I am grateful for the way Christian Science blessed and changed my life five years ago. At the time, I was a restless wanderer. My job was that of a diplomatic courier for the United States State Department. This job gave me much time to be alone and to think as I went about the routine of carrying pouches of diplomatic mail to American embassies overseas.

Even before having the courier post, I had traveled much. During these years I found it easy to postpone a decision on what to do with myself. I'd rejected from the start the thought of being locked into any mold that wasn't completely satisfying. But I didn't know what would satisfy me.

During my youth I'd also refused to be locked into a religious mold. When I was growing up, there were two religions in my home. Quite early I silently rejected the concept of one of these religions that God is a Being interested mainly in punishing sin, even condemning some people for eternity. The other religion was Christian Science, and I was more in tune with its concept of a God that was only good. While I enjoyed a happy home, I embraced neither religion.

When I went to college, I sought my own answers to life's mysteries. I didn't find any there. After college I wandered for a few years, changing ideas and jobs, enduring the Army, suffering grief over the passing of my younger brother, and wondering if I would ever settle down, marry, and be really happy.

Through this wilderness experience my mother constantly supported my struggle to find myself. From her I learned much about Christian Science. And when I sought her help on a problem, I would be filled with wonder that her prayers for me were answered. I even took some faltering steps myself in Science, but was fearful of placing full reliance on it.

One stormy night in May, 1967, the plane on which I was traveling as a courier landed in Bangui, Central African Republic. Contrary to the procedure in other countries I had visited, here I had to turn in my passport to the immigration official. Two days later I returned before sunrise to the airport to continue my trip. My passport was given back to me, but the vaccination certificate I had stapled in it was missing. Without that form I couldn't leave this country or enter any other. When neither my embassy nor the airport officials could produce it, and with the twice-weekly plane leaving in an hour and a half, I wondered what to do. There seemed to be no human answer, so I turned to God. And for the first time I fully applied what I already knew of Christian Science.

First, I shut out resentful thoughts about anyone who might have removed the certificate. Next, I began to reason that nothing in God's kingdom really could be lost or misplaced since He is everywhere and nothing can be apart from Him. Then I questioned the officials again. Finally one man got on a bicycle to ride into the nearby city, awaken someone from the Health Ministry, and look for the certificate there.

The other passengers had already boarded, and the plane was about to depart, when this official hurriedly rode up on his bicycle, waving the yellow certificate. Joyously I boarded the plane.

The righting of the situation was a clear proof to me of God's power and presence. It was also clear that the peace and happiness I had sought didn't lie beyond the horizon but was here and now, as close as my own thinking.

The immediate effect of this light piercing my consciousness was that habits such as the occasional use of alcohol and medicine dropped away. Hungering for more light, I went to the first Christian Science Reading Room I could find and bought a Bible, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, and the Christian Science Quarterly and began studying the Lesson-Sermon daily.

Later my mother suggested that I visit a Christian Science practitioner to learn more of Science. I agreed to do so, and for the next year I visited a practitioner in my home base of Frankfurt, Germany, between courier trips. With his help I cleared away more mental debris, particularly involving some personal relationships. While traveling, I read books on Christian Science and studied my Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings. What before had been lonely stops in far-off places now provided just what I needed—time to ponder a new and exciting way of looking at the world.

After completing my two-year tour I decided to return to the United States to seek another job. A letter from my mother, which reached me in Washington, District of Columbia, told of a writer-training program with The Christian Science Monitor. A few months after applying for the program, I was accepted. I later learned that I was the last Monitor trainee before the program was discontinued.

In the past three years in Boston much good has come to me. I am grateful for the challenging work of being a reporter, membership in The Mother Church and a branch church, class instruction in Christian Science, and for having met my wife at The Mother Church. She too has given me constant encouragement and support.

For all these blessings, and for a wonderful sense of purpose, I am truly grateful.

Richard W. McManus
Winchester, Massachusetts