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I grew up near Boston with parents who loved and lived Christian Science.  But it wasn’t until I struck out on my own and worked overseas that I realized Mrs. Eddy’s revelation was for me too.  On returning home, I joined a branch church and took Primary class instruction.

During college, a significant healing established me on a path to not only better know and understand God, but also to understand why that mattered . After being ill in bed for a week, I was healed overnight after a Christian Science practitioner (whom I’d asked to pray for me) spoke to me about the First Commandment in a way that challenged and revitalized my thinking.

Having been raised in Christian Science I always expected to become a practitioner. While my path may not have been as quick and direct as it probably has been for others, there were always signposts that I was on the right track.

The healing practice of Christian Science was close to my heart early on, but it was 12 years into my legal career when I realized this was really my calling. As it happened, I was speaking with two clients about their case, and although a legal solution seemed clear, I felt compelled, instead, to pray.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a student of Christian Science. As a young kid I enjoyed listening to Bible stories in Sunday School.

Christian Science came into my family through my grandfather’s healing of a painful, incurable condition that threatened his livelihood. My siblings and I attended a Christian Science Sunday School in South Bend, Indiana, where I grew up. Active participation in Christian Science college organizations strengthened my spiritual understanding during undergraduate and graduate studies. Through healing experiences, I glimpsed the profound nature of Mary Baker Eddy’s discovery, and living Christian Science in daily affairs became a wonderful and natural way of life. Class instruction inspired a humble desire to really know God, and to be a healer—to help others.

In Junior High School my girlfriend asked my religion. I finally “confessed” to being a Christian Scientist.

I live in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, with my wife, two daughters, a son, and nine grandchildren. I ran across Christian Science at college at a time when I was starting to doubt the usefulness of religion in life, after having attended a Christian denomination since childhood.

I learned of Christian Science in my middle teens. Our family came to it through a “miraculous” healing of a relative. I tested it, and was amazed at the consistent results. The Science proved to be genuinely scientific. Its practice became the basis of my studies and early career. That career took some radically different zigs and zags. From research director at an international relations and mediation institute in Italy, to labor organizer in New England, to foundation director, to university professor, to peace and civil rights activist, to founding an anti-racism project which was the basis of the YWCA “Social Justice Award”. The focus, the common denominator of these careers, was solving problems.

My parents were Christian Scientists, and I had the great benefit of Sunday School teaching, and learning that God is always present to meet the need—always our “first aid.” When I married and had children, they were bought up in the same way, with my husband’s agreement, and I saw what a boon it was to be able to turn to God as the only Father/Mother. When I joined a branch church, I was asked to work in various positions and realised that if I were to be of help to the Church, I needed to progress in Christian Science, so I took class Instruction and was then appointed First Reader. To my surprise, people came to me for healing treatment. This impelled me to advertise as a full-time Journal -listed practitioner.