Safe Drinking Water and Baptism

How did we end up doing so many baptisms? And what does baptism have to do with community development?

First of all, we did not begin with a strategy that said, "The first thing you do is baptize all the children." Quite the contrary. Our method lets go of everything, even that which we hold sacred. I have offended many by saying: "In order to say that Jesus is the answer, one must be first willing to entertain the idea that Jesus may not be the answer." It is easy to identify the things that are not working and quit doing them. Here, we have to go a step further. Because the whole system is propped up by activities that appear to be working, we have to wipe the slate clean, and then watch carefully for what begins to emerge.

What has emerged is a vibrant church life that is incredibly earthy and directly connected to real everyday living. Heaven is not the goal. The goals right now are clean water, women's literacy, and a roof for the church building.

I have been surprised in all our development work how nobody, including the Church, sees church life as central to community development. Organizationally, the two have been separated. One has to do with spiritual concerns and the other has to do with human tragedy. In the United Methodist Church, UMCOR does not work with churches, nor does it use churches in the delivery of its services. There is a donor concerned covenant that serves as a firewall. My observation and complaint is that that sort of separation denies our greatest strength and deprives the world of the very thing the Church is equipped to deliver. Now I've never been an advocate of predatory evangelism, but we are "hiding our light under a bushel," as many of us learned in Sunday School.

It was the idea of the two district superintendents to have these baptismal services. Both districts have had evangelism programs this last year and the baptisms are in-gatherings of those programs. But why the babies? You'd guess adult baptisms following evangelism.

I have a developing theory. I think the two superintendents understand something that they don't know yet. The children are both the problem and the key. Families here have many children, knowing that some, or even most, won't live to be adults. That puts a pall on your love for your children. Flocks of children can be seen unattended in the yard, or even in the road, like the chickens.

Baptism names each child. It claims each child by name. Going a step farther than the dedication of a child, baptism makes the audacious claim that God is in this action. The community now has the God given responsibility, not for children in general, but for this named child.

The pastor asked each parent for the child's name. He repeated it to me. I stumbled over the name, then in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (something I can now do in Swahili.), I baptized each child personally, taking as much time as needed. (At Centre Church where there were 130 baptisms, worship took 3 and a half hours.) BTW, I didn't have a problem with the name Ngoy wa Bob Walters, Elephant's new born son.

Why me and not the pastor? Pretty simple. This was what the pastors wanted to use me for on my visit. They wanted to bring to this event as much punch as they could, and since Bono is not available, I'm the celebrity they know. There is also something going on here that I am somehow a part of that is redefining the relationship of community and missionary. We are all discovering what that will look like.

Bottom line is that by naming these children, each one, in baptism, the Church approaches the issue of clean drinking water with a much deeper sense of responsibility. The vagueness of need has been replaced. It just got personal.

Bob
Mulongo