About Debi
As a child growing up in rural Virginia, I was drawn to animals – especially horses – and nature, which kept me feeling connected to God’s goodness and light.
My childhood dream of owning a farm was realized when my husband and I moved to Pennsylvania in our late 20’s and purchased a dilapidated 83-acre property. Together we began the daunting task of transforming it into a thriving horse farm. Our two daughters were born in the farmhouse with the loving support of a midwife and a Christian Science Practitioner; the youngest accompanied me to the barn when she was less than a week old. In the many years since then, both girls have grown into strong, hard-working, compassionate, animal-loving women!
As my desire to help others began to extend beyond the borders of our farm, I volunteered as a state-appointed child advocate in the Maryland state court system, and became a facilitator for Alternative to Violence at Roxbury Correctional Institution.
In 2001, I was asked to work for The Writings of Mary Baker Eddy, overseeing the sales of Science and Health to 2,000 bookstores in North America, so my family and I left the rolling farmland of Pennsylvania to experience life in a more urban setting. Part of my responsibilities included organizing over 150 “Spirituality and Healing” workshops in bookstores in the US and Canada during a 2-year period. Following this, I began lecturing to public audiences on the topic of Christian Science and healing – speaking in venues such as bookstores, senior centers, Domestic Violence Coalition events and on college campuses.
I have always desired to enlarge my own sense of home and learn from people and cultures new to me, as well as to foster a sense of global-mindedness in my daughters.
In 2006, my youngest daughter (who was 15 at the time) and I embarked on a 6-month homeschooling project: to live at an orphanage in rural Tanzania while volunteering for the nonprofit Africa Bridge. My oldest daughter and husband joined us for a very special Christmas there. We all saw first hand how kindness, compassion, and childlike joy transcend language barriers and cultural differences. It was an experience none of us will ever forget.
The adventure culminated in a journey to a remote village in southern Malawi, where we met with a large group of Christian Scientists and attended their Sunday Church Service. It was incredibly humbling and inspiring – the perfect end to our first visit to Africa, and the beginning of an ongoing interest in communicating with and supporting spiritually-focused women and men in several East African countries.
In addition to ongoing mentoring of a few of the children I met in Tanzania, I began to help the Malawi Christian Science group translate the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson into their native language of Chichewa. In 2013, I took my Christian Science Practice to Uganda, living in Kampala and working with the local Christian Science church members there for 3 months.
