Seti-Arti Kailola

Christian Science already had a small following in Jakarta, during the Dutch colonial occupation of Indonesia, which was before the Second World War. After independence in 1945, a Dutch-Indonesian woman, Adele Blok, opened her house as a meeting place for Christian Scientists. There was just a handful of us, then. Adele was First Reader and I was Second Reader. We read to a lot of empty chairs. But Adele said, “We are not reading for empty chairs but for all God's ideas, infinite ideas.” Today, both the Indonesian and English Christian Science services in Jakarta are well attended.

My family was Muslim, but we children were sent to a Dutch school of the Protestant persuasion because of its excellent quality of education. At the age of eighteen, each of us was allowed to choose our own religion. Neither Islam nor (Dutch) Protestantism interested me, so I started looking around for something else.

One day I came across a German book in a small bookstall. I was drawn to the title, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. As I read it, I became increasingly intrigued, so when Adele Blok started her group, I immediately joined.

Adele was teaching interpretive dance when I first met her, a career that I also chose. Being half-Dutch and half-Indonesian, she had had the choice of being repatriated to the Netherlands or remaining in Indonesia after independence. Adele chose the latter, which was fortunate. She did so much for the Christian Science movement in Indonesia and had a marvelous healing that drew people to Christian Science.

In the beginning, only women came to our church, their menfolk choosing to wait outside. This changed after the American Ambassador, Howard Palfrey Jones, began attending. The interest of such a highly respected person attracted many men to the services as well. Ambassador Jones stayed in Indonesia for six years or so and became a close friend of President Sukarno, to whom the church members gave a subscription to The Christian Science Monitor. We gave subscriptions to other government officials as well.

Christian Science has helped me in many ways. When I opened my dance school in Jakarta, teaching the Martha Graham technique, which I had learned from her in New York, I met strong opposition from my parents. This was a new form of dance, not the traditional form that they understood. Even President Sukarno, an art connoisseur, demanded, “What are you doing? Are you changing the Indonesian dances?”

“No, I'm just giving the dancers a new way of expressing themselves,” was my response. Then he understood. But the newspapers did not. They said I was doing something contrary to the Indonesian way of life. I really had to pray to know that there was only one Mind and that a good idea would come through. And it did! I had the opportunity to go to New York.

I lived in there for a great many years, far from my birth family, but my family in Christian Science was always nearby. I will never forget a wonderful physical healing I experienced there. I was working for the Indonesian Consulate General. An Indonesian official was scheduled to visit, and I was to arrange for him and his group to meet their American counterparts.

All of a sudden, I couldn't walk. I had to drag myself to the telephone, but the Consul General said I must be there. My legs were badly infected with sores that had to be covered with bandages. I slowly made my way down the several blocks to the Consulate with the aid of a walker.

Shocked at my condition, the Consul General offered to send a doctor to see what could be done. I told him, “You don't need to send a doctor, for I am a Christian Scientist.” He told me that I could not continue working in that condition, so I had better get some help, fast.

I called a Christian Science practitioner, who talked to me about the principles of Christian Science and health. That night I read the Weekly Bible Lesson about “Man.” And God's truth came to me. After about two weeks, I got out of bed — and as I stood up, the bandages slid off my legs, both of which were in perfect condition!

That healing is an eternal inspiration to me. Even now, in this difficult time in Indonesia, I often think back to that moment when I learned more of the infinite Truth. Christian Science can really help those who turn wholeheartedly to God and know that with God everything is possible.