Churlya Wurfel Defies Classification, but Everything She Touches Thrives

A true citizen of the world, fashionista Churlya Wurfel—born and raised in a Chinese family in Indonesia, married to a German and living in Australia—reaches out to help countries throughout the Pacific Rim.

There is more to Churlya Wurfel than exquisite apparel and glamorous soirées.

True, she owns the Villoni Night Fashion Boutique and is famous for showcasing her new line of eveningwear on the trendiest runways Down Under. And the magnificent gowns on the Miss World Australia contestants often sport her label.

But aid workers and disaster victims in Indonesia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines know her too—as the petite woman in the bright yellow Scientology Volunteer Ministers T-shirt, helping in the wake of floods, tsunamis and typhoons.

And Wurfel was awarded the coveted Freedom Medal of the International Association of Scientologists for training the Red Cross of her native Indonesia in Scientology disaster response technology.

Although her husband became a Scientologist several years earlier, it was not until a personal calamity in 1983 that Wurfel herself embraced the religion.

“My three-year-old daughter was in Indonesia visiting her grandmother when we got the kind of phone call every mother dreads,” says Wurfel. “My child was in a hospital 1,700 miles away, dying of pneumonia—she had stopped breathing on her own.”

The Wurfels took the next flight to Java and her husband began giving their daughter Scientology assists—techniques developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that address the mental and spiritual component in illness and injuries.

“Within a few hours of his beginning these assists, her temperature dropped to normal,” Wurfel says.

The next day their daughter was able to stand and walk. The Wurfels brought the toddler home and within a week the little girl had recovered completely.

“Seeing firsthand the power of this technology, I decided to see if it could help me too,” says the mother of three and grandmother of two.

And indeed there was something she suffered from herself—the loss of her grandmother when Wurfel was just a child. From that point forward she was never really a happy person.

“I addressed my grandmother’s death in a Dianetics counseling session. It completely changed my life,” says Wurfel.

That was 27 years ago, and Wurfel, now 56, has studied and used Scientology ever since. She has raised three children, built her boutique into one of the most elegant and prominent in the country, and helped thousands recover from trauma in disaster zones. And she now also serves as a staff member at the Church of Scientology of Sydney.

“I use Scientology in every aspect of my life,” she says. “I have become a better mother, a better wife and a better executive—in short, a better person.”

View the Churlya Wurfel video at www.scientology.org.

The popular “Meet a Scientologist” profiles on the Church of Scientology International Video Channel at Scientology.org now total 200 broadcast-quality documentary videos featuring Scientologists from diverse locations and walks of life. The personal stories are told by Scientologists who are educators, teenagers, skydivers, a golf instructor, a hip-hop dancer, IT manager, stunt pilot, mothers, fathers, dentists, photographers, actors, musicians, fashion designers, engineers, students, business owners and more.

A digital pioneer and leader in the online religious community, in April 2008 the Church of Scientology became the first major religion to launch its own official YouTube Video Channel, which has now been viewed by millions of visitors.