Article July 21, 2008 Issue

A HEALING CHURCH IN ACTION

BY GLORIA ONYURU—EPHESUS, TURKEY

IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY morning in May, which also happened to be Mother's Day. We were a group of Christian Scientists following St. Paul's journey establishing churches in Asia Minor (today's Turkey). We would be visiting Ephesus, an ancient city where the Apostle had lived for almost three years. I'd been to Ephesus several times before, but knew there was a lot to see, so I was happy just to tag along.

After walking through the ruins for a couple of hours, I decided to opt out of the next part of the tour, and sat down on a marble slab next to a tall column, grateful for its small patch of shade. That's when I had the thought to call my sister-in-law in Istanbul on my cellphone to wish her a happy Mother's Day.

She responded with tears, saying she wished it were a happy Mother's Day, but that the night before, her son (from her first marriage) and grandson had been kidnapped from their home in Beirut, Lebanon, by Hezbollah gunmen. I tried to comfort her as best I could, and told her our group would pray for her and her family.