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The following excerpt is from the new Unity House® book, DAILY WORD for the Spirit. In this unique Daily Word® volume, Colleen Zuck, editor of Daily Word for 25 years, personally selected 50 memorable features from her time at the magazine.
By Rev. Gregory Guice
As an African American visiting Nigeria, I felt as if I were returning to my roots. As a Unity minister, I would be learning firsthand about the Unity movement in Nigeria. The movement that Charles and Myrtle Fillmore founded in Missouri in the 1890s had been introduced in Africa in the 1920s and had grown to more than 60 Unity churches. …
I spent the next week attending the Unity Harvest Retreat at a center in Rivers State of Nigeria. Each morning about 50 of us in attendance awoke at 6 a.m. and jogged to a village about a mile away—singing and clapping our hands along the way. The sun rose as we entered the village each morning. After singing a few more songs, we jogged back to the retreat center and spent time in meditation.
At the conference, we joined in discussions related to Unity principles. … One of the unique discussions centered on the challenges that Juju presented. Juju is a belief in magic associated with fetishes, charms or amulets. Many of the people of the villages were trying to make a transition from a Juju-based belief to a Christian-based belief.
One woman at the conference asked us ministers: “What do I tell my brother who believes in Juju and was told by his Juju doctor that his children are evil? This doctor told my brother that unless he either separates from his children or buys jujus from him, my brother will be cursed!” …
We explained that we are each and every one a creation of God and, therefore, we are divine in nature. Because of the divinity of each person, no person has the power to place a curse on another.
The Juju doctor had placed the thought of the children being evil in her brother's mind, but her brother did not have to accept this error thought. I explained: “God's presence is within your brother and his children. As they begin to realize that the divinity, power and presence of God are within them, they will collectively bring out the quality of God's greatness.” We shared the “Prayer for Protection,” affirming that only good would come to them.
As I traveled throughout Nigeria and visited several Unity churches, I discovered that despite the many challenges faced by the people I met, their faith and love for God and the Unity message carried them above their challenges. When these faith-filled people greeted me, I was aware only of their love. …
Early one morning, I was awakened by a man who said, “Come, Reverend; follow me.” This man led me to the center of a village in Ohafia to the home of Laeqaw O. Ezutah, the son of the man who founded Unity in that area. Laeqaw had built a kind of shrine inside his house, a library of Unity publications that had been collected from the 1930s to the present day.
We stepped out on the porch, and the children of the village gathered around as their mothers and fathers sat on the steps. Laeqaw, who was the head of this particular village, read the Daily Word® message for the day, and then he interpreted the scripture. Everyone there took time to pray, a daily ritual for them. How wonderful that these families wake up in the morning and say, “Let us read Daily Word together.”
… We drove high into the hills, where Laeqaw pointed out the path on which slave traders took many Africans into slavery. Over the years, generations of villagers had kept that path clear as a reminder of the sons and daughters who had been lost to Africa. I understood why they welcomed me as a son who had returned home.
During my time in Africa, I learned the positive impact that Unity principles have had in Africa—principles of a God of love and of the sacredness of each and every person. I know this is a message of truth that is shared wherever people recognize the presence of God in all and as being expressed by all. This is a truth that is uniting the people of the world in faith and love.
As an African American visiting Nigeria, I felt as if I were returning to my roots. As a Unity minister, I would be learning firsthand about the Unity movement in Nigeria. The movement that Charles and Myrtle Fillmore founded in Missouri in the 1890s had been introduced in Africa in the 1920s and had grown to more than 60 Unity churches. …
I spent the next week attending the Unity Harvest Retreat at a center in Rivers State of Nigeria. Each morning about 50 of us in attendance awoke at 6 a.m. and jogged to a village about a mile away—singing and clapping our hands along the way. The sun rose as we entered the village each morning. After singing a few more songs, we jogged back to the retreat center and spent time in meditation.
At the conference, we joined in discussions related to Unity principles. … One of the unique discussions centered on the challenges that Juju presented. Juju is a belief in magic associated with fetishes, charms or amulets. Many of the people of the villages were trying to make a transition from a Juju-based belief to a Christian-based belief.
One woman at the conference asked us ministers: “What do I tell my brother who believes in Juju and was told by his Juju doctor that his children are evil? This doctor told my brother that unless he either separates from his children or buys jujus from him, my brother will be cursed!” …
We explained that we are each and every one a creation of God and, therefore, we are divine in nature. Because of the divinity of each person, no person has the power to place a curse on another.
The Juju doctor had placed the thought of the children being evil in her brother's mind, but her brother did not have to accept this error thought. I explained: “God's presence is within your brother and his children. As they begin to realize that the divinity, power and presence of God are within them, they will collectively bring out the quality of God's greatness.” We shared the “Prayer for Protection,” affirming that only good would come to them.
As I traveled throughout Nigeria and visited several Unity churches, I discovered that despite the many challenges faced by the people I met, their faith and love for God and the Unity message carried them above their challenges. When these faith-filled people greeted me, I was aware only of their love. …
Early one morning, I was awakened by a man who said, “Come, Reverend; follow me.” This man led me to the center of a village in Ohafia to the home of Laeqaw O. Ezutah, the son of the man who founded Unity in that area. Laeqaw had built a kind of shrine inside his house, a library of Unity publications that had been collected from the 1930s to the present day.
We stepped out on the porch, and the children of the village gathered around as their mothers and fathers sat on the steps. Laeqaw, who was the head of this particular village, read the Daily Word® message for the day, and then he interpreted the scripture. Everyone there took time to pray, a daily ritual for them. How wonderful that these families wake up in the morning and say, “Let us read Daily Word together.”
… We drove high into the hills, where Laeqaw pointed out the path on which slave traders took many Africans into slavery. Over the years, generations of villagers had kept that path clear as a reminder of the sons and daughters who had been lost to Africa. I understood why they welcomed me as a son who had returned home.
During my time in Africa, I learned the positive impact that Unity principles have had in Africa—principles of a God of love and of the sacredness of each and every person. I know this is a message of truth that is shared wherever people recognize the presence of God in all and as being expressed by all. This is a truth that is uniting the people of the world in faith and love.
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