You Can Be a Healer August 13, 2012 Issue

Our occasional series on how people have nurtured their public practice of Christian Science healing.

Guidance of the 'still small voice'

Reagan Havi L'lembe—Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

As a young child , I’d always wanted to serve God and humanity. But every so often I’d wondered, How? When? And where?

When I was growing up, my family often faced education and housing challenges due to financial lack. As I helped provide for my parents and siblings, a divine thought constantly reminded me of my purpose. As God tells us in the Bible: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee” (Jeremiah 1:5).

When I was 14, a family friend visited our home one night with news about a religion he had found: Christian Science. My Dad, brother, and I were so interested that we came together with this friend and several other households to form the Mbale Society in Kenya. I was still in school, and spent time studying Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The idea that God made man and other creatures free of suffering, and all good, made sense to me.

After completing high school, I was led to apply for Primary class instruction in Christian Science. My Christian Science teacher mentioned at one point that I would make a good Christian Science nurse. She encouraged me to give it prayerful thought, and I decided to leave the issue to the Father to be nurtured till the right time.

Several years after taking class instruction, I got married and was blessed with a family. There was now a need to provide for my young family as well as some of my siblings, as I was one of their eldest. I did a lot of praying to God in addition to looking for jobs. And this prayer resulted in employment opportunities, including jobs as a dishwasher, waiter, and telephone bureau operator, and even founding my own company for garbage collection and disposal. Later, I gained a diploma in Computer Systems Support and found a position at a college in Lokichoggio, located at the North rift of Kenya, where refugees from neighboring Sudan and NGO workers are taught.

A year later I relocated to Nairobi and partnered with a friend to start a computer center. I knew that everything I was doing was fulfilling a needed purpose. Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health that “divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need” (p. 494). It was clear to me that God was meeting my needs as well as those of others.

I decided to leave the issue to the Father to be nurtured till the right time.

In 2007, my Christian Science teacher encouraged her students all over the world to apply for Christian Science nurses training. I gave it a prayerful thought and felt guided to apply for training at the Chestnut Hill Benevolent Association in Boston, Massachusetts. By that point I had learned from all my employment experiences that what matters is listening to the guidance of the “still small voice” (I Kings 19:12). I had served humanity in different fields, which I think was necessary preparation for me to become a Christian Science nurse.

I was accepted for training, and in 2011, I became a full-time Christian Science nurse. I often think about the guidelines stated in Science and Health: “An ill-tempered, complaining, or deceitful person should not be a nurse. The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith,—receptive to Truth and Love” (p. 395). I strived to express these traits along every step of my way, besides the virtues that my parents nurtured in me.

Being a Christian Science nurse has been both a blessing and a learning experience for me. I have learned the power of God, Love, which we express when caring for patients, making them feel comfortable, and helping them to find healing. Christian Science nurses help each patient to feel wholeness and worthiness. I have also learned to confront and overcome fear that would try to interfere with a patient’s healing. When I am able to rise above fear, for example, or what a particular condition looks like, I can meet the patient’s need. The daily spiritual preparedness that I practice has provided constant light in my life.

I’m so thankful to God for enabling me to serve in this wonderful healing ministry as a Christian Science nurse. Every day I thank Him.

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NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
In the News–A Spiritual Perspective
Prayer that goes beneath the surface in Syria
August 13, 2012
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