Learning to communicate lovingly with those from differing backgrounds

I’m happy to be sending in this account of God’s work in His universal Church, of which all mankind is a member.

My young Sunday School students have been learning the usual Sunday School lessons specified in the Manual. My class has also been a laboratory for learning how to communicate solid, correct Christian Science, while expressing love, patience, and tolerance for those with diverging views.

Five or six years ago, a boy who was originally from Vietnam became a regular visitor to my Sunday School class. This boy and his family also attended a fundamentalist evangelical church. Because of their differing backgrounds, the students in my class would sometimes have disagreements concerning the truth about God.

At one point there were so many comments about the old theological concepts of sin and punishment that I decided to create a lesson to directly challenge those ideas. Although the lesson was presented with love, all that it accomplished was to make the student feel confused and sad. As a result, I decided never again to directly challenge false religious beliefs in that way. Instead, my job would be to present correct Christian Science, letting God leaven thought in His own way and in His own time. Mrs. Eddy instructs, “The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of love” (Science and Health, p. 201:17–18). She does not say to pour in corrections through flood-tides of love! As I focused on pouring in truth, class conflicts about religious concepts lessened and then disappeared.

Another time, this student’s parents wrote a letter saying that they would no longer attend our church. It was simply too much driving for them to attend our church and then drive an hour to attend another church. Soon they stopped coming. After a while, however, the family returned. The boy and his brother said that they liked coming to our Sunday School and insisted on attending. Soon they resumed regular attendance and no longer attended the evangelical church. As the Bible tells us, “and a little child shall lead them” (Isa. 11:6).

I am happy to report that this boy is now an integral part of our church and has shared testimonies of healing in our Sunday School class and at the Thanksgiving service! An added bonus is that we have all been learning to communicate lovingly and tolerantly with those from differing backgrounds. Isn’t that the need of the hour in this world?

Further growth in church began six months ago, when another new family began attending our church. The family – a mother and two children – had recently arrived from Iran. The 10-year-old boy joined my 4th graders, and the teenage girl attended the high school class. The mother was very intent on learning about Christianity. In fact, besides leaving an oppressive government, the woman’s main motive for moving to the United States was to learn about Christianity. Since Christianity is outlawed in Iran, she had never attended a Christian church.

One day after Sunday School, the woman told me that she wanted to learn what her son was learning, and she wanted me to teach her. I was a bit shocked, but said I would be happy to help. Thus began a series of weekly Bible-Lesson study sessions, each of which lasted about 2 1/2 hour. On the first day, we could only get through the Responsive Reading and Section 1. She grappled with the English vocabulary and metaphysical concepts. The next week we finished the entire lesson. We have now worked together for six months, and she is literally soaking in the Christ! I have rarely seen anyone so hungry for the Truth. She and her family attend every Sunday and Wednesday, and she has already inquired about church membership.

During this time, we have marveled to see that all along she was being called to learn about the God of Love, not a false God of oppression. It was no accident that her new home is within easy walking distance of our church. Recently she was amazed to learn that our church publishes the Monitor, a newspaper she has read and appreciated for years because of its truthful and balanced reporting.

During the recent crackdown in immigration policy, my new friend became extremely fearful that she might be deported back to Iran. At certain times she would find herself crying uncontrollably and being unable to sleep. At one study session, she told me she was so upset that she couldn’t concentrate on the lesson we had been trying to read.

She had tried to pray about this, but felt she was getting nowhere. She asked me how to pray. I asked her what she had learned in Christian Science that caused her to love and trust God, or that made her feel safe. In other words, what spoke directly to her heart? She said she had learned that God would always love her and take care of her. He would never abandon her. I told her to write that down on a piece of paper, and just feel the power of the message. I would write down something that spoke to me in the same way. Then we would share the messages with each other. We did this a few more times, sharing as we went. Soon the fear lifted and she was free.

Afterward, she gave this testimony at our Wednesday service. My friend confided in me that she had been a doctor in Iran and brought with her a basket of pills to help her and her daughter sleep at night. But since coming to the United States and learning about Christian Science, they no longer needed them; they were sleeping peacefully. This was a revelation to her. She had already been questioning the practices of medical science, and now Christian Science was giving her answers. 

This lovely family has brought huge blessings to our church congregation, which has embraced them into our church family. All three members of the family are drinking in the message of the Bible and Science and Health. It is changing their lives. They are learning what it is to feel the joy and security of walking with God in His own kingdom of heaven, the heaven Jesus said was at hand!