Hope

Today we had 10 guests from Thailand. Pastors and church folks - brought here by the Full Gospel Churches of Thailand - a study tour to see what the Indian church is doing to help people with HIV.

We had told them ahead of time that we would not be able to take them 'into the field' - to meet the people we work with - the folks who have HIV - in their own homes.

Rather we invited two of our HIV Positive Friends to meet the group at our centre.

It was a blessed time - made all the more so by Mrs. Maninder's story.

Here is a piece of it:

Having found out that her brother had HIV and TB, she and her husband were looking after him when they heard about Jeevan Sahara Kendra. They brought him here and were amazed to see her brother's health improve so much.

Sadly - her brother insisted on returning to Africa where he had previously worked. When he came back he was too weak to recover and died.

Later her own husband died of AIDS - and she found out that she also had it - while in the 7th month of her second pregancy. When the first child - who had a cleft palate at that time - became very sick - she remembered JSK and brought her here.

We prayed and acted swiftly - amazingly, the child recovered.

Mrs. Maninder was convinced that the two girls also had HIV. Her husband while still living had said that they should kill their unborn child as soon as it was born - and then all die together. These suicidal thoughts continued. But when she met Sheba and was told that we would have to test whether the children were infact HIV positive - some hope started to dawn.

The older daughter - with the cleft lip - was old enough to be tested. She tested HIV negative.

Some months later we tested the younger daugther. Also negative.

Reasons to live.