Nurses and staff at Huntsville Hospital lower Kenneth Conners into a portable baptistry yesterday.

Hartselle man, 80, baptized at Huntsville Hospital

 

A video that has been circulating on Facebook, and at press time was swiftly approaching 200,000 views, depicts a Hartselle man in his 80s, with 15 percent of his heart functioning, being baptized at Huntsville Hospital.

Kenneth Conners, with the help of a dozen or more Huntsville Hospital nurses and staff members, took the plunge into a portable baptistry Thursday morning. The minister who spoke to Conners in the video, and who had a heart-to-heart conversation with him days before, is Phillip Hines, the minister of the Hartselle church of Christ.

“Kenneth, because of the confession of your faith, we now baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son and Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of your sins,” Hines said before Conners was lowered into the baptistry made of plastic vinyl and PVC pipe. When Conners emerged, the room broke out into applause.

Hines said Michael Conners, Kenneth’s son, asked that he visit him in the hospital earlier this week and said Kenneth wanted to be baptized.

Hines said one of the first things he did was have a conversation with God. “I prayed and said, ‘Lord, we got this fellow here and you know his condition, and we need to get him baptized; can you help me out here?’ The Lord and I had a one-on-one for a while about it,” Hines said. “All of the sudden … the name of Mike Winkler popped into my mind. Mike is the preacher at the Madison church of Christ. I just picked up and called Mike, and I said, ‘Do you know of anybody who has a portable baptistry?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, we just got one.’ I thought, ‘Wow, what is happening here?’”

Hines said finding the portable baptistry was absolutely an answer to prayer. “I would definitely call it providence,” he said. “There’s no doubt in my mind. I prayed to God and asked for help finding a portable baptistry or an answer to this situation, and it was within an hour that Mike’s name popped in my head. I believe in prayer, and yes, that it was the providence of God.”

Hines said he was amazed by the support the hospital and its staff showed during the process. “Huntsville Hospital really just bent over backwards to make this happen,” he said.

Hines said the staff and administration of the hospital told him and his fellow ministers that while they make patient safety a priority, that they are also concerned about their patients spiritual lives and their wishes.

Hines said the hospital staff moved Conners to a larger room with double doors and more space that allowed the portable baptistry to be set up and filled with warm water.

“It was amazing. They had planned that thing; they had thought that thing through; they had some maintenance people come up and help,” Hines said. “Several nurses came in and were walking through what they were going to do.

“What was amazing and what that video doesn’t show is that there were nurses packed in that room … they had to take him off the machines – he was hooked up to all the monitors, and so they had to make sure he was fine,” he said.

“I had a prayer with everybody in the room, and it to me it was a very moving moment,” Hines added. “When he came out of the water, they all started clapping. At one point he had seven nurses around his bed – they were taking such good care of him, and he was just as happy as he could be. It was just an amazing experience; it really was.”

“We firmly believe the Bible teaches immersion, and we’re doing the best that we can to follow the example in the New Testament,” Hines added. “Also, this was his wish and his desire, so I was going to do everything I could to make it happen.”  

Hines said of all the ways he has ministered in hospitals and nursing homes, “this was the most amazing experience,” he said. “I’ve never baptized anyone who was this sick and this helpless. I’ve never seen anybody go to the efforts the hospital did to make this happen. There was something about the environment and everybody working together as team … I came away from the hospital Monday thinking, ‘We’re just not going to be able to make this happen,’ and then I realized and said to myself, ‘Oh, Phillip. Oh ye of little faith. God is on the throne, and He is in control.’ God still answers prayer.”

Hines said the whole experience was “a great example and illustration of prayer, and it has strengthened me and my faith,” Hines said. “Even though I have preached for over 40 years … to experience it in this way and to have this whole thing come about, it was amazing. I’m going to preach on prayer with a little more vigor Sunday.”

 

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