This past Saturday my wife and I packed up our girls (ok mostly… entirely, my wife) and headed north to visit some friends.  We were going to spend the day at a local lake swimming and eating and just enjoying each other. 

But while we were eating we noticed a small group gathering around a few picnic tables.  Then slowly the group grew to about 50-60 people.  Then a man dressed entirely in black appeared… The pastor had arrived.  He stood in the center and above the rest of the noise around us I could hear him praying.  Moving in and out of English and Spanish like only a true master of both languages could do. 

Some people round him nodded there heads in agreement, some lifted there face and hands to heaven, and some even played the congas to the rhythm of his prayer.

By this time we had finished eating and made our way back down to the water… Yes we totally ignored the one hour rule.  We played and swam for awhile and then we noticed the group had congregated (no pun intended) on the shore line and the pastor made his way out into the water. 

People were looking around wondering what this guy was doing walking into the water fully dressed and why there were 20 or so people standing around in choir robes on the shore.  Even the lifeguard was a little unnerved.  My friend, my wife and I stood in the water and watched the first few people enter the water, pray, and get baptized.  When they came up there church family would clap and we would join them.  Both of us were in awe of this public display of faith and commitment.  I exited the water and snapped a few pictures.  (I was acctually thinking “wow this will be great to blog about”)

The two best things I took away from this experience were 1. the conversation I had with my 2 girls about what these people were doing and how they wanted everyone to know that they were committing themselves to God.  They joined my friend and I clapping for each person as they came out.  I don’t know that they fully understood what was happening but how cool to have thier lazy Saturday afternoon interrupted with a real life God Lesson.  2. My friend and I were approached by a guy who was completely and utterly clueless, and we got to tell him about what was going on.  this is a brief list of some of his quotes.  “are they Muslim or something?”, “no they must be islanders cause they have those island drums?”, “why wouldn’t they do that somewhere private so people aren’t starring at them?”, “Are you sure they aren’t Muslims?”

I leave you now with some pictures…

Oh by the way other heads you see are swimmers… they did it right in the middle of the swimming area.  How cool?