Every time I open a copy of the Sentinel or The Christian Science Journal I feel special gratitude to everyone who has submitted a testimony of healing. It means he or she has loved enough to put forth the effort to contribute. At long last I would like to add a few healing experiences to the record.

As a child I suffered from so many ailments, including rheumatic heart trouble, that doctors recommended my staying home and having a private tutor. However, my grandmother had recently started studying Christian Science, so my mother enrolled me in a Christian Science Sunday School. My health improved as we learned to apply this healing Science, and I went on to enjoy a full education and several careers.

Numerous physical difficulties have been overcome through prayer, including the heart trouble, hemorrhaging that continued for several weeks, sick headaches, lack of normal color and circulation in my feet, flu, and skin eruptions.

The headaches recurred for a number of years. When my own prayerful work became more consistent, the fear of the symptoms was finally eradicated. I saw that it is just not possible to know God, good, as the one great I am and at the same time to make obeisance to a so-called secondary power. I learned to give homage to the creator; to cling to Truth unrelentingly, like Jacob in the Bible story, until the daybreak. Throughout those years I was able to work steadily and to serve three years as Second Reader in my branch church without missing a Sunday, and I am grateful to say that the complete healing came.

As I prepared breakfast one morning, what felt like a blow to my back caused me to black out for a moment. I called out and my husband came quickly. He declared the truth that in reality I am a spiritual idea of God and cannot be harmed. I felt joy and relief at hearing this, and the truth of his statement was so clear to me that within a few minutes I was fine. This difficulty never recurred.

A Christian Science practitioner prayed through the night for our family on one occasion when four of us were ill. In the morning we found that a defective flue in our house had caused monoxide poisoning. Firemen were amazed that we had survived and had suffered no aftereffects.

Dental problems have been resolved when the perfection of God's creation was understood to prevail over the false evidence of the material senses. Once, an abscessed tooth was healed. Another time an X-ray showed a tooth was growing under a molar. The dentist urged me to make an appointment for surgery. However, I felt confident of the spiritual fact that true substance is spiritual and that nonintelligent matter cannot interfere with man's harmony and well-being as the reflection of God. The appointment was never made. Subsequent X-rays showed no interference from another tooth.

It is a privilege to work for the Cause of Christian Science. My prayer is to follow the pattern outlined by Mrs. Eddy in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany: "Each day I know Him nearer, love Him more, and humbly pray to serve Him better."

Ada Kay Dodd
Dayton, Ohio