Testimony of Healing November 22, 1999 Issue

Alcoholism overcome through prayer

Cyprian Leslie Kheswa

The temptation to smoke and drink was slyly sown in my teenage mind. I later reaped the whirlwind of demeaning drug addiction. As a result of alcoholism, I lost my job, my home, and my selfrespect. But even while I was indulging in these habits, I always studied the Bible, though without grasping the spiritual, practical effect of understanding Truth.

After I had lost my home, these words from Romans stayed with me: "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (8:38, 39).

After thirteen years of both indulging in and trying to overcome these baneful habits, I was introduced to Science and Health. One Saturday morning after a night of heavy drinking and smoking, I had this great desire to study the book of Genesis. Although I enjoyed the book, I found it contradictory. To me dust was nothing: therefore I could not understand how God had created man in His image and likeness and later recreated man of the dust of the ground. I sincerely needed an explanation. Six years earlier I had picked up a copy of the Sentinel at my work. Unbeknown to me a seed of truth had been sown. That unforgettable Saturday morning, after puzzling over Genesis, I remembered the Christian Science Reading Room in the city. There I borrowed a copy of Science and Health and was given a few periodicals. I found the book so inviting and moving that I studied it avidly throughout the weekend.