When God presented Himself to Moses on Mount Horeb, in the middle of a burning bush, He said to him: “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). Why “holy ground”? Because God was there. God is holy and present everywhere, therefore we can never be in a place that is not holy, a “bad place.”
In 2006, I had the opportunity to share the teachings of Christian Science with the inmates of the central prison in Douala, Cameroon. When I went in, I had to face the picture of poverty, suffering, human degradation, cruelty, and even death. As a Christian Science practitioner, I prayed to understand better the reality of the ever-presence of God, divine Love, of Love’s power of protection, and, above all, of God’s love toward His children, who are always in His presence. I used passages in the Bible and in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, in order to spiritualize my thought.
For some inmates, this prison was hell, because at the time, one or two people died every day because of the very poor living conditions (lack of food, of clothing, of protection against the cold, the rain, the sun).
