AIDS Fled from David!
 
The AIDS virus that raised
a war cry in David's blood stream fled
at the touch of Jesus!

David was an only child, orphaned early in life. He began working in a spinning mill where he contracted TB. He was taken to Mulamkunnu hospital and then to Calicut Medical College Hospital, as he was suspected to have had AIDS. The result of the test conducted showed he was HIV positive. He was abandoned totally in the hospital. The members of the St Vincent de Paul Society of St Joseph's College, Devagiri, visited the hospital and arranged for David to be sent to Divine Retreat Centre. That was in December 1995. Illness prevented David from completing the retreat. In 1995 March he went again, well-prepared and received the Sacraments ready to live or die.

During the Holy Hour on the Tuesday of the retreat, David had a strange experience as if he were in another world. In the hallowed precincts of the retreat hall, with joined hands and tear-dimmed eyes, David prayed to Jesus for mercy. He, the totally abandoned one, with the dreaded disease, unwanted and unloved! The blood of Jesus must have flowed from his broken heart into David's blood stream where AIDS viruses were raising a war cry. The healing word of God entered into his soul, mind, body, cells, joints, flesh, bones and marrow.

In a trice, in the ears of David, who was crying out, "Praise you Jesus", came a voice,"The Lord is healing David." It was the voice of Fr George Panackal who was conducting the Holy Hour. That night after the services David felt unusually famished with hunger. He ate well and slept soundly. The next morning was one of renewed strength and joy-the experience of having re-gained his soul and life.

On his return to Calicut, the Vincent de Paul members again came to his help. After the tests in the Medical College Hospital, it was found that David had no AIDS germs. The tests were repeated in the Kottayam and Trivandrum Medical College Hospitals with the same result. Can David ever stop praising and thanking Jesus, his Saviour!