I Was introduced to Christian Science by my husband, who was a new student of this Science when we married. At first I was antagonistic to its teachings. Then I was healed of a severely swollen ankle through my husband's prayers and the prayerful help of a Christian Science practitioner. This was the turning point at which I began to study Christian Science.

I had completed my academic studies and needed a job. I looked for employment for over a year without success. Then I asked a practitioner to pray for me. She told me about the one language of Spirit. She had had no previous knowledge of my feelings about the Afrikaans language. But on my second visit I confessed to her my hatred for the language and its people for what I saw them as doing to my people—the blacks in South Africa. To me, Afrikaans was the oppressor's language. I felt I would be betraying my people if I spoke it, although I had studied it at school because it was a compulsory subject for all blacks.

The practitioner spoke to me at great length about God and His government and my purpose in this spiritual government. Soon I applied and was accepted for a job, only to find the company was Afrikaans-speaking! While working for this company I learned to see the Afrikaaner as a child of God, loved by Him like those of my own race. I exchanged hatred for love. I was then able to see good amongst the Afrikaaner people I became friends with. And I started speaking the language without prejudice.

For over ten years my husband suffered from asthma. Because of the frequency of the attacks I was afraid for his life. In addition, my husband was a lecturer at a university, and many people on the campus condemned us for not relying on medication.

When we were told that the climate of the town we lived in was not good for people who had asthma, we remembered this statement in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 392): "If you decide that climate or atmosphere is unhealthy, it will be so to you. Your decisions will master you, whichever direction they take." We sang hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal. Hymn 144 was our favorite, especially the first verse:

My husband surprised me one day by looking me in the eyes and saying, "God is the breadwinner and financer of our home." He wanted me to know that if anything should happen to him, God would continue meeting all our needs. It was clear, however, that he was not consenting to death. He realized he would continue to serve God. This broke the mesmerism of the "if he died" attitude, and a sense of yielding to death was challenged strongly.

Truth did prevail, I am grateful to report. My husband was healed, and he never had a relapse despite being caught in extreme snowstorms during his overseas trips (a condition he was not used to, coming from hot Africa). The healing of this difficulty brought a lot of new experiences for the family as a whole. And my husband found significant ways to serve both his business community and the Cause of Christian Science.

At a time when we lived in Swaziland we were invited to attend a youth meeting for Christian Scientists in Cape Town. Our car needed two new tires and servicing, however, and we did not have enough money for petrol. We literally had just enough money to buy groceries for that month. We prayed to understand the ever-present supply of good from God.

Just then I received a check from The Mother Church for translation work I had done over six months before. The following day in The Times of Swaziland was an advertisement for two tires in good condition that fitted our car perfectly. We were able to make that long trip, and both my husband and I gave papers at the conference. We were able to prove that God meets our needs all the time, and our financial supply has increased.

One day the telephone rang and my youngest daughter answered it. The person on the line told her that our house was going to be burned down that night. Lately there had been a spate of house burnings, as well as the burning of people in our township.

My husband was going overseas the following day. We phoned a practitioner to pray with us. We handled the fear of lawless behaviour and knew that God was governing right there and then. We were able to go to bed feeling free of fear and in God's omnipresent care. Our house was not touched, and my husband found us safe when he returned. A passage from Message to The Mother Church for 1902 by Mrs. Eddy was most helpful during this time. It states (p. 15): "In the eighties, anonymous letters mailed to me contained threats to blow up the hall where I preached; yet I never lost my faith in God, and neither informed the police of these letters nor sought the protection of the laws of my country. I leaned on God, and was safe."

People ask how we can live in the township where crime, lawlessness, and so forth, are so rife. But we always answer that it is there that we are needed most to contribute prayerfully for the good of mankind. The conditions prevailing in South Africa at the moment are conducive to spiritual growth, and we feel that it is not a coincidence that at this point in time we should be residing, as blacks, in this part of the world where there is so much trouble. We feel blessed by this opportunity. This statement in Miscellaneous Writings by Mrs. Eddy is most supportive (p. 80): "Unconstitutional and unjust coercive legislation and laws, infringing individual rights, must be 'of few days, and full of trouble.' The vox populi, through the providence of God, promotes and impels all true reform; and, at the best time, will redress wrongs and rectify injustice. ... God reigns, and will 'turn and overturn' until right is found supreme."

My heart overflows with gratitude to God for Christ Jesus, and for his follower, Mrs. Eddy. I am also grateful for The Mother Church and all of its activities. My gratitude for Christian Science cannot be measured.

Dorothy Dipuo Maubane
Atteridgeville, Pretoria, Republic of South Africa