Fruitage Report Fall 2016

A man came in in a panic. He needed to print out an email in order to pick up his car. He noted that someone in the airport had directed him to the Christian Science Reading Room.

In order to log into the the reading room computer, we enter the password, “Godislove.” The attendant reported that the man re-marked, “How beautiful the password is: Godislove.” And the visitor left saying God is Love.

A woman from Tennessee came in this morning on her way home to Nashville after spending the weekend in San Francisco with friends. She had an interesting background. Her healthcare system is homeopathy and she has a degree in religion. She described her mom’s religion as hard-shell Baptist, which she did not practice, and took her children to various churches so they made their decisions when they grew up. She was introduced to Mary Baker Eddy’s discovery of Christian Science, her healing work, and the Christian Science textbook. She was also told about our practitioners who are available when Christian Scientists need help. She purchased our textbook that I felt she was being guided to buy. She also appreciated our gift of an older Christian Science Journal so she could see the list of practitioners and churches.

A man came in and wanted a wonderful book for his mother, in Portuguese. We had the new Science and Health translation on hand which we just got in a month or so ago, and he readily purchased it. He did not even ask for a brief introduction or explanation or anything. He wanted the best book, so that is what I sold him, in Portuguese! There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. (Ps. 19:3)

A young man came in from Pittsburgh on his first visit to San Francisco. He had read something about Christian Science on the plane and wanted to know more. When he saw the Reading Room he came in and asked about Christian Science. He was introduced to Mrs. Eddy works and her discovery of Christian Science and her wonderful book. He readily purchased Science and Health, and thanked me so much for my explanation. I am so thrilled every time one of our textbooks goes out with a visitor because I know thought will be uplifted and healing the result.

Happy Independence Day! A woman came in to report that on her flight to San Francisco she had experienced some pain in her leg. By the time she was ready to land she was quite uncomfortable. She limped through the exit doors into the Plaza in Terminal 1 and saw our sign “Christian Science Reading Room” and was instantaneously healed! She came to thank us for being here. What a blessing!

A woman who calls regularly asked for some help. She needed someone to pray for her legs. She told me the condition was the result of abuse she had suffered as a child. We suggested she forgive the abuser and get a sense of peace about it because it no longer served her. She told me she had forgiven the abuser. Then it occurred that she might not know that she could no longer suffer from a condition of abuse if the forgiveness had been accomplished. She was told she could not be punished by abuse once the forgiveness was secure in her thought and she was texted the 3rd tenet from Science and Health p. 497. “We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin [abuse] and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.“ She was shown that it was truly a divine precept. She texted me awhile later, “I think I feel the wind changing.” I thought about it, and felt it had too.

A woman came into the Reading Room asking, What is Christian Science? She was introduced to the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and this wonderful religion that she had no intention of starting when she set out on her search for good health. We began to talk about metaphysics. She asked several questions to which answers are found in Science and Health, particularly on evolution. And she asked about science and Christianity, which she said were often antithetical to each other. I told her that all physical sciences square up with Christian Science and that I often use the Christian Science textbook as a divine compass to judge the worthiness of the physical sciences. After all, earth and the stars are subject to God’s law. As it turns out, she and her husband are both tenured professors at UC Davis. We talked more and she purchased both Science and Health and a Christian Science Monitor.

An elderly gentleman came into the Reading Room and asked me if I had Bibles. He said, “I only read the King James!” He was shown three new ones, and he talked about the Bible and King James himself. Eventually, he was told a little about Christian Science without interruptions, as he was waiting for a flight and would have to leave soon. There was only time to show him the first sentence and the glossary. But when I read him the definition of “ears” he laughed out loud like he knew exactly what Mrs. Eddy meant. Also, he was told that after Mrs. Eddy’s three-year sojourn through the Scriptures she could heal anything. I gave him one example, and he asked, “Do you know why she could heal”? Mrs. Eddy could heal because she was anointed of God to do it and to teach it.” I said, “Yes, you are correct.” That told me he would read and absorb the book because he already understood Mrs. Eddy’s place in history and in Christianity. “Out of the mouths of babes (newbies) He will perfect praise.”

