Love is local and global
Every travel guide on the market includes two sections, regardless of the destination: guidelines about staying healthy, and about staying safe. The idea is that anywhere you go, you’re going to encounter threats to your health and safety, ranging from digestive problems and petty theft to malaria and kidnapping. These threats are assumed to be particularly acute in developing countries.
To date, I have traveled to 18 countries, ten of which are classified as developing, and have spent a total of about 19 months abroad. As a Christian Scientist, my first resort is to turn to prayer and metaphysical examination of my thought whenever I am faced with challenges related to health and personal security. And I’ve consistently found prayer to be an effective way to resolve those challenges.
In 2010, I traveled to Ecuador alone for two months of volunteer work and travel. I had read beforehand that there was a high incidence of crime in the capital city of Quito, including armed robberies and express kidnappings. Furthermore, it was advised that travelers not drink the tap water. (In fact, after some time there, I learned that only about half the local population drinks the tap water.) There seemed to be a lot of potential threats to my health and safety to confront.
I had made plans with a former college roommate to meet up and travel together for the final two weeks of the trip. She is also a Christian Scientist, so we had been sharing metaphysical ideas with each other and praying in preparation for the trip. The idea of “home” had been a focal point of my prayers. I reminded myself that we were not leaving home and going to a strange place, but, rather, that we dwell in God, divine Love, and so no matter where we move in His creation, we remain in that Love-home. The first verse of Hymn No. 148 from the Christian Science Hymnal was helpful:
In heavenly Love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear;
And safe is such confiding,
For nothing changes here.
(Anna L. Waring)
I cherished the idea that nothing was changing in divine Love.
About a week after I’d arrived in Quito and had drunk only bottled water, the thought came to me that it would be OK to drink the tap water and that I didn’t need to be afraid. And so, following that quiet intuition, I started drinking the tap water.
The next day, however, I felt a little bit strange. I was in good enough condition to go to my volunteer job, but at some point that afternoon, I was overcome with dizziness and nausea. I excused myself from the room to find a quiet place, where I could pray. In an adjacent room, I quieted my thoughts and turned to the hymn I had prayed with before. I was comforted again by the assurance that nothing changes in the abode of God, divine Love. This meant that I couldn’t be outside of the safety and health provided by God to His children. The nausea left quickly, and I was able to return to my work. Over the next couple of days, I continued to study and pray diligently so as to solidify my understanding of that spiritual freedom. Although I continued drinking the tap water, there were virtually no lingering symptoms to deal with—only my own desire for a firmer conviction of God’s care for me.
Two weeks later, I left Quito and continued my travels into more rural areas, where the more rustic environment meant poorer sanitary conditions and drinking water that was virtually untreated. I held on to that conviction that nothing changes in the abode of God, divine Love, and continued to pray daily. Along the lines of my original prayer, I reasoned that since I was abiding in the love of God, I could not be moving in and out of His protection even when I was traveling. I understood from my study of Christian Science that material conditions simply could not influence my healthy state, because health is a natural component of God’s creation. And my big-picture conclusion was that I didn’t need to worry about the conditions in other countries somehow being worse or more threatening than conditions in the United States. In either case, my health was spiritual, and so material conditions, positive or negative, couldn’t have any bearing on it. With that assurance, I felt free to eat and drink whatever was offered to me as I traveled. And I never experienced even a hint of any kind of illness.
About a year after that trip, I chose to move back to Ecuador. Throughout the year I lived there and on solo vacations to neighboring countries, I freely ate and drank what was available and experienced no health challenges. I should add that, thanks to my prayers, I felt safe the entire time, too.
My travels over the years have brought many rewards from the daily challenge of changing my perspective and actively acknowledging and bearing witness to Truth, sometimes in spite of lots of evidence to the contrary. I’m eager to see what spiritual growth is yet to come.
—Rachel Hanson, Potomac, Maryland, US