[To comment: click on the title of this post and complete “leave a reply” field at the end of the post.]
One of the biggest highlights of my summer was being a counselor at a Christian Science camp in Colorado called Adventure Unlimited. During the beginning of the summer we set goals for ourselves and then evaluated our progress at the end of camp. One of my goals was to be able to comfort campers when they were feeling homesick or ill, which I had problems doing in the past. I would always have to send them to someone else.
[Photo: author is pictured bottom left]
During each session, the campers and counselors leave base for a three-day camp out experience. One of the campers in my program was not feeling well at all, so this gave me the opportunity to pursue my goal of comforting and helping others. On the 1st day I was at his side just knowing that one Mind can only govern. That night I was hit with his claim and had been working with one of our metaphysical themes of the summer: “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”(Ps. 119:18) I was acknowledging that if I open my eyes to see what’s good in both of us that nothing else could govern, or harm us. I was praying for a half an hour during dinner and my camper who had been sleeping for quite some time came up to me and sat on my lap and said: “You have always been in God’s protection and you can’t be suffering for doing good for me” That made me cry, to know that even my own camper cared for me, and not just my staff.
That night I went to Highview (CS nursing facility) to rest and had talked with the practitioner. She said, “Whenever you have a problem you can always turn to the Christian Science Hymnal because it has so many inspiring messages that can clear your thoughts with good”. So I opened the hymnal it to hymn 42. I love this hymn because it talks about how God will supply our human needs 24-7. I worked with that and also worked with the Scientific Statement of Being as found in Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy on page 468 and was declaring that nothing unspiritual can be a part of my camper and me, meaning nothing contagious could harm us. During that night I rested with those ideas and was back to trips the 2nd morning. The 2nd day I was still supporting my camper as he slept for a good 6 hours. That night I took him down to Highview and started talking with him about the values of being grateful. He expressed so much gratitude for being at camp and that his family loves him. Then I said: “How can you buy into mortal mind if you’re so grateful for the good, and love received?” He said: “I can’t!” I also reminded him that he was surrounded by so much Love that this bad thought couldn’t be in his thinking. After 30 minutes of praying together with the ideas that the practitioner shared, the practitioner said: “Will the real (camper’s name), please stand up.” And oh my goodness when he stood up he was totally free!
It was amazing to feel God’s presence all around us for that whole half hour. We both went back that night feeling free and grateful about everything. After the 3-day I couldn’t believe that the session was almost over. When my camper was getting ready to leave on the bus to Denver he gave be a BIG loving hug and thanked me for all the support I gave him throughout the session. My camper was amazing. He never put limits on himself, was always comforting others, and was holding to spiritual truths. That healing will always be a part of my memories because it shows that when you lean on God trust and protection, that all things are possible!
— Michael Andrew Trevail