When I detected a money shortage, I dug in the closet and found an old leather-bound Science and Health and made a gift of it. He said, “But I have no gift for you!” With a tear in his eye, he laughed and blessed me deeply and blessed our store!

A lovely man with a southern accent came in and asked me where the Delta passengers arrived. I pointed to the place where they come out. Then he began reading the window. I explained that that was our pastor, the Bible and the Christian Science textbook.

Briefly I told him how Mary Baker Eddy had had a healing and then searched the Scriptures and found the answers, and became a great Christian healer and teacher of healing. She was healing one day, and healed a lady of pneumonia while the doctor was in the room. He was so surprised he asked her how she did that. She explained how she prayed and how God took over and healed the patient. The doctor suggested she write a book. She opened her Bible to Isaiah 30:8 which states, “Now go write it before them in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever.” And she obediently wrote this wonderful book. I said, “This is the book.” I showed him the marble paperback copy. He said in his beautiful southern drawl, “I believe I’ll take one of those!”

A woman came in from Minneapolis who lives here and needed to charge her phone. It was so dead she had to use my cell phone to call her daughter’s boyfriend. It seemed her daughter had been taken to the hospital very ill, and she shared a little of the problem, While praying to know what to say, I read her a sentence or two from Science and Health. As the picture got more frightening, I said, “I have a book which will help you.”

When she got off the phone, she said, “Let me see your book.” I showed her the first page of the Preface to Science and Health and we read, “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings.” She said, “I’ll take it!” and handed me her credit card. I know that the book will benefit her and her daughter. After all, Christian Science is, if anything, the Comforter.

A Christian Scientist from the Bay Area on her way to New Orleans for four months, came into see us. She told us she would like some wisdom on money if we had some. I told her, “You came to the right place!” I remembered that Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” She was then counseled on how to stop malpracticing on herself by saying things like, “I am low on money,” or “How will I pay the bills?” or “I am broke, yada yada.” When we do that, mortal mind says, “OK whatever you say!” and it is done! Mortal mind makes us act so as to get rid of our money. When we stop saying, I am broke, we stop doing what mortal mind tells us to fulfill that little prophecy, and then our bank accounts fill up, and our wallets get fat. I speak with authority and from experience about this.

After she left the Reading Room attendant shared with me that when he was first married, he complained to another Christian Scientist that he was living “paycheck to paycheck.” His friend said, “Oh be grateful you are not going into the hole every month. Some people are.” The attendant took that to heart and became very grateful. Within several months, the new President Kennedy cut taxes by 10% that was an effective raise; he then got a 10% raise at work, and then he received a promotion that was another raise. Soon he and his wife were doing well and saving regularly and life was much more relaxed. God meets all our needs splendidly and abundantly!

A young man came in this evening. He was a Christian studying at Stanford, and was in some Christian groups. A little of Christian Science was shared and he loved it. He said he would look the book up on Amazon. He was shown the little marble paperback copy and the difference between the Kindle version where the marginal notes sort of stick out by themselves as one or two lines in the middle of the paragraph, and the print version where they are unobtrusive in the book text. He was also shown the Glossary, the Key to the Scriptures chapters, and the Fruitage chapter. He readily purchased Science and Health.

A young man came to the Reading Room this afternoon asking about the Parallel Bible. He said he would come back and buy it. But then I asked him, “Are you interested in the spiritual interpretation of the Bible? May I show you another book about the Bible?” He agreed and I showed him Science and Health, and the Glossary and Key to the Scriptures. He readily purchased it. I said, “Do you need a receipt?” He said, “No, I am not bringing this back!”

