Kimberly is ready! She began meeting regularly with me about a month ago, talking about her salvation experience and her desire to be baptized before she leaves prison. I believe God has been working in her—leading, drawing, directing her to this very day. On Easter Sunday evening, it will be my honor to share that sacred experience of baptism with her.
It will sound strange to my evangelical friends that this is our first baptism at Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women. The reasons are many. First, a great number of women who come to us grew up in church, mostly Baptist, and have already been baptized. I think most people on the “outside” assume people in prison are “bad” and could not possibly have been Christian. Many would be surprised, as I was, to learn that our population is made up of people from all walks of life. In fact, one of my most unexpected conversations, just recently, was with a woman who was both a devoted Christian and a middle school teacher before her addiction completely took over her life.
Many of the women who were not baptized prior to their incarceration, came to realize their need for God while they were in jail, awaiting conviction and sentencing, or while they were in maximum or medium security. “The Big House” in Raleigh is a horrendous experience for most of them. It is a real wake-up call. Those who transfer to medium security find themselves alone in a cell with a lot of time to contemplate their fate and realize their need for God. Through the ministry of those chaplains and community volunteers, they begin their Christian walk and are baptized.
Other women have begun their Christian journey, but they are seeking a more traditional baptism in a church on the outside. It is our pleasure to work with these women to connect with communities of faith and pastors on the outside. By participating in the Community Volunteer pass program, they are able to go through discipleship classes (varying by denomination). They are loved and nurtured by local congregations. I had the joy of witnessing Terry’s baptism last year at the Disciples of Christ church. She continues to blossom in her new-found faith in these last three years of prison.
Some women have shorter sentences and don’t go through medium security, but come straight to us from Raleigh. More and more of the younger women who find their way to the chaplains’ office are saying, “I never went to church. I don’t know anything about the Bible. I try to read it, but it doesn’t make any sense. I believe in God. I need God in my life so I don’t continue down this same path.” Some of them get into the drug treatment program which is based on the 12 Steps, and they hit a brick wall when they have to sort through this whole higher-power thing. The counselors often refer them to the chaplains. They are the most fun! True seekers! Sometimes claiming to be atheist or agnostic, they have hit rock bottom, and they realize there has to be something more, but their experience with “Christians” is often littered with painful memories. The best we can do for them is to share God’s love, to be that open vessel through which God pours God’s unconditional love into their lives. They often are released before they are ready to make a commitment, but the seed has been planted, and we pray someone out there will water it.
The most obvious obstacle to baptism at our unit is the lack of a baptismal pool. The majority of the women who come to talk about baptism want to go all the way under. They like the tradition and the symbolism of being “buried with Christ” and being “raised to walk in newness of life.” I do, too! However, this year, during Lent, I led a study of baptism, and as we talked about the Didache (essentially a manual for how to do church from somewhere around the turn of the second century), I was reminded of the fact that in church history deep water (“living water”) was not always available, and in those cases the minister used what water was available.
So on Easter Sunday evening I will take a basin of water and a seashell, and I will pour water over Kimberly’s head three times, baptizing her my sister in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We will do this in front of the women who have been her community of faith on the inside. Women who have nurtured her and taught her what they have come to learn about Jesus the Christ, God’s anointed one who came to be God among us; who lived and loved and taught and healed and chastised the religious community; who was betrayed and beaten and crucified; who died but was then raised to walk in newness of life; who calls us to be God’s anointed, spreading this Good News: we are not alone.
