Monday, April 20, 2009

An almost Baptismal drowning, I mean immersion

Sunday, I had the privilege of Baptising by immersion one of our young confimands.
We went over the mountain to one of our newest Methodist Churches, the Cove who has a Baptismal, to do it at. We could have done it out in the rain though it was raining cats and dogs.
I used the Methodist liturgy, had prayer, and led the young man down in the baptismal. The water inside the baptismal was cold and so we took our time going in. I explained to him how I was going to do it and the element of trust. Well, he did alright until the very moment of getting his head all the way under. He just could not do it, and so I had to um force his head under, well he fought but we got the head under all the way. He came up gasping and crying. Then I felt like a heel, and held him and talke to him calmly until he calmed down. The Youth Pastor later said that he knew we were going to have problems when he saw the tuft of hair still sticking out of the water. The parents were okay as were the church members. I asked him if he was okay and he said he was. I have never had it happen before to me. But I guess there is always a first time. I did tell him that when I was baptised, my feet couldn't touch the bottom, and I floated. He and everybody else laughed with me. Afterwords two of the young girls there told me they wanted to be baptised by immersion too. So I told them and their parents have them call us and we would set that up.

I was cautious around the baptismal because they had a microphone wire near by and other musical wiring around. I left another way, cause I was soaking wet. I just have a thing about electricity and water.

1 comment:

Mary Beth said...

Holy smokes!!! Glad it all turned out ok!