A man came in and asked to read the Bible lesson with me. I said of course, and read with him from the marked books we keep in the study room. He then left. Later he came in and told the attendant that the reading of the lesson had healed him of a painful condition in his mouth. He said, “Poof, it was gone!” He never mentioned the condition, so no Christian Science treatment was given. The Christian Science Bible lesson/sermon blesses everyone who reads it!

A man came to the Reading Room and asked if we were connected to Mary Baker Eddy. The attendant said yes, and the man said he wanted to see everything Mrs. Eddy wrote. He said that he had read some articles by Walter White, who had told of the writings and the amazing healings of Mary Baker Eddy. He really wanted to read her works. He purchased both Prose Works and Science and Health.

A couple from Beijing and their daughter came to the United States. They had never been to the United States before. Their little girl was in the Reading Room for a good hour and read and looked at all the books we have for sale for children. She settled on, My Little Book About God, and went out and got her parents to come in and buy it for her. The girl’s parents could barely speak English but her mother said that the child spoke the best English in the family.

Two little girls, aged 12, came in and looked all around. They knew their Scriptures pretty well. They looked at all the children’s books and said, “What is the best book you have?” They were shown Science and Health. I then explained a little of Christian Science and how Mrs. Eddy came to write Science and Health and how the church was started. They said, let’s get Grandma. The one went to Grandma and came back with a credit card. She purchased the marble paperback edition. They understood the value of the book and stayed quite awhile asking questions, and told me that they would read the book to each other this week. I told them that they would heal with it. It has so many answers in it.

A gentleman came in and was curious about Scientology. I told him we were Christian Science and since he did not know anything about Scientology, I told him a little of Christian Science and how Mrs. Eddy came to write her book. He is a scientist and the word Science is what brought him in. He asked me why didn’t Mrs. Eddy use the physical sciences to find out what healed her? I told him because she had already eliminated the physical sciences, having experimented with materia medica, hygiene and nutrition for many years, having read all her husband’s medical books about it. I suggested he purchase Science and Health and read the chapters on Physiology and Science, Theology and Medicine. He readily purchased the book.

A man came in today who somehow knew to come here and asked, “Can I talk to you? I need to talk to you about something.” I said, “How can I help?” He was getting badged (a process where one is approved for employment at the airport) and was having a hard time completing the badging process before he started work with one of the airlines the next week. So we blessed that whole process and just knew the matter was in God’s timing that is always timely! He came back several days later with his new badge gotten prior to starting work.

A man came into the Reading Room who was leaving San Francisco. He had been here almost two months. He was interested in Spanish Bibles, and was shown what we had. As he spoke, I pulled down a copy of the Spanish translation of Science and Health and began to speak to him of Mary Baker Eddy and her discovery of Christian healing and the founding of Christian Science. He was told that if he read this book, it would show him how Mrs. Eddy spiritually interpreted the Scriptures, and how he would discern the divine messages within the Scriptures.

He readily purchased a copy and then walked around the desk and said, “I have a big, big problem.” I said, “What is it?” He said, “I am gay.” I asked, “Why is that a problem?” He told me that he had been attending a Pentecostal church for 12 years and that the preacher told him that he was going to hell and that he had a devil! I said, “No, you don’t go to hell for being gay,” and I looked into his eyes and said, “And you definitely don’t have a demon.” He said that he really wanted to change and could not seem to do it. I told him, “Look—ask God to please bring you to the understanding of your wholly spiritual nature, and then to teach you whatever lesson you needed to learn from being gay. The Infinite can and will do this or anything you want, as long as it is in accord with divine law. “Let your requests be known to God in no uncertain terms, and He will answer your prayers.” And believe that you will receive that for which you ask. But in any case, be at peace with who you are and do not condemn yourself anymore, and do not be afraid of going to hell. You are a good man. “There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus!” He felt so relieved and I gave him a Christian Science Journal so that he could find one of the four or five churches in his city. I told him that no one would judge him there. We try to live by the Sermon on the Mount and the Golden Rule.