Healed of A.I.D.S.

Healed of A.I.D.S.

TRUE STORY!

Kristina Cooper tells the inspiring story of the friendship of Janice Raeder Machado and Elena Sala Arreguy and how Janice was healed of Aids.

If I'm truthful I have always been a bit sceptical about healing - wanting to believe but not quite sure - particularly when the healing occurs at big healing services and you don't know the people concerned. Every now and again, however, God helps my faith by putting almost incontestable examples of his healing power in front of me. One of these is the story of Janice Raeder Machado from Brazil. I have never met Janice, but I felt I came to know her through the stories of her friend, Elena. Elena spent a month with me in January 2001 while she was doing an English course in London. During the course of her stay she told me a bit about her life in Brazil and about Janice. The two of them had become friends through their involvement in the Shalom community, a charismatic community in Brazil and when they found themselves in the same town, it seemed natural to share a house together.

"Gang raped and HIV positive"

Then in 1993 tragedy struck. Janice was gang raped in revenge for her courageous whistle blowing on a colleague at work who was embezzling the company. As a result of the traumatic attack she became HIV positive and this eventually developed into full blown AIDS. Elena would tell me how exhausting just coping with the illness was. Often Janice would be so sick she would have to be rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night for treatment. But through it all Janice remained resilient and positive and Elena stayed by her side to support her. Incredibly, in time Janice was even able to forgive her attackers (see Goodnews Jan 2002). But this was not to be the end of the story. I kept in touch. Last year Elena phoned to tell me she had developed breast cancer. She said, "Although I want to be healed, I just want God's will to be done, and for him to do whatever he needs through this illness." She also told me that Janice had said, "Now I have a chance to care for you, as you have been such a good example of a caring Christian sister for me" and she had replied, "And you have been such a good example to me of bearing illness bravely."

The next thing I heard was that they had moved from Sao Paolo, where they lived, to return to Fortaleza in the North of Brazil, so they could be near their friends from the Shalom community. Although the money wasn't as good, the climate was much better and they were both much happier with the support of the community than they had been in the big city. Then just after Easter, this year, I received a phone call from Elena with the most amazing news - Janice had been healed. I could hardly believe it.

"Dream to go to Europe before she died"

Apparently last autumn Janice's health had deteriorated so much, that it seemed that she would not have much longer to live. Completely emaciated she weighed only 50 kilos and her CD4 (defence cells rate) was only 50, whereas in a normal person it is between 1500 and 3000. It had always been her dream to go to Europe one day, however, and so when Elena unexpectedly received a financial windfall, she decided to spend it to help her friend to go to France with Emmir another member of the community. A week before they left, Emmir's son, who is a medical doctor, warned his mother, that because of Janice's low immune system, she was very susceptible to illness and she could die as a result of the journey. Janice was determined to go, however, and with her own doctor's permission the two travelled to Paris.

The first night was a nightmare for Janice. The long plane journey had taken its toll and she felt very weak. Her temperature soared and unable to sleep she tossed and turned all night. She felt herself caught up in a huge spiritual and psychological battle. It had been a mistake to come, she thought. She realised she was not up to it physically and would have to abort the trip. The following morning, however, she and Emmir had arranged to go to Sacre Coeur for the 11am Mass, and not wanting to disappoint her friend she decided it would be best to stick to the plan, before telling Emmir of her decision to return to Brazil.

"Profound experience of God's mercy and love"

It was while she sat there in the Mass that she was suddenly overwhelmed with a profound experience of the love and mercy of God. She received a deep insight into her weakness and fragility and at the same time the enormous love of God flowing over her and healing her of all her past hurts. She felt loved, forgiven and cleansed of all her sins and as she sat in the pew she began to weep, crying for well over an hour. At this point she was not even thinking about her condition or asking to be healed. She felt herself caught up in the mystery of God's mercy. Meanwhile her friend Emmir requested that a special Mass for Janice's healing be said at the church for her on 22nd December and on that day in Brazil, the whole of the community attended Mass for that intention.

"No sign of the virus ever having been in her blood"

After this Janice and Emmir went to pray at Rue de Bac, where Our Lady appeared, over a century ago, to a young nun, St Catherine Laboure, and where today people from all over the world flock, to pray for Mary's intercession for their needs. Here Janice felt an impulse to go to the front seat of the church, and here she knelt down and asked Our Lady to ask her son Jesus to heal her. "I want to live", she told Mary simply. The next day when she awoke she had no temperature and felt very well, but she kept taking her medication for the rest of the trip. The holiday simply flew by and she felt stronger and stronger each day and generally had a wonderful time. She began to put on weight and by the time she returned to Brazil, she looked fabulous. She went to the doctors for tests. They were flabbergasted. Her CD4 count had risen from 50 to 260 and her HIV test even more amazingly proved negative. Not only that but there was no sign even that the virus had ever been in her blood. The doctors found it impossible to believe that she had been healed. They continued doing other tests because there was no medical explanation for such a dramatic healing. Because they had never seen anything like it before, moreover, they refused to sign her off the sick list, even though she felt perfectly healthy and felt a fraud still receiving her sickness benefit. "Let's wait and see", her doctor said, convinced that her illness would return.

