JUPITER, Fla. -- Nearly 700 people waded into ocean waters Nov. 17 in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., to be baptized.
Victor Montgomery, who just months earlier has been given a 3 percent chance of survival from acute pancreatitus, was well enough to join them.
"I really believe that it was Jesus Christ (who saved me from death)," Montgomery told the Palm Beach Post after being baptized.
Montgomery was one of nearly 2,000 members of Christ Fellowship Church who had signed up for the annual mass baptism. Trouble parking may have kept some away, church officials said.
The turnout, though, was more than double the number that participated in the church's mass baptism last Easter.
"I think this is a reflection of a new hunger in the hearts of Americans," said Tom Mullins, senior pastor of the 6,000-member nondenominational church.
Those baptized ranged in age from three years old to more than 60. Church organizers worked several weeks to nail down the logistics: Four lifeguards kept watch, off-duty police officers worked security and directed traffic, and about 50 pastors and church members helped keep things moving. All the baptisms were done in about 30 minutes, according to the newspaper.
The official record for a mass baptism is 774 people during a Philippines ceremony in 1999, according to Guinness World Records. But news accounts claim larger ceremonies have been performed, including 10,000 by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Africa last year, according to the Post.
