ANYONE CAN BE A HEALER February 6, 2006 Issue

Next in our biweekly series on how people have nurtured their public practice of Christian Science.

CHRISTIAN HEALING: A GREAT PRIVILEGE

TED SAVCHENKO—Toronto, Canada

MY FIRST ENCOUNTER with Christian Science treatment was dramatic. I had 11 years of medical practice behind me, nine of them in emergency medicine in my native country of Ukraine. I'd seen it all. At least I thought so at the time.

Then a friend developed a serious skin condition that was not only very painful and unsightly but produced an unbearable odor. All medical avenues were exhausted, both conventional and alternative, and the disease was becoming worse. She was desperate. I didn't know much about Christian Science, but the book Science and Health with the Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy intrigued me. The divine promise of healing stood out from its pages, enhancing and further testifying to what I had read in the Bible. My friend's situation cried for quick action. After discussion and prayer, we decided to visit a practitioner of Christian Science. We didn't place much hope in it, but something in us said: "You should go. Make sure to be there!"

The practitioner lived in a remote part of the city. We decided to go early, and found a small hidden playground that was a perfect quiet place to wait. Then when we walked to the house, I noticed something—right before my eyes the pillowlike swelling and redness on my friend's arms were slowly and surely going down. I was numb with amazement. "Look, look!" I screamed, "It is going down!" She stared blankly at her hands and sheepishly said, "No, it is the same." I looked at her with disbelief, and words from the Bible came to my mind: "Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive" (Acts 28:26).

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