sabbatical 2019 - Holy Water

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Visit to the River Jordan and swimming in the Dead Sea. The River Jordan is mighty small, connecting the Dead Sea, over 1000 ft below sea level, and the Sea of Galilee. We renewed our Baptismal vows standing in the river, with the country of Jordan only 10 ft away, across the river.. John the Baptist stood in the same river to baptize Jesus and others. In our liturgy we sang a wonderful hymn (I think 297 in the hymnal) to the tune of Morning has Broken.. The last verse is "Baptized in water, sealed by the Spirit, marked with the sign of Christ our King; born of the Father, we are his children, joyfully now God's praise we sing." . After renewing our vows from the Book of Common Prayer liturgy, we sang "Down to the River to Pray", and our chaplain laid his hands on each of us to renew our Baptismal promise. Indeed I feel we are Joyfully singing God's praise in so many aspects of this trip. It was 99 degrees when we swam in the Dead Sea after seeing the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden for almost 2000 years and found in the 1950's.

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