A pair of hippopotamuses surfaced on the Cubango River in Angola on the morning of Sabbath, 7 June, just as Pastor Emanuel Lukamba waded into the water to begin baptisms.

He kept going.

Nine new members were baptised into the Seventh-day Adventist Church that morning, with the imposing mammals looking on from a short distance. The pastor and his officiating team continued the ceremony calmly to its completion.

The baptism took place in Caiundo, a small municipality 135 kilometres from Menongue, capital of Cubango province. The local Seventh-day Adventist branch church, part of the Northern District of Menongue, has approximately forty members. Pastor Lukamba had spent the weekend of 5–7 June in the community as part of his regular pastoral visits.

The Cubango River, known as the Okavango further downstream, in Namibia and Botswana, is the only body of water available in the area. Despite its well-known hippopotamus population, residents continue to use the river for daily hygiene and subsistence needs. With no alternative available, the baptismal service took place in the same waters.

Beyond the baptisms, the weekend included the consecration of a deacon and a deaconess, and the dedication of eighteen children. Pastor Lukamba called on members to embrace "a greater sense of responsibility, so that the work of evangelism may gain the momentum it requires — an essential condition for winning more souls to the kingdom of heaven."

In his Sabbath sermon, Lukamba reflected on the character of the committed Christian, drawing on the metaphors of salt and light. "The flavour of salt is unmatched in enhancing the taste of food," he said, while emphasising that "being the light means illuminating, through our actions, a world held in the grip of sin."

The Caiundo baptisms form part of ongoing evangelistic and pastoral work across the Northern District of Menongue, in Angola's newly established Cubango province.