Adedeh Malachi - Christian Science Sentinel, June 26, 2006
I grew up in a Pentecostal church where I was made to believe that our denomination was better than the other denominations around. But after becoming a student of Christian Science in my teens, I realized that we are different from each other only in the extent to which we embrace and practice the teachings of Jesus Christ. Healing as Jesus healed, or gaining dominion over sin, sickness, and death, is all that matters.
God is for us all; no one is ever excluded from the presence or the love of God. As St. Paul said to Christians at Rome: “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:12, 13).
I believe that everyone has the ability to bring positive change to the society they live in. As young people, I feel, we have to be the change we want to see in the world. We have to walk the talk! That’s why some months ago, at my Church of Christ, Scientist, we started a youth group. We didn’t just want to wait for things to be done for us, but wanted to get involved proactively ourselves. So we started organizing talks and lectures on Christian Science, and we started visiting a children’s home and many hospitals in the city of Nairobi.
The Bible talks about how the prophet Ezra and his friends “read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them [the Israelites] to understand the reading” (Neh. 8:8). In the same way, we realized, we could help people understand the Scriptures through the light that Christian Science brings. This spiritual sense is for us to share with our neighbors everywhere, and see negative objections and tiresome burdens taken away.
This is not about converting people, but it’s letting others know about the divine presence of God, the Truth that makes us free, the Love that embraces all humanity, and the Life that can never end. With this in mind, our group will be building up ourselves on faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, and keeping ourselves in the love of God, eternal Life. With divine Love uniting us, we will be leaving the footprints of truth and unity in every heart that we may come into contact with!
Mary Baker Eddy described it this way in Science and Health: “The truth is the centre of all religion. It commands sure entrance into the realm of Love. St. Paul wrote, ‘Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us;’ that is, let us put aside material self and sense, and seek the divine Principle and Science of all healing” (p. 20). God is going to help those of us who are willing to work and pray with a divine motive in a mighty and a very radical way.
In our group, if something needs to be done and someone can’t do what he or she has committed to, any member of our group will jump in and help out. We don’t just wait for a particular person to take care of things. This kind of self-government among ourselves has brought great rewards. Our branch church membership has noticed the potential that youth has. And imagine-now almost half of the executive board of our church, as well as the clerk and the First and Second Readers, are young members!
In addition, our whole church membership has decided to support projects our youth group has started. There’s one project we call “Educate a Child,” where we select orphaned kids who are in primary school and cannot meet their financial needs in terms of fees, books, and decent uniforms. And we help provide these things for them. So far, we have been taking care of two children, but we hope to expand the project with the help of our church membership.
We are also trying as much as possible to gain access to prisons, in order to share Christian Science literature, or maybe just to visit and share the message of Truth on a one-to-one basis with the prisoners.
It goes to show that when you let people do things with a minimum of supervision, it brings out the leadership qualities in them. Rather than complaining about what we weren’t able to do, we challenged ourselves to do what we could do to raise people into the light of Truth, Life, and Love.
It’s time for youthful, spiritual thinkers to take to the pedestal, and show how we, as young Christian Scientists, can make a difference by being healers and practitioners of divine Science on a daily basis. I myself prepare spiritually through prayer every morning for this work by reading the Bible and Science and Health. This makes me alert to any form of erroneous thought that I may encounter during the day. For example, I don’t look for the negative in people or events, but search for positive qualities that make the task at hand a blessing to humanity. I find that this way of looking at things contributes to joy and harmony among us.
Adedeh is a second year student at the University of Nairobi who’s studying interior and landscape design. He loves working with the community to solve design issues. He also loves sharing the Christ message with friends and fellow students, and recently helped in registering the CSO (Christian Science Organization) on his campus.
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What a beautiful works all of you have done!
You show us that as a youth we can do something for helping even healing for our community.
It really encourages me more to share Christian Science in my community and do something for them so they can see the Life, Truth, and Love of God.
Thank you and Keep up the Good Work!
-God Bless-