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I was born in Italy and moved to Brazil with my family as a teenager. Ever since my childhood I had felt drawn to religion and spirituality even though my family was not very religious.  Brazil offered me the opportunity to pursue my spiritual search, and I was able to get better acquainted with the Bible, which I loved. Then in college I was introduced to Christian Science by the young man who later became my husband. I immediately felt it was the deep truth I was looking for.

Attending Christian Science Sunday School as a child, I loved what I learned there of God—He’s everywhere, always Love, and All. But going out into the “cold, cruel world,” I couldn’t reconcile what I was seeing with a God who is Love. Putting my Bible and Science and Health on the shelf, I forged ahead, just trying to live a moral, meaningful life. I married, had children, was happy, but missing was a depth to life.  Science and Health beckoned to me. Opening it, I saw my grandmother’s note inside: “Judith Ann—Read this.  You owe it to yourself.” I did, for the first time. When I came to “The calm, strong currents of true spirituality.

I came into Christian Science as an adult and found it to be just what I’d been searching for -- Mrs. Eddy’s writings described so perfectly something I’d always known deep inside.

As a teen struggling with a view of God as punishing and blessing, I had two prevailing thoughts about God: anger and fear. When I was introduced to Christian Science, I did not expect to find solutions to those struggles in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures , but I was intrigued by the ideas that the book was a key to understanding the Bible (which I had grown up reading) and that it explained a divine Science of healing. It seemed reasonable to me that if something is actually a science, then any honest student can learn the rules, apply them, and find predictable results.

I was raised in a Hindu family in India, and my religious education about God was that if you do something wrong, God punishes you. As I grew older, I challenged God and said “If you want me to worship you, I want answers.

As have many families, ours came to Christian Science through the experience of Christ’s healing power. A co-worker suggested my grandfather try Christian Science, and it restored his failing eyesight. Growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, I attended an active Sunday School. One summer, in Junior High, while reading through Science and Health, I gained a deepening sense of God’s gentle presence, love and care of each of us as His precious children. This was a turning point. My grades, friendships, and joy of life really blossomed, as did my love of Christian Science. Many wonderful healings followed: asthma, allergies, back problems, foot sores, digestive trouble, and protective guidance throughout those teenage years.  Not long after college, Sunday School pupils and friends began asking me for prayerful help. I discovered the great joy of helping others find healing through the practice of Christian Science.

Healing in Christian Science can never be compared to anything else here on earth. Christian Science indeed has enabled me to prove that "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble." My early years were spent in Eastern Province of Kenya, with my parents and three brothers and five sisters.

My family has practiced Christian Science for over 100 years.  My great-grandmother was healed of tuberculosis in Biloxi, Mississippi. My paternal grandmother was healed of a heart condition supposed to be fatal. I’ve wanted to help, save and heal people through Christ and Christian Science since I was a child. In elementary school, I shared Christian Science with others and had significant healings on my own. At 12, I united with The Mother Church and a branch church, writing my first testimony for publication. Christian Science has always been a rock of salvation and healing for me. Throughout high school and college, I actively worked to explain the Christ, Truth, to others in language they could understand, and prayed for others when they asked.

As a child, I was told that my great-great-great grandmother became a Christian Science practitioner after she was healed while reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. However, I certainly remember my grandfather as a Christian Science practitioner whom I adored and whom I could always ask for help.

My parents’ commitment to world peace and humanitarian causes, and their love for Christian Science, set the tone for my childhood, and early instilled in me a respect for all peoples. Added to this, growing up in three countries with four languages helped to enlarge my love for this diverse universe. I was educated in Switzerland, Argentina, and Washington, DC.