Baptism

On Saturday, Pete went out to witness the baptism of Maxim, Tania's boyfriend, in a village about 10 miles outside the city.

By his account, it was a beautiful day and a beautiful service.  It was an all-day affair, with a morning meal kicking it off, then the service and baptism, and then more food, barbecued on a fire started with wooden sticks from the woods.  Pete stayed for a few hours, but then left -- so probably missed quite a bit.

As it turned out, several other members of the church were being baptized, too, including a young boy named David (the pastor's son) we had all met when we visited before.  He's 9 years old, which is traditionally young to be baptized here, so the pastor encouraged everyone present to question him about his faith and what baptism meant, etc.  His answers were very clear and encouraging!

 Then everyone went out into the water, and the singing continued:

Most of the songs were in Russian, of course, but they did do one in English, probably for Pete's sake (hahaha - for Pete's sake!):

During the time Pete was out there, he saw a herd of goats and a goatherd,

....some sheep and a shepherd...

 ...and then, last but certainly not least, a herd of cows were driven through as well.

It's amazing to us just how rural things are right outside the city.

We had thought about having more or all of the family go to the baptism, but knew that transportation would be tricky (and likely very hot).  We were right. Pete called to tell me when he was leaving the picnic...  Then 2 hours later he called again to say he was getting closer to home but wasn't exactly sure where he had just been dropped off.

All in all, he walked for part of it, hitch-hiked in a car, then took a mini-bus, then took a trolley bus all to get home (a 2.5 hour trip) -- and it was only a distance of 20 kilometers or so!  I was glad we didn't all make the trip.... although the baptism looked like it almost would have been worth it.