‘God’s book’ speaks to AIDS patient

On a visit to the AIDS Care and Education Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, Mary Brooksbank, PA in the Program Services Dept at the UBS World Service Center, met Dao*, an AIDS patient who is coming to know God through reading the New Testament.

AIDS patient Dao (in white T-shirt) with one of her sons and Nattaha, Assistant Director of the Aids Care and Education Centre in Bangkok, Thailand. The Centre distributes the Thailand Bible Society booklet HIV and the Positive Life. Photo: UBS/Mary Brooksbank (THA04DJ-20.JPG)

BANGKOK, Thailand — Among the clients of the AIDS Care and Education Centre in Bangkok is Dao. Having lost her husband to AIDS, Dao has also seen this disease take over her own life and that of her three-year-old son.

Some months ago, the young boy became so ill that the doctors at the hospice where he is being treated felt that they could not do anything further to save his life. With treatment withdrawn, he soon deteriorated dramatically. Dao’s reaction at seeing her son suffer so dreadfully was to feel angry with God. It was not until she expressed this anger to Nattaya, the Deputy Director of the AIDS Care and Education Centre, that she began to think differently. Nattaya encouraged her to pray, asking God to save her son’s life.

Revived

Soon after Dao began praying, the boy was moved to a special ward in anticipation of his death. Suddenly, though, he revived and asked for a drink. Before long, he was even able to eat rice, much to the doctors’ astonishment.

Brink of death

Dao is convinced that only God could have brought her son back from the brink of death. She regularly reads the New Testament in her quest to get to know God better. To her, it is “God’s book”, not the Bible. Through the staff at the AIDS Care and Education Centre, she has also received the Thailand Bible Society’s booklet HIV and the Positive Life.