Baptized not by water but by....!

On the last day before departing Debre Zeyit, Ethiopia, I was baptized by a child. Not in the same way that you may think! On the day of our scheduled departure, we accepted an invitation to eat lunch with a family that we met in Ethiopia. The taxi was scheduled to pick us up that afternoon, so there was enough time to have lunch before leaving to the airport.

Linda and I both put on our cleanest clothes that morning because we knew that we would be in the airplane for over 18 hours, and we didn't want to offend anyone sitting next us on the airplane or the person picking us up from the airport once we arrived in the United States.

In any case, our friend picked us up from the mission house to eat lunch with his family at his house. His wife prepared the national meal that all Ethiopians eat, injera; it looks like a pancake, with stew or "wot". It's a very delicious meal. Everything was going well until my friend's son decided that he wanted to sit on my lap. I thought that was nice gesture because on the previous day that I met him, he didn't want to have anything to do with me because I was a new face to him. Anyway, I felt pretty good that he wanted to be close to me. I picked him up and placed him on my leg. I told my wife that this little boy really likes me! As I ate lunch with one hand, I balanced my friend's son with the other hand as he sat on my leg. Over a period of time, my leg, where the boy was sitting, began to feel a little warm. I thought... hmmm... it's probably because he has been on my leg awhile. I continued eating. Again, I began to notice that underneath my leg was feeling a little warm. I still didn't think anything of it. Finally, I noticed that between my legs began to feel warm and also in the chair that I was sitting felt unusual. I lifted the boy up and there it was. I was baptized by pee! Yep, he peed on my cleanest clothes! All we could do was laugh... and we did. I was baptized not by water but by pee!