I've attended many river baptisms. The churchs that can't afford their own baptism places always use a river or stream.

This is absolutely the first time I have ever thought someone might be disdainful of a river baptism. (Please, please don't take that as a putdown of your Mom because it isn't.) It's just so much a part of the culture here that I've never looked at it from the outside inside.

A river baptism is one of the most sacred, spiritual events I've ever witnessed. To hear sweet, heart filled voices lifted in an old time hymn while standing on the bank is so moving. I haven't attended one since I was a teenager, but I can still hear and see it.

They aren't always rural... Many churches in the capital city use the rivers. I was baptized twice. The first time I was very young. When I was grown I asked to be baptized again because I better understood the symbolism. I was in a baptismal each time, but the emotions were just as real as the river kind.

Jan