Nestled back away from the Sea of Galilee, along the banks of the Jordan river, is a tranquil spot called Yardenit. This is a place with several areas where you can easily perform baptisms in the same waterways as Jesus and John the Baptist.
Tour bus after tour bus bring believers here for their chance to be baptized in the Jordan river, believers from every country and every age. Of course, there is nothing magical about being baptized, but it is a great event to perform and to take part in with others.
Yardenit is a BYOP (bring your own Pastor) facility as it does not have any pastoral staff, but they do give you the chance to possibly find another group that is already down on the water that would be willing to take you in.
I met a small group of people – they are part of a large tour bus but were straggling a little bit. I asked them if any of them was a pastor and would be willing to baptize me. I’ve been baptized before, this was just to say I was baptized in the Jordan River. These folks were short on time as they had to get back to their bus, but fortunately, I was already wearing clothes that were fine for getting wet in, so they gave me one of their robes and we went in the water.
Pictured here are Kaylie, Conner, and Timothy. It was great fun and an incredible blessing for me to be baptized by these folks, and I’m sure it was a blessing for them to have a random stranger ask to be baptized!