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 Arti, one of the clinic’s patients.

After Arti’s husband left her for another woman, she began prostituting herself on the streets and at police and military bases. She became so sick and so weak that she physically gave up and told her mother, “Just let me die.” But her mother refused to let her daughter give up and brought Arti to the clinic where they found out she had syphilis, gonorrhea, tuberculosis and HIV nearing AIDS — just about every disease possible.

Each time the clinic staff shared Christ with her, Arti insisted, “I don’t want to hear it.” Her follow-up appointments brought more anger and more bitterness, and it seemed the healthier she grew, the lazier she became, forcing her mother to do everything for her despite her increasing capabilities.

Finally at one checkup Brian told Arti, “You need to start taking responsibility for yourself.”

Though he didn’t know it at the time, that conversation broke through Arti’s hard exterior. She began listening more intently as staff members shared the gospel with her. She even looked forward to the moments at each appointment when they would pray with her. Then one day she walked into the clinic wearing a business suit and carrying herself with a professional air. “I got a job!” she said. “My mom has taken care of me, and now I need to start taking care of her.”

Arti didn’t tell Brian that she had accepted Christ, but Brian could see the transformation in her life. Then as Brian prepared to leave Papua and return to the U.S., Arti said to him, “If you don’t come back, I know I will see you in the presence of the Lord Jesus.”

Italicized names have been changed to protect identities.