Article February 23, 2009 Issue

THE GOD I PRAY TO...

Warren Bolon with contributions from Makengo Ma Pululu

Praying in times of crisis, or quiet times, is a given for Makengo Ma Pululu. In 1994 he was teaching school in Rwanda when the genocidal attacks on Tutsi people began in that East African country. He and his family fled to the refugee camps in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, his home country. Every day called for more praying. And prayer met all needs: shelter, food, physical healing, security, and ways to help other refugees. Today, Makengo is a Christian Science practitioner in Kinshasa, DRC, and also serves as Christian Science Committee on Publication for the country. Sentinel senior writer Warren Bolon interviewed him by e-mail.

What is prayer, to you, and how do you go about it?

For centuries, people have prayed either for themselves and their families or for others, their nations, or the world. In Christian Science, prayer is not offered to "change God's will," or to tell Him (by pleading with Him as we might appeal to a human being) what He doesn't know. In its very substance, prayer is a quiet, conscious communion with God. Its basic purpose is actually to recognize God as God—as One and All. And in prayer we find our place in His care as idea—as His "image and likeness," in the language of the Bible.

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