In Nigeria, a group of Christian Scientists drives more than three hours every month on sometimes flooded, bumpy dirt roads to translate Science and Health into the lgbo language.
IN WEST AFRICA, religion seems to dominate every aspect of daily life. The buses on the roads are dotted with inspirational messages. Everything from the phrase "Be Still" from the Bible, to the words "91st Psalm" are painted on the crowded public buses, or tro-tros. Billboards announce upcoming Sunday services at various houses of worship, and people drive in their cars with hymns and gospel music blaring from the speakers. For the first time, I was stuck in a traffic jam on a Sunday morning as so many people drove to church.
In less than 24 hours of landing in Accra, Ghana, I found myself in a familiar place: a Christian Science church. I was far away from home, but the church service didn't feel foreign to me. As the First and Second Readers read through the sermon, I heard those familiar passages from the Bible and Science and Health—of course, the same ones that were being read in Christian Science churches all over the world that Sunday. More than just words, though, they offer a global common ground in worship.
