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I have attended Sunday School since I was a small child, and what I’ve learned has helped me a lot in confronting difficulties that come up in my daily life.
About five years ago, when I was helping my aunt make pancakes, I carelessly picked up the pancake iron in the wrong place and burned five fingers. I started to cry, and ran home and told my mom what had happened. My hand was red and stung a lot, so I thought it would be a good idea to plunge it into water. But I didn’t feel the relief I expected. I got very worried because school finals were starting that week.
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I have been active professionally for 6 years. During that time I decided to go back to university to continue my studies. I am an active member of a Christian Science church in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where I have served as Clerk/Treasurer for the past 3 years. For many years the Cameroon government had recruited young people like me, but without a signed contract! As the years went by many of them began to worry about their future. I did not want to get caught up in this anxiety, however legitimate it seemed, because I knew that God goes before us no matter the situation! 
I’ll be honest with you, I’ve been dreading the American president’s State of the Union on TV this week. Don’t get me wrong, I’m interested in politics and I like following the news and staying informed about what’s going on in the United States and around the world. But recently I’ve seen so many Facebook statuses with political rants, name-calling, and frustration that my interest in politics has worn thin. 
Can the effort of one person really make a difference? Is that seemingly single, solitary effort worthwhile? Most of us would probably like to think so. But in practice, we might also be tempted to take a closer look at the costs before acting. And how many of us are really willing to take on the extra costs of our time and resources? Our recent TMC Youth trips to India, Indonesia, and the Philippines provided some powerful, living responses to the first questions. Seeing these examples made me think there may be more of this willingness and courage to reach out in each one of us than I thought. It also helped me realize the need to see and encourage this desire in ourselves and others. The genuine practice of Christian Science is so radiant with Truth that it cannot be hid, whether as a single candle or a hill-top city. 
A couple of years ago, I decided to become a caddy at a local golf course because I love to play golf, and I thought it would be interesting to see the game from an entirely different perspective. A caddy carries a golfer’s bag of clubs while the golfer is playing. Part of the job is to clean the clubs, tend to the flags, help rake the sand traps, and do other tasks as well. 
If God is good and ruler over all, why did the earthquake happen in Haiti? Did God stand by and let the earthquake happen? Did God allow the mass destruction to occur that millions of victims are struggling with today on that small island in the Caribbean?
Yup. It’s time. Time to go public. Let go of the fear. Be honest with those around us. About who we are….
Last week CNN reported that Oxfam was concerned for the safety of their staff now deployed in Haiti. They said that both the unstable environmental conditions as well as crime and violence threaten those aid workers now on the scene. Each of us has a role to play in supporting the relief efforts much needed in Haiti, not just in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake but in the weeks and months and years going forward. Yes, we can certainly donate money to organizations skilled in responding to human tragedies. But even more needed is the ongoing gift of prayer for each and every worker on the ground there. 
On a hot spring Saturday morning, more than 160 people gathered together for an all-day workshop, “The Christian Science Sunday School: Building on a Solid Foundation. “ It was held on a small army base less than a mile from the famous Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janerio, Brazil. Church members, Sunday School students, and their guests were joining together for a second time, following the Sunday School workshop that had taken place in Sao Paolo the year before.
After the Indonesian Summit, one half of the Summit team from The Mother Church had to take a red-eye flight to Manila on our way to the Philippines Summit. The night of our flight, we had dinner late, just before heading out to the airport, so we could rest on the 5ish hour flight, and skip the airplane food without going hungry. When the food trolley came by during the flight and the hostess asked if I wanted chicken or fish, as I said “Nothing for me, thank you.” I remember thinking, “If I eat anything at this time, it’ll feel like I have a rock in my tummy in the morning.” Well, we landed in the morning, and as we got off the plane I started to feel like I had a rock in my tummy, even though I hadn’t eaten! This was very inconvenient as I had another eight hour drive to get to Baguio City, where the Summit was to be held.