Backyard Baptismal

Last night at ComChurch was one of those night's that I am not going to soon forget. We don't baptize people very often in our church, not because we don't believe in the need for it, but because we like doing it outside, and sometimes it just takes some effort to get the entire church to a pool. Yes we often do baptisms in someone's backyard pool. I thought it was weird at first, but after experiencing a few of these backyard baptisms, it becomes a really beautiful thing. For those of you who are used to seeing this occur behind the podium on a Sunday morning, I'd certainly encourage you to break from that mold at least once in your life and see what it's like outside. The water's fine.

The night was good for reasons other than just the baptism as well. We got to swim after the ceremony (is that the right word for what a baptism is supposed to be) was finished. I take t the water very quickly, since most of my childhood was spent in or by a pool. The pool we swam in last night was great too because they had a diving board.

Now for a bit of insight into what it's like to be a big man: you can't jump off of a diving board without the fear of hearing a very large pencil like crack. You just can't do it. Who wants to be the guy that broke the board? Kids would cry. The owner of the board would be pissed that you wasted their money and now they have to go out a purchase a new board. And on top of all that, your embarassed that you were the guy that broke the diving board.

So for the majority of my adult life I've opted to stay away. Erring on the side of caution, and just jumping off the side of the pool and having fun doing that. What a waste of time that was. Diving boards are a lot of fun! You can make large splashes in the water, and kids love that. I feel like a lot of the time that when I'm with my church and around the kids (at our church there are kids EVERYWHERE, like there are always three or four women pregnant at all times!) there are college aged girls always wanting to steal their attention away. I don't usually get angry, because I realize that them and the kids are often closer to each other, babysitting and all, but playing with them is a lot of fun now and then. Cue the pool time. There is no one cooler in a swimming pool than a 20 something guy. Think about it, when you weighed in at a whopping 43 pounds, you could be thrown half way across the pool and swim back to ask for more. I'm more than happy to oblige for the kids, for a time, but after a while it gets boring/tiresome. So for 15 to 20 minutes each time I go swimming I play the part of 'Pool Hero', and enjoy every moment of it.

Weight Loss Update:
This morning I am down to 254 pounds. That's 116 pounds since I started at my estimated weight of 370 pounds. I'm working on a cool visual to really demonstrate how significant this much weight really is, more on that in a later post.

Other exciting news. I've talked for a while now about getting a tummy tuck/skin cut-off operation to take care of all the excess me that is just sort of hanging out right now and being really annoying. Ross asked me how much I thought something like that might cost. And said that if he has the chance, he'll kick some money my way to get started on that fund. This made me feel really really good about not only what I mean to these people, but about what they mean to me.

The fact that I go to church with someone who can understand the significance of having lots of excess skin cut off, makes me realize that backyard baptismals can wash away all sorts of things.