Q. The Baptistry and Water Feature is beautiful! Praise God for this wonderful gift to our campus. What thought has been given to safety and protection from vandalism?

A. Great question, thanks. The Baptistry has been designed to meet or exceed every applicable building safety code. Our contractor, Rick Ruzbarsky of Hacienda Pools Construction, has been extraordinarily diligent in this process meeting face to face with city building officials for plan checks before construction and having several on-site meetings during construction. Rick came up with a very thoughtful design that makes this the equivalent of an outdoor water feature, much like you might find at a public park or at a building or shopping complex. In order to meet all safety codes, Rick installed aluminum grates over the deepest part of the baptistry and by city requirement these grates can withstand significant weight loads (like several people standing on them at once). With the grates in place, the depth of the water is about 11 inches, more than meeting the code requirement of a maximum of 18” of water for water features. When we take the grates out on a day we are having a baptism, we will either put up a temporary fence until its time for the baptism, or we will have someone stand watch. With regard to vandalism, we do in fact run the risk that this water feature, just like all the other campus facilities may be subject to vandalism and we pray God’s protection against such an occurrence.

During the week and on Sundays, the water feature elements will be turned on for everyone’s enjoyment. We hope many will come and experience this unique gift, maybe sitting at a table and reading a good book, having a conversation, or praying. And we look forward with great eagerness to witnessing many baptisms where by full immersion, we take in visually what the sacrament means: dying to our old life and sin nature, and rising again to life in Christ, resurrection life as it is meant to be.
Pastor Mike Barris

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