A guest post written by Daniel Suiffet

Church on the Hill: nestled among pines and oak trees! That’s what best describes the Christian Science Church in Idyllwild.

We let our light shine in different ways. Apart from our yearly Christian Science lecture gift to our community, our church participated in the spring Reading Room Open House. More recently, we celebrated National Bible Week by setting up a card table by the Post Office stacked with Bibles, which we handed out compliments of our church. Our Open House and our Thanksgiving service were both advertised in our local paper. We are lucky to have a church member adept at graphics who designs the ads and makes eye-catching posters for our free and open-to-the-public Reading Room.

Last year when the call came to donate literature and other items to the Christian Science community in Zimbabwe, we placed an ad inviting donations from our residents.  Many townspeople responded with clothing, shoes, children’s bikes, and boxes of pencils. We had been told that pencils are in great demand, which the village children make known by pointing up with their finger chanting “stick, stick!” Another useful donation came from an innkeeper who gave us 24 blankets, which was used as padding for the container’s cargo. Part of this cargo would also be shared with Christian Science groups in neighboring countries. For our church it was a wonderful opportunity to meet a need because we packed boxes and boxes of literature, readers’ books, desk lamps…items that had accumulated over the years.

Another way we have been meeting a need in our community is through The Christian Science Monitor. We love the Monitor and we found an ingenious way to offer it for sale.  One member resurrected two old Monitor racks, and enlarged the coin opening to accommodate bills.  The racks are placed alongside a café. If Monitor is left unsold, we’ll find a home for it. There is always a merchant in the community whose field relates to an article or cover story. Thus the appliance shop owner got the edition on “Energy”, the bicycle shop owner got a copy with an article on the Tour de France.  A catholic friend who loves Latinos accepted an edition containing the cover story on “Cuba.”  (She told us she was going to send for a subscription because the Monitor has quality news…). The Town Crier’s editor gets his copy too. So much love, research, and inspiration go into its pages that it strikes a chord with many people. It is true to its Founder’s motto: “ To injure no man, but to bless all mankind.”

We are finding that our outreach also blesses our fellow man.