Calvary Care Home Boys' Water Baptism

21 March 2010 was a day to be remembered in the history of Calvary Care Home (CCH). Five children were going to be baptised at Calvary Life Assembly (CLA). Matthew was the first one who had this idea after Albert P had shown him a video about Jesus. Luke wanted to join. Prior to that Sunday, all the boys, except for Isaac and Joseph who had already been baptised last year and John had not been given consent by his father, had been required to attend two classes on the water baptism. Finally, all the youngest boys decided to declare their faith in this way.

That morning, I had Isaac and Paul at my house. I also needed to fetch Daniel and Uncle Seelan. So I prayed hard for my driving and our safety. Thank God the journey was smooth and we were able to reach the church before 9.30am. Pastor James gave the last lesson to the candidates before their rehearsal for testimonies and baptism. Our meticulous pastor also wanted to make sure that no small detail of the ceremony would be overlooked.

When Ps James was explaining each step, I heard him saying, "When we call upon the candidates' parents, Albert and Lee Sah will come and stand behind the Care Home children." I suddenly realized that my role as a casual tutor to Wilson in the beginning had changed to a parent to all the CCH boys within exactly one year!

While having breakfast with the boys at the cafeteria, Albert said to me with a giggle, "Now we're symbolic father and mother." Even though he had already mentioned to me a week earlier this same comment from other church members, I still found it funny to be myself involved in a role-play which I usually only asked my students to carry out in class. So I grinned at him in return.

I said to some of the boys, "When I was baptised, my friend told me that angels were singing in Heaven. I always believe that. Now I also tell you the same thing."

As soon as the service started, all the eleven candidates, only one of whom was an adult, were invited on the stage.

Daniel,

Matthew,

Luke,

David,

and Paul

introduced themselves and read out their one-sentence testimonies which Albert had typed and printed in large characters on a big piece of paper. After we had trained them to articulate the words, these boys who were not used to public speaking were much more confident than during the rehearsal.

Next, the parents were invited to stand behind their children while the pastors, elders, deacons, etc would lay hands on them to pray for them. Albert and I had temporarily shifted to the first row in order to approach the stage easily to take pictures. As soon as I heard the announcement, I became hesitant. I instantly recalled an incident last December and I mumbled to myself in my heart, "Fei Gin has been with them nine years. Who are you?"

So I told Albert, "I think you go alone. I stay here and take pictures."

When the candidates were surrounded by their loved ones, I looked at them and thought, "But now I'm one of the closest persons to these CCH children. I should also give them my support."

I quickly walked towards the crowd and saw Albert who smiled to me. He probably was not expecting me to change my mind.

"Finally I'm joining!"

He was standing somewhere behind David. I tried to squeeze my arm between him and six-feet Kee Ming to reach my "son". He kindly gave me the space and moved to another location.

After the prayer, the candidates entered different vestries according to their gender to change into casual clothes while the worship team was leading the congregation to sing praise to the Lord.

The most important part of the ceremony was surely the water baptism itself.

In the church in France where I was baptised in 2001, a baptismal font was used and I had to put on a white gown in addition to my clothes to be immersed in water. In Melaka, Calvarites' water baptisms used to be conducted at hotels with a swimming pool or in the nature. Since the relocation to this new CLA building with a specially designed baptismal pool on the stage,

the whole congregation just remained comfortably seated in the air-conditioned main sanctuary to witness clearly those solemn moments through the screen.

Even though I was not officially appointed as a photographer, I "sneaked" onto the stage to be closer to the scene. As a blogger and the symbolic mother of my five candidate sons, I did not want to visually miss any wonderful instant where angels were rejoicing in Heaven for Daniel,

Matthew,

Luke,

David,

and Paul.

Another photographer without permit was of course the symbolic father of the five same "sons".

John was the one holding the microphone while his buddies were in the pool. I prayed that his turn to be baptised would come soon.

After the church service, Albert suggested that we all had lunch at Johnny's at Jaya Jusco to celebrate the boys' baptism. The young adults were also invited to join us.

In front of the mouth-watering dishes in his favorite restaurant, Albert said to Joseph L that he wondered if they would have such tasty food in Heaven.

"We'll have manna every day," I jokingly popped in the answer, assuming that Albert who had a sweet tooth would be looking forward to this heavenly delicacy.

"Then nobody wants to go to Heaven!" This follower of Christ since Form Five reacted like those Israelites in the wilderness.

After the meal and the fellowship, the CCH family members had to shop for Paul's school shoes, Daniel's T-shirt, short pants, etc. So we separated from the young adults to go to a shoe shop.

While I was sitting at a corner, a woman and her children who were surveying shoes nearby suddenly waved their hand in front of their nose with a grimace and fled. When they were away, then only I learned that the cause was my beloved "son" David's stinky feet. He had removed his own shoes without stockings to try samples.

Maybe I should have suggested that the baptismal pool be filled with anti-bacteria soap water that morning...