Before Being Acquainted with Christian Science, I was always annoyed with problems: financial problems, relationship problems. But the severest problem I had was HIV. My wife had died of this disease some months previously, and my death and the death of my daughter were predicted for the near future.
I continued to look for the spiritual interpretation of the Bible as the only way to find solutions to problems I had. I often spent my spare time tuning in many radio stations. One day while doing this, I tuned for the first time to The Herald of Christian Science—Shortwave. After listening to this program, I immediately wrote to have Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy sent to me. The first radio transmission I heard comforted me very much, because I learned that disease is not real, and it doesn't come from God. Some people here in my country attribute the origin of AIDS to the punishment that God gave to sinners. How can God, Love, punish His innocent child? was the question I had always had before.
When I began reading Science and Health for the first time, I was greedy to read it fully. Step by step, I made progress. I learned that I belong to God, no matter how much the world believes in the strength of evil. I began to pray, seeing my daughter and myself as pure and whole by understanding that we were made up of qualities that God gives, such as love, intelligence, beauty, harmony, honesty, joy, strength, freedom. I continued to see us as living in God, Spirit, expressing these qualities—not living in matter. We are not mortal but God's children.
