by Andrea Higgins, posted Thursday, August 18, 2005 (19 years ago)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (BP)--When Robert Sulaski invited Biltmore Baptist Church Pastor James Walker to hold an outdoor baptism in 2003 at a lake his company owned, they expected four or five people would want to participate.
Instead, 96 people went through believer’s baptism in Biltmore Lake in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains as family members and friends gathered around to watch.
In 2004, they were surprised again, when 164 people were baptized together in the picturesque 62-acre lake. On Aug. 15 of this year, another 142 were baptized in what has become a much-anticipated annual celebration for this growing church.
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2 of the 142 Pastor James Walker raises up one of the 142 people baptized by Biltmore Baptist Church Aug. 15 in Biltmore Lake near Asheville, N.C., while an associate pastor prepares to baptize a young woman in the background. Photo by Bob Carey
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“We just brought back what used to be,” said Sulaski, a deacon at Biltmore Baptist Church and vice president for residential development for Biltmore Farms, recalling a time when people were baptized outdoors all the time.
His daughter, Rachel, 6, was baptized this year in the lake, with Sulaski emotionally recalling the day, Dec. 14, 2000, he purchased the 1,300 acres for the planned Biltmore Lake subdivision.
“I knelt next to a tree and said, ‘Father, this is your property,’” Sulaski said of his hope that it would give glory only to God. Read More