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Growing up in a loving Christian Science home in California, I witnessed and experienced many healings through prayer. Later, after unfruitful years of exploring different modes of thinking and behavior, I found myself drawn back to the truths, the universal spiritual laws I had learned as a child--the pure and deeply practical teachings of Christian Science.  I knew this was the Truth -- the unwavering nature of God's love, the supreme power and grace of God's goodness -- that I had found nowhere else.  I experienced healing and a deep yearning to understand more of God, which led me to take Primary class in 1983.

What do counseling at-risk youth, running an emergency shelter, working as a wilderness ranger, teaching, and coordinating community outreach programs all have in common? These were jobs that led to my being in the full-time practice of Christian Science! Even as a child, lessons from the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy's writings had encouraged and shown me ways to help others.  Christian Science gave me a love for Christ Jesus; it also enabled me to follow him by showing how prayer transforms experience by transforming thought.  Whether confronting hostile situations, battling a forest fire, or facing physical challenges, prayer enabled me to get beyond the appearance of things to the spiritual truth that brought healing solutions. As God’s love became more real to me and the mental nature of experience became more apparent, so did opportunities to heal.

Christian Science has taken care of my family’s needs for five generations. I used to listen to my German grandmother tell me how God had protected family members during both world wars. These accounts of protection from bombs and Nazi interrogations had the same feeling of authenticity as the Bible accounts of deliverance from lions’ dens and fiery furnaces. Because of that, the Bible always felt approachable to me. Growing up in Colorado, loving hiking and skiing and the mountains, it always felt completely natural to be talking to God and listening for His presence.

In common with many people, I am sure, the two most important things to me are my family and my faith. In fact, I can say that I would not have one without the other, since they came to me about the same time and were very much connected. Seeking help after a succession of three miscarriages, I came across the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science. A whole new, more spiritual perspective on life began to open up to me, and I learned that healing through prayer is as possible now as in Jesus’ day.

A friend invited me to a Christian Science testimony meeting. That started me on a spiritual journey that has taken me from merely believing in God to a growing understanding of God as Love itself, an all-powerful and ever-present Parent.

I grew up in a family in which Christian Science was at the heart. I deeply value the security I have always felt from knowing that God is our Father-Mother Love, an ever-present help, and that in any situation we can find the inspiration and spiritual understanding that we need in the Bible and  Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

I grew up in an ecumenical household, with one parent practicing Christian Science and the other active in another Christian denomination. For many years, I alternated in attending the Sunday Schools of these two churches. And while I deeply appreciated the kindness and love of both congregations, I was ultimately drawn to how Christian Science showed me that God was knowable and ever-present, and that prayer was practical and effective in resolving whatever difficulties we face. College provided me with many opportunities to test the reliability of spiritual healing in Christian Science, and I found it fully freed me from contagious illnesses, sports injuries, and recurrent depression. It also helped me navigate through the moral complexities of a secular culture, allowing me to live joyfully independent of peer pressures.

Chiemezi has always desired to understand how things work, often immersing himself in books in order to explore this desire.He encountered Christian Science as a teenager, through Sentinel radio– an audio program from the Christian Science Sentinel. At first, he didn't really understand it; but he felt there was something more to it that was worth exploring. He began to seriously study Christian Science many years later, applying that same desire to “understand how things work” he’d always felt.

Although a life-long Christian Scientist, I didn’t embrace it fully until I had to deal with a number of challenges in college. After graduation, I was accepted into The Mother Church chaplain training program, attended seminary, and had a variety of assignments in the Army, including military prisons, hospitals, and a tour of duty in Vietnam. The public practice of healing naturally evolved and I became listed in the Journal in 1976. After completing active duty, my wife and I moved to California, where we raised two sons.

The most important influences on Emra’s life were her mother, who taught her to pray when confronted with difficulties, and her Christian Science Sunday School. In her teens, when a teacher asked her to speak to a social studies class about her religion, she found the joy that comes from sharing what she understood and had experienced of Mary Baker Eddy’s discovery.