Junior Mary Ayegbusi said she had an epiphany on March 25, and she was baptized four days later — not in a church, but in the Eppley Recreational Services public pool.
“One Wednesday, I was filled with the Holy Spirit,” the philosophy and sociology major said. “That just shook my core. I never experienced anything like that in my life. It was so powerful that I didn’t know how to handle it.”
After her spiritual awakening at a campus service with Impact UMD, an on-campus apostolic ministry group, Ayegbusi said she wanted to get baptized to show her commitment to Christ.
Without an official baptism pool on the campus to use, the group has been depending on the ERC pool to perform the sacrament since fall 2013, said Mike McGurk, the Impact UMD president.
“We felt like there was nothing better than being able to experience God anywhere,” said McGurk, a senior management and marketing major. “If you can experience him in a campus pool, you can experience him anywhere.”
The baptisms — sometimes planned, sometimes spontaneous — generally occur after Impact UMD’s religious services and during the pool’s free-swim period, McGurk said.
When someone is baptized, he or she undergoes a Bible study about baptism program to help the person understand the event and then heads to the shallow area of the pool for a 20-minute service with prayers.
Baptisms are one of the “greatest experiences ever,” said McGurk, who is training to be a minister and helps conduct each baptism. Spiritually, the event is meant to wash away sins, allowing for the creation of a new person with God, he said.
While the pool water is not blessed, it makes no religious difference to those becoming baptized, said the Rev. Jerrod Whittington, Impact UMD minister.
“Baptism is more about our faith and our obedience to the word of God, and that process of obedience — that is where God meets us and cleanses us and washes us,” he said.
Impact UMD used to visit Anne Arundel Community College to complete the baptisms before the group started using the ERC, eager to bring the ceremony closer to students, Whittington said.
Student interest has only increased since then, McGurk said. This academic year, Impact UMD baptized about 10 people at the ERC, including three people in one day during March, he said.
“We found that there are tons of people who are hungry for God on campus,” Whittington said. “You just got to find them and provide them some direction.”
Baptisms outside of the church are common among American evangelical groups, who often baptize people in rivers or streams, similar to Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River, anthropology professor William Stuart said.
While christening people with water has replaced dunking participants in water as the most common method, there are still exceptions, he said. And baptism doesn’t always occur inside of a church, either.
“Few things in religiosity are locked up,” Stuart said.
Senior English major Morgan Nixon, who was baptized on the same day as Ayegbusi, said she felt God leading her to be baptized, although at first she felt nervous about the public nature of the event. She was concerned whether the pool would be empty and that other swimmers would watch her, she said.
But those thoughts disappeared after it took place, reaffirming her decision.
“When I was put under the water and came back up, I felt so much joy and so much peace,” Nixon said. “I knew what I did was in his will.
