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By Wendy Pagonis
981-3209
A volunteer pushed Billy Cook in his wheelchair to the baptismal pool at the Roanoke Civic Center on Saturday, but he stood, climbed the metal ladder and entered the water on his own. The 68-year-old man from Lexington is now one of the 6.4 million Jehovah's Witnesses in the world. He is the oldest of 41 people who chose to let elders in the faith immerse them in hip-deep water this weekend as part of a long-practiced ritual. It begins with a couple of questions. No. 1: On the basis of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, have you repented of your sins and dedicated yourself to Jehovah to do his will? No. 2: Do you understand that your dedication and baptism identify you as one of Jehovah's Witnesses in association with God's spirit-directed organization? If the answer is yes to both questions, then candidates, such as Cook, pass to the next step. They change into their bathing suits. All 41 who stepped before the thousands of onlookers wore T-shirts over their swimsuits. Each took turns climbing into a 9-by-17-foot inflatable swimming pool set up next to the stage. Until the mid-1980s, the Jehovah's Witnesses used a swimming pool at a former Holiday Inn across Williamson Road, where Magic City Ford now sits. But that was never an ideal spot. "It limited the extent to which it could be public," said Randolph Hare, the program overseer. "To have it here on site is the best arrangement." The Holiday Inn could accommodate a couple of hundred onlookers, said Mike Sassard, the convention overseer, but considering the event draws more than 7,000 people, that's not much. Now, volunteers put up an inflatable pool in the civic center the day before the annual convention begins. "It's very easy to set up, very easy to take down," Sassard said. This allows more people to observe the participants' declaration of faith. This year's three-day convention ends today. Jehovah's Witnesses hold 209 similar conventions throughout the country, Sassard said. The one in Roanoke attracted about 1,500 more participants than in previous years because additional Witnesses from West Virginia arrived. The convention usually has people from Western Virginia, the western end of Maryland and eastern West Virginia, he said.
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