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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.

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.

 As a child, I was told that my great-great-great-grandmother became a Christian Science practitioner after experiencing healing while reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. However, I certainly remember my grandfather - also a Christian Science practitioner - whom I loved immensely and could always turn to for help.

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.

I always knew my career path was going to involve being of service to others, but had no idea it would be as a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science! My work in rural Appalachia during high school touched me so deeply I went on to get both an undergraduate and graduate degree in social work. I then worked for over 10 years as a psychotherapist in a variety of mental health settings.

“Say the truth and the devil will be ashamed.” This saying from James’s native Cameroon, when seen through the life of Jesus, can be interpreted to mean that your true identity is sinless and pure. You have nothing in common with the liar, with anything unlike your true God-given nature.

I’ve always loved people—their life stories, their struggles, their successes.  I regularly meet individuals actively cultivating their spiritual life.

Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, outlined a few brief tenets, rather than a creed or doctrinal beliefs, that summarize the essential points of Christian Science, all of which are rooted in the Bible.

I attended a commercial secondary school (1961-1968) and studied economics at a university (1969-1973). After this education, I taught mathematics for two years before being employed by a well-respected American commercial bank in Kinshasa for fourteen years.

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