A few years ago, I was working for the Peace Corps in a small village in Eastern Africa, along the lakeshore of Malawi. I lived a simple life with no cellphone, Internet, electricity, or piped water. Although being in a remote location made contact with family and friends in the United States difficult, my new neighbors in Malawi helped me feel at home. They always expressed great kindness and compassion toward me, inviting me to share meals and visit them frequently.

One day, inspired to show hospitality to a friend, I scheduled dinner with him at my house. That afternoon, I was working outside with basic carpentry hand tools, trying to make a simple piece of furniture. As I was cutting a board of beautiful hardwood, it slipped off the workbench and landed on the soft top part of my foot. I was wearing flip-flops at the time, which offered little protection from the impact of the board. I remember hearing a cracking sound in my foot and feeling that something had shifted. My foot became painful to move or put weight on. I immediately turned my thought away from pain and acceptance of this injury, to the renewing power of God's love.

Although as a child I'd attended Christian Science Sunday School, I'd just recently become reacquainted with Christian Science before leaving the United States for Malawi. I'd been to visit a Christian Scientist who lived a few hours away from my home, and he lent me a book called A Century of Christian Science Healing (The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1966). The examples of healing in the book gave me a renewed confidence in Christian Science healing. And I had been inspired by this passage in Science and Health: "The confidence inspired by Science lies in the fact that Truth is real and error is unreal" (p. 368).

And so, when the board fell on my foot, I knew that this was an opportunity to completely rely on God for help with a calm and childlike I turned wholeheartedly Him to comfort me and still my thoughts.

I continued the piece of furniture I was working on, while being mentally still and knowing that there could be no accident that could separate me from God's protection and care. Because I felt confident in my spiritual heritage as God's reflection, I felt no need to look at my foot to examine its condition. I did not move from that spot, but just kept affriming what was spiritually all along rejecting the suggestion that there was a power outside God that could damage or harm me. I didn't want to leave that workbench until I felt complete confident in the truth of these spiritual ideas. In science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy said, "Right motives give pinions to thought, andstrength and freedom to speech and action" [p.454]. I continued to joyfully accept that God could only have good in store for me, and that this accident was not part of His plan Within about half an hour or so, I was able to stand up and walk comfortably to begin preparations for dinner. Although there was still some bruising on the top of my foot from the impact of the board, I wasn't limited in my mobility in any way, and I felt that everything in my foot was in place.

My friend and I ended up having dinner outside, enjoying the stars and eating my favorite meal of eggs, rice, and beans. During the evening, we shared some great spiritual discussion, which was such a blessing to me.

In just a few days, all bruising on my foot had disappeared, and there was no evidence of anything being broken or dislodged.

I'm grateful for the practical and demonstrable nature of Christian Science, which is applicable anywhere in the world, and at any time.

MATT SCHMIDT
ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, US