UPFRONT May 11, 2009 Issue

THE CHURCH WHERE I BELONG

INGRID PESCHKE, MANAGING EDITOR

There was no church. At least not the familiar building and faces I was accustomed to from the Christian Science church I'd grown up attending. And yet, the summer I spent as a college student teaching English in Japan taught me a lot about the real meaning of Church—and of my own commitment to it.

I'd brought along my "portable" Pastor—my Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures—and a Christian Science Quarterly so I could study the weekly Bible Lessons. My first Sunday alone in my apartment, I brought my Pastor out onto the balcony overlooking busy city streets and began to read the sermon aloud. That was my church. And it set the tone for the rest of my time in Japan. My Pastor guided me home when I was lost one night and gave me the words to communicate with new friends. It healed me of homesickness and challenged me to be open and receptive to each new window of opportunity that opened.

Those summer months taught me that the things I loved about Church were universal concepts available everywhere. And the church members who nurtured me as a child—and since—had provided just the example I needed to glimpse that.

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