed to do “was turn to Him.”
“Once I found that clarity with Christ, I knew everything would work out,” he said. “I let him in and Life is GOOD now, my eyes have been opened. I have always known God, but now I have a true understanding of who he is and why I am here, and why God has kept me safe, and sinful ways are no longer around me because I am surrounded with the love of Jesus, and I have allowed him to make the decisions in my life. I study the word, I worship his name with praying and song,” Mitchell declared.
Mitchell has served as a youth pastor at Spirit Food Center since 2019. Mitchell told The Christian Post in a 2020 interview that “All through my life I’ve felt the call to be a pastor.”
In 2022, Mitchell released his debut book, Blessed Mode. In an interview with Movieguide, Mitchell said he sought to convey to those suffering from anxiety and depression “that if you connect with God, there’s always a blessed breakthrough in every emotional wall.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
