Talk to Indonesian Christian Scientists about The Herald of Christian Science, and sooner or later, Adele Blok's name will come up. Perhaps more than any other single person, she brought the study of Christian Science to Indonesians, specifically.
As happened in some other countries outside the United States, church services and gatherings relating to Christian Science were held by people who had come to Indonesia on business, as visitors, or as residents of a colonial power. Since Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands, the Dutch had a significant influence on the nation. And Carl Winkel, whose account appears elsewhere in this section, noted in talking with the Herald staff that Indonesians were generally welcomed to the Dutch and English church services.
Adele Blok had been a spiritual seeker for many years prior to her exposure to Christian Science. Both her parents were Dutch, but her family came from mixed roots, and this stimulated her to ponder her place in the world. In an autobiographical article, she wrote, "Ever since I could remember, I had heard the prayers of Islam issuing from the towers of the Muslim mosques over the community. Reverence for God was deeply rooted in my Indonesian heritage, but my Western heritage demanded that I understand my individual purpose in God's universe." Adele Blok, "Search and Discovery in Indonesia," in Marcy Babbitt, Living Christian Science: Fourteen Lives (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1975), p. 4. She read widely among the spiritual teachers of all faiths. Her own parents were Protestants, but they were not deeply religious.
