Holier water?

Sarah's parents will be coming (from Iowa, most likely) in October to see Baby, and, because it's the end of our time in Geneva (at least that's what we're planning), they will help us pack up and clean our apartment (which needs to be left better than we found it, according to Swiss practices). And since my parents will be coming in August for the birth, we plan to have Baby baptized in October when Sarah's parents are here.

We'll have the baptism at our church on one of the Sundays Sarah's parents are here, and Sarah's father will do the baptism with our pastor (remember that Sarah's father is an ELCA pastor and that he did the vows part at our wedding). I had the idea of getting some water from the Jordan River to use at the baptism. I hadn't thought of this when we were in Israel and Palestine last December (just when we thought we might be pregnant), so when the idea arose, the dilemma of how to obtain some emerged. One of Sarah's coworkers went to Jerusalem a couple months ago for a meeting, but he forgot to get some water from the Jerusalem representative of Sarah's organization who works there. No problem. We just waited until a fellow church member who works for the World Council of Churches went there a few weeks ago. He apparently brought us back a big bottle, which he obtained himself (we haven't gotten it from him yet). While he was at the river, which is on the border of Israel and Jordan (two countries that aren't really friendly with each other), an Orthodox priest he was with put on a sort of robe and went all the way into the river. Our friend wanted to as well, but he thought it was best not to at the time because he was functioning as the WCC general secretary's spokesman. Anyway, we know this bottle contains authentic Jordan River water.


But then today, another fellow coworker of Sarah came back from Jerusalem with another bottle of Jordan River water, although this one was purchased in Jerusalem, so we can't trust its authenticity 100 percent. But they market it well as a Holy Land souvenir, as real "holy" water.


Well, whatever Jordan River water we use, we will probably get water from some other sources too for use in the baptism - Lake Geneva, which is water from the Alps, and perhaps some water from a source or two in the United States. This is already a well-travelled, international baby, mind you, so water from around the world, from places he/she has a connection to through family is what we are thinking of achieving. Yes, I know Baby doesn't really have a connection to the Jordan River, but in a way, all God's chil'un do, don't they?