Milizlinx

Calmette Baptism in Kompong Saum

We were told to arrive at the church to board the buses for a departure at 5am sharp on Thursday. By 6 we were finally on the way. In the meantime...

Grace met the church's future guard dog. they were great friends until he barked at her!


The ride there was fraught with delays...
first came the fact that nearly 40 extra people showed up (hence the late start while we squished people into buses and hired another)
Then, shortly outside of the city, our second bus broke down. The circulating story was of the radiator blowing up(! how true, I'm not sure). So, more squishing to put most of that bus load into the the other two buses. We ended up leaving some people behind to wait for yet another newly hired van.
Next came the usual heavy traffic of buses and transport trucks mixed in with motos, cars, bikes, and anything else used for transport.
So, 4 hours later and a good full two hours behind schedule, we arrived at the beach in Kompong Saum... didn't take us long to get all ready for the beach!


Grace didn't enjoy the ocean at all. I think she didn't like the waves, gentle as they were. She cried even if we sat in the water with her. I think she only likes to play with water as long as she doesn't have to be in it! But Grace had a full contingent of admirers and babysitters out of the water - and loved it! (She doesn't like it that mommy can't carry her everywhere any more) besides, all these baysitters offer yummy food and don't make her try the ocean...


Once those left behind finally arrived, the actual baptism service began. As there was 60+ people getting baptized, it was quite the big affair! There was a sort talk reminding them of what they were showing by this committment, and an excellent explanation of what baptism is for the benefit of all the listeners and curious beach goers who stopped to listen.

Here those about to be baptized are filling in a short covenant card of Christian living.


They are sitting in rows according to which group they belong (Calmette has a number of church plants and daughter churches). Each group had a photographer and 4 people to baptize: two girls for the girls, two men for the men. Michael was surprized and pleased to be asked to help baptize those from Prek Pneau church.

The trip back went much smoother, but still was very long and squished. We sang worship songs for awhile. Grace was fascinated by the guitar playing. She wouldn't touch it when we gave her opportunity, but wanted to climb all over the player when he resumed playing songs!
Of course, much of the way back was quiet as many slept, catching up on such an early start - Grace and Michael included.