My high school education in South Africa in the mid-1960s was abruptly disrupted when I was told that my school days were over, that I was old enough to work, and that I should now look after my mother and my two younger siblings. I was 17 years of age and had just finished Grade 11. I had been looking forward to completing my final matric year (Grade 12) and graduating from high school when my grandmother and my uncle shared this devastating news with me. 

Without a sound education, I believed, my life in apartheid-era South Africa would be reduced to that of a laborer and a pauper, a scenario I dreaded with all my heart and soul. This situation resulted in emotional trauma, which in turn caused me to suffer from severe migraines. I was advised to seek relief from the migraines in various types of medication, including herbs, “blessed” water, and a tot of brandy—which I did, to no avail. My situation looked bleak and desperate.

When Christian Science found me several years later, I was in a situation similar to the woman in the Bible who had been suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years and had spent all her money on physicians without being healed.  

One day, a high school friend who knew about my predicament told me that he had a book that heals. He suggested that we go to a nearby river, where it was quiet, on Saturday afternoon, and he would give me the book to read. 

Curiosity—and hope—began welling up inside of me.

That Saturday, we went to the river. As soon as we settled under the shade of some trees, my friend pulled the book from his bag and said, “Here is the book; read it and it will heal you.” As I was at that moment experiencing a migraine and desperately in need of healing, I grabbed the book with great anticipation.

The book was Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. As I opened it at random, my eyes fell on these transformative words: “If you do believe in God, why do you substitute drugs for the Almighty’s power, and employ means which lead only into material ways of obtaining help, instead of turning in time of need to God, divine Love, who is an ever-present help?” (p. 218).

I immediately thought, “I do believe in God and have no intention of substituting drugs and all the medication I am carrying for God’s absolute power.” In the face of my unwavering conviction in the supremacy of God’s power to overrule anything unlike Him, the pain completely disappeared. A glimpse of the truth contained in Science and Health had healed me instantly. I threw out all my medication and never again suffered from migraines or turned to drugs for relief. 

The Bible says, “ ‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 29:13, 14, New International Version). This divine promise was fulfilled for me that afternoon.

At the time, I was a staunch member of another church, and my family members were devout Christians, so acknowledging God as an ever-present help was not a foreign concept to me. What I lacked was the conviction that the ever-present God was always working in our favor. That Saturday, I glimpsed this truth. The psalmist put it this way: “He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions” (Psalms 107:20).

I later came to learn that The Church of Christ, Scientist, has a governing document called the Manual of The Mother Church, also written by Mrs. Eddy, the woman who discovered Christian Science and wrote Science and Health, its textbook. The Manual gave me a sense of how the Church she founded is structured and how it provides for the democratic government of its branch churches. The author wrote of its Rules and By-laws: “They were not arbitrary opinions nor dictatorial demands, such as one person might impose on another. They were impelled by a power not one’s own, were written at different dates, and as the occasion required” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 148). 

Living at the time in apartheid South Africa, I found that the sentiments expressed in this passage appealed to me, as they ruled out arbitrary opinions or the imposition of dictatorial demands by one group on others. As I continued reading Science and Health, I was comforted to learn that “God is the lawmaker, but He is not the author of barbarous codes” (p. 381), which helped me to classify apartheid as “barbarous codes” and nullify its effects in my experience.

In 1972, I attended a Christian Science youth meeting in Johannesburg with a friend, where I met a lot of young white people. I experienced something completely foreign to the apartheid South Africa socio-political context that came as something of a shock to me: white and Black people mingling and socializing. They assured me that, as the Bible says, we are all created in the image and likeness of God and that nothing can change this reality. However, like “doubting Thomas,” I tested the sincerity of my white friends by asking them whether they would allow me—a Black man—to spend a weekend at their homes. Everyone I challenged with this question agreed that they would. The weekend visits were arranged, and all of them went off without a fuss. 

When I was back home in Orkney, the friend who had shared Science and Health with me informed me that there was a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, that we could attend in neighboring Klerksdorp. After my youth meeting experience, I didn’t have any reservations about attending the church services, even though the congregation at the time was all white. We were warmly welcomed. 

At the youth meeting in Johannesburg, I had learned about membership in The Mother Church—The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston—and Primary class instruction in Christian Science. Shortly after attending the branch church, I applied to an authorized Christian Science teacher for class instruction and then applied for membership in The Mother Church.

Through these many years as a practicing Christian Scientist, I have had many proofs of God’s care, including the healing of infected tonsils, protection from the police during the political uprising of the 1980s, and the overcoming of lack during a relocation from Orkney to Johannesburg. Following my healing of migraine headaches, I was able to resuscitate my study program, which culminated in my obtaining degrees in human resources and business management and a host of HR and business management certificates whilst working full-time. I subsequently had a rewarding professional career until my retirement in 2017, for which I am immensely grateful. 

Through reading Science and Health, I learned of a God who does not see us as sinners but redeems us—who is kind, merciful, forgiving, just, loving, compassionate, and caring. My perilous situation was turned into a life filled with hope and gratitude.