Testimony of Healing July 12, 1999 Issue

Prayer brings regeneration and physical healing

Timothy Paul Thorndike

As a child, I had many physical healings through the prayers of my mother and treatment from Christian Science practitioners. These included deafness due to a hole in one eardrum, the effects of being hit by a car, what appeared to be appendicitis, the accidental amputation of a big toe, as well as quick healings of what are termed childhood diseases. Although I had experienced these many proofs of God's love for me, I had not truly made the study of Christian Science my own. And as I got older, I began to have less interest in the Christian Science Sunday School and more in the activities of my friends. Drinking, drugs, and dishonesty were part of these activities. I began drinking to get drunk and to "feel good." That led to the use of marijuana and a variety of hallucinogenic drugs. I began feeling distrustful and unworthy of the love of my friend and family.

In college, I studied theater and prided myself on the fact that I could memorize plays easily. But soon I found it difficult to remember not only my lines in the plays but also everday things such as the fact that I had just talked to someone. I was increasingly unable to concentrate. I felt the pressure of school and outside activities, as well as work, and I decided to get away from it all by moving to the family summer cottage by a lake in a far-off state with a cousin. My cousin, a professed atheist, saw my copy of Science and Health that I had packed "just in case." After his criticisms, I was reluctant to let him see the book again, so it stayed well tucked away.

Two months later, at my job with a construction company, I noticed that after brushing my arm against a wall, it bled. The bleeding did not stop for quite a long time. Later that day, I discovered internal bleeding and went home to bed. A relative who visited a couple of days later was shocked at my condition and rushed me to the hospital, where diagnostic tests were taken. The physician declared that I had some unknown new virus, for which he prescribed no specific treatment. I was released and taken home.

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