Recently, Birdia Churchwell, who is a member of the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, was asked to conduct a course on health care at the Southwest Regional Progressive National Baptist Convention in Los Angeles. In the past, such courses have been confined to basic first aid and life-saving techniques.
However, Mrs. Churchwell, who has a master's degree in biology and chemistry, and has served as a teacher and administrator in the Houston Independent School District for over thirty-eight years, had a different idea. She questioned whether the regular health-care curriculum would empower the participants to leave the conference with enough knowledge or skills to improve their own or others' lives. So, she asked the education director of the conference if she could expand the breadth of the curriculum to include alternative medicine with a focus on spiritual healing.
With the help of Audrey von der Mehden, who is engaged in the full-time healing ministry of Christian Science, and in discussion with John Hueffner, Christian Science Committee on Publication for Texas, Mrs. Churchwell soon gathered enough information to make a highly successful presentation.
