Sharing a testimony in the Reading Room

I’m a guest at this year’s Association.  While at the Reading Room, locating the testimonies listed in the compilation for the assignment this year, I came in contact with both Scientists and non-Scientists, including a rest home nurse who was clearly not familiar with Mrs. Eddy’s work.  While the woman she accompanied to the Reading Room was chatting with the attendant, the nurse sat down in the study and began leafing through a Bible.

I had just finished reading Frank Wise’s great and colorful testimony about alcoholism.  I was very taken with it—not only with what he said, but also with how he said it.  The nurse seemed to be just passing time, so I asked whether she would be interested in reading a very good Christian Science testimony from 1899.  She said yes, so I showed her where to start reading in Volume I of the Sentinel (The Christian Science Weekly, February 23, 1899.)

About 15 minutes later, I finished my studying for the day and asked the nurse whether she wanted me to put away the large book, which occupied a spot on the very top shelf, about eight feet above the floor.  She said: “Oh, no. I want to keep reading these  testimonies.  They are very interesting.” So perhaps your assignment already has successfully reached out to others beyond the Association who can benefit from it.

An offer to pray

Recently I have been working with a patient who is a family member.  At first I wasn’t sure she would want me to pray for her, but I offered anyway because I felt God’s urging.  She told me that she had just been thinking of asking me that very day.  I was so grateful!

From that moment on, I have been led by God as to what to say and what to pray about specifically.  It is so exciting to see that the things that come to me to focus on in my prayers seem to be the very issues that my patient tells me need to be addressed in her thought.  And it feels so God-inspired, not personal, even though I know this person very well.  We are making headway, and I know she will have her healing.

"I had to apply what I just learned in Association"

After Association my wife and I decided to get some dinner at our local Five Guys restaurant. While waiting for the order to be prepared I went next door to look at a shop. When I came back out an older woman was stepping up onto the sidewalk when she suddenly lost her footing and fell right on her face knocking it into the cement. I immediately started working. I went to her and asked if she was all right, and she implied that she was. But I noticed her nose was bleeding severely and realized my thought was now focusing on the blood. At that point I just had to apply what I just learned in Association: Go to God first and reverse thought of the material suggestion. At that point people started gathering around to see if she was all right. I went inside to get her some napkins and brought them to her.  I then went back inside the restaurant and both my wife and I continued to work for her through the prayer of love. When the ambulance showed up that was called by members of the restaurant the medics checked her pulse and cleaned her up but it was not necessary to take her to the hospital. It was a wonderful opportunity that reinforced what my wife and I had just learned at Association and we were grateful that God showed us how Science does benefit the whole world.