Time to Pray and Ponder

WACO, Texas - A pastor performing a baptism was electrocuted inside his church Sunday morning after adjusting a nearby microphone while standing in water, a church employee said.

The Rev. Kyle Lake, 33, was stepping into the baptistery as he reached out for the microphone, which produced an electric shock, said University

Baptist Church community pastor Ben Dudley.

Water in a baptistery usually reaches above the waist, said Byron Weathersbee, interim university chaplain at Baylor University.

Lake was pronounced dead at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, nursing supervisor Pat Mahl said. The woman being baptized apparently had not stepped into the water and was not seriously injured.

Pastors at University Baptist Church routinely use a microphone during baptisms, said Jamie Dudley, the wife of Ben Dudley and a business administrator at the church.

"He was grabbing the microphone so everyone could hear," she said. "It'’s the only way you can be heard."

About 800 people attended the morning service, which was larger than normal because it was homecoming weekend at nearby Baylor University, Dudley said.

Lake had been at the church for nine years, the last seven as pastor. He had a wife, Jennifer, a 5-year-old daughter and two 3-year-old sons.

At a remembrance attended by about 1,000 people Sunday night at First Baptist Church, Ben Dudley told the UBC congregation that they would move forward as a church.

“I don’t know how, when, why, where or what’s going to happen, but we will continue as a church in the community because that is what Kyle would have wanted,” he said.

We need to pray for this new church and this young family that will be dealing with the loss of a Pastor, husband, dad and friend. The answer of why may never be know this side of eternity, but we do have a opportunity to pray and ponder.

PRAY: Lord, the answers to why this happen can be as numoris as the sand on the sea shore, but this one thing we do know that the life of this man was fulfilled. We accept this by faith and ask that you will comfort the lives's lifes and plans continue from this day forward.

PONDER: Put you self in his shoes, would you be willing to die with those who are announcing their faith to others. Do we care enough for this to happen. Yes, hind sight is 20/20. Yes, it was not the safest move to reach out to the mic but we can still ponder the question . . . .do we care about the salvation of others enough to die?