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Daily Lift podcasts are short takes on inspiring ideas to enrich your day and share with friends.

Relying on God has always been natural for me. From an early age, I found that praying with simple truths I learned at home and in the Christian Science Sunday School brought healing and comfort for myself and others.

I live in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with my wife. We have four children.

Having been raised in Christian Science, I've long had a deep love for God and His unchanging divine laws. Studying Jesus' ministry and the scientific system of healing that he lived and that Mary Baker Eddy explains has always been balanced for me with an active life and lots of opportunities to live what I learn.

Mayal was born in a rural area of Africa to parents who were subsistence farmers, and he was blessed through their love and thoughtfulness with a good education. As a family they attended a Christian church, but when he went to college, he became dissatisfied with the teachings of the denomination.

My parents found Christian Science before I was ten, and our family had healings of an ulcer, smoking, and a serious foot wound in the first year.  More followed, and so did my interest in Science—through Sunday School, then college.  It was a yearning to understand the “how” as well as the “what” that then led to class instruction in London, and a desire for the public practice.  After a stint in graduate school for theatre, I knew it wasn’t in me to pursue acting.  Instead, prayer opened the way for tour-guiding at The Mother Church and selling advertising for The Christian Science Monitor , followed by a decade of editorial work on The Christian Science Journal, Sentinel , and Heralds . I began receiving requests for help through prayer as I became active in a branch church, and started writing for the periodicals. The Boston area became my home, and I later worked in the Committee on Publication, on Mother Church Annual Meetings, Mother Church Local Activities, The Writings of Mary Baker Eddy, and Reading Room Communications, as well as traveling for the Church. A part-time summer job had morphed into 25 years of spiritual adventure! I began Journal -advertising in 2005 and by 2009, felt God-assigned to Buffalo, New York, near where I was born. Several months later came Normal class. Class instruction and Association are held in this storied city where Christian Science has had a presence for more than 120 years. And the best is on the horizon!

I am a South African and come from a long line of family committed to the rights of man – based on a spiritual foundation. Throughout my life I have experienced evidence of God’s protecting and healing power in that I never missed a day of my schooling or business career due to illness. I was able to assist my fellow pupils and corporate colleagues to experience the presence of the Christ in many different situations.

Raised in Maryland, Ohio, and Michigan, I graduated from public school and attended Principia College, earning a BA in English.  I had a foundational healing of malaria while serving in the US Peace Corps in Palawan, Philippines, following graduation.  On return, I earned my law degree from Washington University.  The majority of my law and business career was with AT&T.  I was transitioned into various general management positions, many with international responsibilities, including President of the Asia/Pacific region, based in Hong Kong.  All of these experiences confirmed for me the universality of divine Love.  After completing my corporate career, I entered into the full-time practice of Christian Science and, in order to share this healing truth with others, became a teacher of Christian Science in December 2009. My church work began in my school years, joining a branch and The Mother Church. In college, in Kansas City, and in Scottsdale, I was given the opportunity to serve as First Reader. To my great benefit and learning, I am not aware of a church assignment I have not experienced in one or more of the branches where I have been a member.

A beautiful healing of my mother of an enlarged heart brought our family into Christian Science. I grew up in Texas and I’ve always been a seeker for Truth. But during my university studies in graphic arts, I had a challenging physical problem that impelled me to continually read Science and Health.

To live the spiritual laws of God—divine Love—has been at the center of my life since I was a teenager. In my mid-20’s, on sabbatical from teaching and studying voice at a Conservatory, the message came in the middle of a lesson: “This isn’t it.