In 2015, I received a letter from The Mother Church inviting me to Boston that June for training sessions for Communications Coordinators around the world. The first thing I did was renew my passport. I also included this travel plan in my prayers, acknowledging this invitation as a manifestation of God’s love and a support for the Christian Science movement in my country, Cameroon.
I then began working with the United States consulate to obtain a visa. The procedure is very simple: The applicant fills out an online form, then is invited for an interview, at the end of which the visa is either granted or refused.
But when I went to the consulate website, the earliest date offered to me was in September—three months after the training session. I admit that at this stage of the process my morale was at its lowest. For encouragement after this bad news, I relied on these truths from Hymn 10 in the Christian Science Hymnal: “All power is given unto our Lord, / On Him we place reliance” (Frederic W. Root). I also found encouragement in Hymn 166, which includes these two verses:
