I live in Nanyuki at the slopes of Mt. Kenya. I was born in a Christian home, and when I became an adult, I found Christian Science through friends. I was one of the original members of the Christian Science Society in Nanyuki.
This year, after ten years as a society, we became a church—a branch of The Mother Church. As a society, we had Christian Science lectures and services, but people didn’t understand what the word “society” meant so they did not come. “Society” sounded mysterious to them. People wanted to come to a “church.” When we put a sign in front of the building we rented explaining who we really were, many people came in and we told them about our pastor—the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. We would explain that it’s a pastor they have with them at all times, and that it does wonders. People were very happy to hear that.
As our society grew, we prayed about becoming a church. After we met the requirements in the Church Manual for organizing a church (see p. 72), for three years our members gathered together in meetings to draft our church bylaws, and we took a stand in praying for our movement. The Christian Science Bible Lessons and the readings at our Wednesday evening testimony meetings enabled us to focus on God’s presence, and we knew that by virtue of reflecting God, we had all the ideas we needed to go forward. In our prayers, we always began with the spiritual facts. We acknowledged the abundance of Christ-ideas always coming to man, and through man, from God.
