In February 2004, I participated in a trip planned by the school I was attending at that time. We went to Pointe Indienne for the day, an area that borders the Atlantic Ocean, not far from the city of Pointe-Noire, the economic center of our country.
That day, when I was about to leave, my father gave me a selection of passages from the Bible and from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I was quite drawn to the following passage from Psalms, so that I read it a few times: “The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore” (121:8). But I also told myself that my father was exaggerating a little by giving me all these passages about protection.
Then the long-awaited moment to go swim in the ocean arrived. Full of wonder, seeing the ocean extending to the infinite, I swam to and fro. I then started off in the direction of the horizon with as much pleasure as an Olympic champion would have. I swam for a long time. However, when I stopped and lifted up my head to admire my performance as a swimmer, I realized, way too late, that I was alone and surrounded by an immensity of water. The tide had a strength that felt overwhelming. I did not think I could swim back. Fear and despair filled my thought, and I panicked. I said under my breath, “My father did try to tell me, but I played the big boy act!”
