Baptism

July 15th, 1972 - At the age of 17 I was baptised on the confession of my faith by a godly elderly patriarch, Christian M Borntreger, by name . He was widely known in Amish circles as , "Der Alt Christ". Let it suffice to say that this day I was officially initiated into the intrinsic essence of the Amish religion. My life was never the same after that day. Of course there were myriad things leading up to this day but this was a day I could put my finger on and say from this day forward I could no longer hide behind my Dad and be protected from the long fingers of the --------- Ordnung (?) or mechanisms of the Amish church.

That July morning the sun rose as usual on our Wisconsin Dairy Farm. We got up at five, got in the 30+ cows, fed and milked them plus feeding the calves, horses, pigs and chickens and got back to the house for a 7 o'clock breakfast of eggs, bacon and cooked mush followed by Wheaties and milk. After breakfast there was the usual rush of washing dishes, hitching the horses to the buggy and getting changed into our church clothes which for me this special morning was a new black dress and a new starched white cape and apron. I don't remember my cap being new but I'm sure it was freshly washed and pressed with sugar and vinegar.

One out of the ordinary thing happened that morning when Dad wrote a letter and flagged the Bishop down as he passed to give it to him as he wanted to explain some things that he didn't care for all the other preachers to know and the bishop was so hard of hearing he couldn't talk to him privately in public.

The 12 mile drive with horses and buggy was uneventful but soothing to have the whole family together with Dad at the lines. Once at the place where church was held at Joe A. Borntregers the family went to their proper positions in the Amish church and I felt very vulnerable.

I remember filing in at the proper time behind Lizzie, the other girl who was being baptised, and sitting in the living room on the long benches waiting for the men to come in. As we sat there I noticed the curtains at the windows twisted back and up in an unnatural way and attributed it to the fact that it must have been the boys because they had no older girls to do such things.

That day I got baptised and our family got our "zeugniss" or church letter to move to Bronson 'Mi . ;Which was the reason Lizzie and I only had church instruction for five Sundays instead of the usual seven. I could write a book about all the things that happened that day and the things leading up to and following that day in the history of my life but I will leave that for another time.

But after all these years I still believe my baptism fulfilled all the requirements of a Biblical baptism.