Reunited in Marrakesh

When my parents heard that I’d disappeared somewhere between northern Africa and southern Spain, they were deeply concerned. And it didn’t help that just prior, they’d been reading articles in the press about young Australian, English, and American women mysteriously disappearing while traveling in Europe.

About a year before, I’d gone traveling from our home in Australia to see England, Europe, and Africa with a friend. We’d taken up with a crowd of people drifting from country to country. Though I’d attended Christian Science Sunday School up until that point (see my article “Lost and Found” in the April 12, 2010, Sentinel), I wasn’t really actively thinking about Christian Science during my travels.

There was no e-mail then, and I hadn’t communicated with my parents back in Australia for some time. The last place I had sent a letter from was Marrakesh, Morocco, in northern Africa. But then my friend returned to Australia without me, saying I had failed to meet her in the south of Spain as we had arranged and that she had no idea of my current whereabouts.

Extremely concerned for my welfare, my parents contacted their Christian Science teacher to pray with them about the situation. My mother later told me that the teacher had said words to this effect: “We cannot know how your daughter will be found, but we do know there is only one Mind, and that this Mind is in full operation, everywhere, right now.” This truth laid the healing foundation of events over the next week or so. 

As he prayed, the idea came to my father to travel to Marrakesh and try to find me. Of course, he did not know whether I would still be there, as the last letter from me was five weeks old. And where was I to be found in such a vast city with more than a million people? He would have to hire an interpreter as he did not speak the language. But as my parents were earnestly praying, that idea kept coming insistently to my father. 

The night my father, unknown to me, arrived in Marrakesh, I was walking with a friend along the beautiful northern coast of Africa, admiring the magnificent homes overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It was about 9:30 at night, and as we walked along, I nearly fell into a large hole in the pavement that had been carelessly left open by workers. My friend lived a nomadic lifestyle and was not normally concerned about such things. However, he suggested we walk all the way back into town and report the matter. 

Where was I to be found in such a vast city with more than a million people?

When we arrived in town about an hour and a half later, of course everything was shut for the night except for the police station. So we went there to report the open hole. Unknown to me, just 20 minutes earlier my father had walked into this same police station with his interpreter and had talked to the officer in charge, asking him to find me “no matter what the cost or difficulties.”

My friend and I were standing outside the police station when this officer’s assistant came out, carrying a photo my father had brought with him to identify me. He showed us the photograph, asking if we knew this girl. Shocked, I said to him, “This is a picture of me.”

He looked at me, rather baffled, as I was rather worn-looking from my journey. He did not believe me at first, but I insisted, so he went back inside and informed the officer in charge. My father was still there in the police station! He came out and saw me, and we were reunited. After spending some time in Europe with him, I arrived home. My mother was greatly relieved to see me.

I had soul-searched for a year in Europe for an ideal or religion to live by—but now, at home, it was suddenly clear. I picked up a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and had a wonderful revelation as I realized this was what I had been looking for all the time.

Following this experience, I decided to go through Primary class instruction with a teacher of Christian Science, and I began practicing the spiritual principles I was learning in my own life. The blessings multiplied, and ten years later I became a full-time Christian Science practitioner.

Today, I am so grateful when I am given the privilege of helping young people with prayer, just as my parents and their Christian Science teacher had done for me many years before.