Purty durn close

Patti guessed that the "watzat" was a Cambodian Bible. It is not, but I am guessing that the full view here will suffice to bring the correct answer in. For two years, I was an interim pastor for a Cambodian congregation in San Francisco. Most of the congregation spoke English, but they sang the hymns in Khmer. I did my first baptisms in that congregation: a little girl, her aunt, and the aunt's father. He was about 70 going on 90, a fragile-looking fellow who rarely attended services. One of the congregants recorded a tape for me that was the Khmer translation of "I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." I would listen to the tape and transliterate it into English characters. I practiced over and over saying that phrase, and my interpreter helped me polish it.

The day of the baptism, there were at least three other pastors baptizing members of their language congregations, so we had to trade out the waders. (All the congregations were Baptists, so everyone got dunked.) One group would get baptized and then the audience would sing a song while the next pastor pulled on the waders and got into the baptismal tank. When it came my turn, I baptized the little girl first--no problem, she was light and I remembered the phrase. Then came her aunt, who seemed to question my pronunciation with a look askance. Then came the old man. I was so worried that I was going to drown him, I hesitated on the phrase. He prompted me, so I hope I said the right words! Anyway, when I lowered him into the water, I leaned over so far, that water started to pour over the top of the waders. I stood up quickly, but not before a jet of water went all the way to my socks. Unfortunately, there was one more pastor waiting to baptize, and I had to hand over waders that were wet inside and out.