PAPUA — Here, a husband’s unfaithfulness is expected. Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), tuberculosis and HIV are passed around like a common cold. Because women are denied basic rights, they suffer from curable diseases or fatal illnesses because they can’t or won’t get help.

In this society Brian, a Crossworld worker, set up a clinic to care for HIV patients and offer treatment for the body and hope for the soul. Here is the story of Merpati, one of the clinic’s patients.

With high hopes for the future, Merpati left her town to attend school on the coast. There she met a man who promised to marry her after they graduated, so she started sleeping with him. Soon, however, she found out about the 13 other women to whom he promised the same things.

Merpati became sick. With no one to care for her, she returned home and went to a clinic run by Crossworld worker Brian, only to find out that she had HIV and several STDs. Her face fell as she thought about how she had disgraced her family and ruined her future.

“Take me back to my village to die,” she cried.

But like with all of the patients at the clinic, Brian shared with her about Christ — offering physical as well as spiritual hope.

“Even though HIV is going to kill your flesh, you have something worse that’s going to kill your soul,” Brian said. “It’s sin and it’s going to separate you from the love of God. But there’s a cure and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ. You can live in a way that glorifies God. You can glorify God with this disease.”

Though Merpati had discounted any hope for herself, she found her thoughts returning again and again to the possibilities of forgiveness and a restored life through Christ. Could it be true? Could even someone like me have a good future? Her faith in Christ happened slowly, but it’s certain. Today she is sharing with others the spiritual hope she found at the clinic. “Even though I have HIV,” she said, “now I am truly living.”

Italicized names have been changed to protect identities.