I am grateful for the dozens of demonstrations of God’s presence in my life resulting from my study of Christian Science, and I believe it is time I submit a testimony in gratitude.
When I graduated from UC Berkeley, I enlisted in the Peace Corps in the Fiji Islands. I was stationed on an outer island, where I worked as a forester during the week, and on weekends I would often go to one of the local villages to join in taking a small boat out to spear fish for the village’s food supply.
One Saturday four of us were spearfishing on one of the outer reefs with great success. As it got later in the day, the wind started to come up, and our boat couldn’t really hold any more fish, so we decided to return to the village. But as one of my friends tried to start our outboard engine, it became obvious that the engine had a problem. The wind had caused us to drift out to a small semi-submerged sandbar, so we were able to anchor the boat while my friend worked on the engine.
With the wind getting stronger, the boat started to sink, so we put our hundreds of pounds of fish over the side on ropes to stabilize things. My friend continued to work on the engine, but by now the tide was coming up, and soon we were all standing in waist-high water around the boat trying to hold it stable. Then we realized that our fish in the water had attracted sharks. We put the fish back in the boat, and three of us faced out toward the circling sharks with our spears.
I had been praying along the lines of knowing that God, the one Mind, would show my friend how to fix the outboard motor. But at this point of desperation, my prayers changed from telling God how to solve our problem, to just knowing that God was in control. I knew that despite how bad the situation seemed to be, “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). I felt complete trust in God’s ability to bring us to safety.
Then the most wonderful thing happened. The wind ceased completely—it was suddenly dead calm! We gingerly got back in the boat with the fish, and with no wind, we were able to slowly paddle back toward land, until a boat from the village came out and towed us in. All four of us had been praying that evening, and we recognized God’s presence with us and were extremely grateful for our survival.
After the Peace Corps, I went back to graduate school, then spent my career working for the United States Forest Service, and eventually ended up in Honolulu with my dream job as the Pacific Islands Forester. My job was to run the forestry technical assistance programs for the American-affiliated Pacific Islands, such as Guam, American Samoa, Hawaii, and many others, including Kosrae.
When I retired about ten years ago, I promised my old clients that I would work for them pro bono if they picked up my travel expenses. A few years ago, when the State of Kosrae requested my assistance in designing some boardwalks and trails for their budding green tourism industry, I agreed to help.
When I arrived, I was disappointed to learn that one of my best friends in Kosrae, the State Forester, was very ill, and in the hospital. However, time was limited, and the work was pressing, so we got on with the job. About three days into the project, my friend checked himself out of the hospital to visit me. We embraced each other and talked about the old days, and then I headed out to do the day’s field work. I was disappointed to see my friend so sick and feverish and failed to address the alarming picture in my thought.
That evening I suddenly became nauseous. As I crawled into bed, I was alternating between burning up and shivering. Fear of contagion, of exposure, of what disease my friend might have had, and the fear of being sick and alone in such a remote country, overwhelmed me.
Then an angel message assuring me I was innocent came to my thought. I had come to Kosrae out of love for the people, and a sincere desire to help them manage their environment. Further, my friend had visited me that morning out of a sense of love and friendship. I could not be punished for embracing him.
The beauty of Christian Science is that no matter where we seem to be physically in the world, we are never alone and without God’s help. That night, I was not physically able to contact a Christian Science practitioner, or even to sit up and read Christian Science literature, but in consciousness I could turn to the omnipotence of God.
As I lay in bed, I prayed with a concept that Mary Baker Eddy elucidates on page 384 of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “God never punishes man for doing right, for honest labor, or for deeds of kindness, though they expose him to fatigue, cold, heat, contagion.” I knew nothing could interfere with my expression of divine Love.
I reasoned along these lines for several hours, and sometime during the night the fever and chills just vanished. The next morning, I was able to use a phone to contact a practitioner, who helped me see that the healing was complete. I was also able to finish my work assignment, and even visit some more with my good friend the following week; he had completely recovered.
I am so grateful for these demonstrations of God’s great love, and the many, many healings I have had in between these bookends of my forestry career.
Fred Bell
Honolulu, Hawaii, US
