My gratitude to Christian Science...

August Janssen

My gratitude to Christian Science as revealed by our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, is boundless. Thanks to my study of the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, I have been leading a fruitful and joyous life.

During World War II, at the age of seventeen, I was interned in a Japanese concentration camp in Java, Indonesia. All I had with me at that time was a Bible. While in the camp I became very ill with malaria, accompanied by a nervous breakdown. Since no Christian Scientists were present and contact with the outside world was impossible, I studied the Bible as much as possible and tried to remember the few simple truths which I had learned earlier in a Dutch-speaking Christian Science Sunday School.

One morning I was detailed outside the prison walls and saw a beautiful sunrise. Hope returned to me, and as I trusted more strongly in God my condition improved. Several months later I was transferred to a larger camp, where I met a very sincere Christian Scientist who was still in possession of his copy of Science and Health. From then on, whenever we had time, he would help me in my study of this textbook, for at that time my knowledge of languages was limited to Dutch. Although there was a lack of food and I was fifty pounds underweight, my health returned, and I was able to do heavy farm work.

Another blessing came to me when my younger brother, who had originally been assigned to another camp, was transferred to my camp. At the end of the war, my brother and I were able to leave our camp for the coast just a few days before fighting between the Dutch and Indonesians broke out in the interior and all travel to the coast became impossible. I am especially grateful that all during the war I was enabled to follow Jesus' command (Matt. 5:44), "Love your enemies."

Although my education was halted for four years, I have since then had the privilege of getting a Bachelor of Arts degree at a college for the sons and daughters of Christian Scientists. After teaching for two years in a school in Indonesia, I was a counselor for three summers at a camp for the sons and daughters of Christian Scientists, and I gained much through that experience. At present I am studying for a Master of Arts degree and am very grateful for activity both in the Christian Science Organization at the university which I attend and in a branch church.

During all these years my problems have been met through Christian Science. My gratitude knows no limits for class instruction, for our yearly association meetings, for the loving help of practitioners, and for all that Christian Science stands for.—August Janssen, Boulder, Colorado.

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