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Lives Inspired by Mary Baker Eddy's Example

An open door for healing

From the February 2011 issue of The Christian Science Journal


My father was a traditional doctor who healed people using herbs. Despite my requests, he refused to show me how he did his work. One day he said, “If you want to know how to heal, ask God. He’ll show you how to do it; that’s the best way of doing the healing work.”

My first contact with Christian Science was in 1973, when my niece was born deaf and dumb and she was healed by a Christian Scientist. I immediately started investigating Christian Science. Soon, in that early study, I was healed of chronic headaches and a white spot in one of my eyes disappeared. This is the altitude of thought that animated me all along in my search for Truth. 

I wanted to know who God was, how He heals, and how He reveals Himself to those who want to heal as Jesus did. My former religious training taught me that God was a magnified person with a beard who stayed up in heaven and looked down on the earth. I grew up with such a frightening image of God. I thought of myself as a potential victim of His punishment at any time. Also, prayer meant repeating stereotyped formulas, and I never read the Bible during my high school education.

In my early study of Christian Science, I discovered a different explanation of God. In Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, I found the following statement: “The Christian Science God is universal, eternal, divine Love, which changeth not and causeth no evil, disease, nor death. It is indeed mournfully true that the older Scripture is reversed. In the beginning God created man in His, God’s, image; but mortals would procreate man, and make God in their own human image. What is the god of a mortal, but a mortal magnified?” (p. 140).

My concepts of God and prayer have developed as I’ve studied the Bible and Science and Health. I’ve learned from the Bible that God is Love, and that man is made in God’s image and likeness. In Science and Health, I learned other names for God: Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, and Truth. I learned to pray on this new basis, reasoning more clearly with those seven synonyms to know of God’s nature and the relation He has with man and the universe, and how this new knowledge applied to my immediate environment. I carefully followed Mrs. Eddy’s instructions and life example in praying or doing anything else. And so, the view I had of myself and of life changed. I benefited more from her experience. 

As I studied Christian Science, my concept of employment changed, too, and I saw it as a permanent activity of divine Mind’s unfoldment of ideas. I considered myself as ever-active, ever-useful, fully and permanently employed. As I shared the truths I’d been discovering with others, they were healed. That became a new duty—a new job. I began dedicating two entire afternoons every week to healing the sick. This healing activity led me to open my office to the public, and many years later, I was listed as a full-time Christian Science practitioner. 

Another aspect of Mrs. Eddy’s life that has shaped my life-experience is her unselfish giving. I once read she donated shoes to children. That example helped me when my country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, came out of a war in 1994. My family and I lost everything except a Bible and a copy of Science and Health. Many women had lost their husbands during the war—either they died or disappeared—so, they struggled alone with their children. While I prayed and helped them find healing, I thought I could do something more. I was led to start a micro-credit project for women (with the little funding that I raised through my healing work) to help them. 

Later on, I felt that the children of these women needed to attend school. My wife helped start a school while I continued my work as a practitioner. The project culminated in the founding of a nursery school, primary school, middle school, and a vocational training school. Children are given uniforms free of charge and they are given food—at least a meal a day—something that is not common in other schools in my country. 

Following Mrs. Eddy’s example, I saw that I could easily share with others whatever little I had. For instance, I was able to donate a substantial amount yearly to the school over the past five years. From her life experience, I also learned to devote time to my own study, prayer, and church work. Her order, care, courage, and love for her neighbor continue to guide me while praying or doing any other work for the Christian Science movement. 


Makengo Ma Pululu is a Christian Science practitioner and teacher. He lives in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. 

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