Hot tub Baptism

What you don’t see in this photo are the 60+ people scattered here and there. Some are inside the house looking through a window, some are shivering on the surrounding patio and some are above on the 2nd story deck overlooking the action. Gerry (the baptizer) is getting ready to baptize Emily (the baptizee) and he is talking to Jesse, her father, who is leaning on the railing of the upper deck. Jesse is the founding pastor of our young church (The Pathway, Calgary) and if it were not for his recently diagnosed and debilitating ALS, he would have been the one doing the honors. So Gerry, the lead pastor, is telling Jesse, and all of us, “let me be your hands, Jesse, as I baptize your daughter in the name of Jesus.”