"Apostle of mercy"

Janice, however, knew she was healed and stopped taking her medication. Her health continued to improve and suddenly instead of preparing herself for death, Janice found herself facing a new challenge - how did she want to spend the rest of her life? It would have been easy to return to her well paid computer career, but she felt, in the light of her healing, that she wanted to go to Africa, that continent which more than any other, suffers from the scourge of AIDS. Here she felt she could be a source of hope to people - to be a witness to God's incredible healing power. She said, "I don't know why the Lord has healed me, but because I have been treated with so much mercy that I now want to be an apostle of mercy for the Lord. This is the century of mercy, and I believe the Lord will evangelise the world through his mercy." Her desire to be an evangelist has been submitted to the Shalom community, who are considering opening up a mission there.

And what of Elena? Her cancer treatment was successful, although the operation damaged the lymphatic system which means she finds it difficult to type for long hours or carry heavy things, but otherwise her health is fine and she is studying for an MA in linguistics. Like Janice she has joined the Shalom community's programme to become a consecrated member of the community. She comments, "In this day and age, it is impossible to walk alone as a lay Christian if you want to grow in holiness and serve the Lord effectively. We need others. Although I supported Janice in her illness, she also supported me in many ways, and gave me the confidence to do things, that because of my own personal insecurities I probably wouldn't have had the courage to do. We will always be very special friends because of what we have gone through together, but now it is time for us both to move on to the new thing the Lord has for each of us."

I love Janice and Elena's stories because they are not just stories of healing but of discipleship and witness to the Lord, in sickness and in health. Their lives and choices reveal that whatever our situations we can trust our lives to God's divine providence, which He will use for his glory.

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Janice
Janice

Elena and Janice

	If I'm truthful I have always been a bit sceptical about healing - wanting to believe but not quite sure - particularly when the healing occurs at big healing services and you don't know the people concerned. Every now and again, however, God helps my faith by putting almost incontestable examples of his healing power in front of me. One of these is the story of Janice Raeder Machado from Brazil. I have never met Janice, but I felt I came to know her through the stories of her friend, Elena. Elena spent a month with me in January 2001 while she was doing an English course in London. During the course of her stay she told me a bit about her life in Brazil and about Janice. The two of them had become friends through their involvement in the Shalom community, a charismatic community in Brazil and when they found themselves in the same town, it seemed natural to share a house together. "Gang raped and HIV positive" Then in 1993 tragedy struck. Janice was gang raped in revenge for her courageous whistle blowing on a colleague at work who was embezzling the company. As a result of the traumatic attack she became HIV positive and this eventually developed into full blown AIDS. Elena would tell me how exhausting just coping with the illness was. Often Janice would be so sick she would have to be rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night for treatment. But through it all Janice remained resilient and positive and Elena stayed by her side to support her. Incredibly, in time Janice was even able to forgive her attackers (see Goodnews Jan 2002). But this was not to be the end of the story. I kept in touch. Last year Elena phoned to tell me she had developed breast cancer. She said, "Although I want to be healed, I just want God's will to be done, and for him to do whatever he needs through this illness." She also told me that Janice had said, "Now I have a chance to care for you, as you have been such a good example of a caring Christian sister for me" and she had replied, "And you have been such a good example to me of bearing illness bravely." The next thing I heard was that they had moved from Sao Paolo, where they lived, to return to Fortaleza in the North of Brazil, so they could be near their friends from the Shalom community. Although the money wasn't as good, the climate was much better and they were both much happier with the support of the community than they had been in the big city. Then just after Easter, this year, I received a phone call from Elena with the most amazing news - Janice had been healed. I could hardly believe it. "Dream to go to Europe before she died" Apparently last autumn Janice's health had deteriorated so much, that it seemed that she would not have much longer to live. Completely emaciated she weighed only 50 kilos and her CD4 (defence cells rate) was only 50, whereas in a normal person it is between 1500 and 3000. It had always been her dream to go to Europe one day, however, and so when Elena unexpectedly received a financial windfall, she decided to spend it to help her friend to go to France with Emmir another member of the community. A week before they left, Emmir's son, who is a medical doctor, warned his mother, that because of Janice's low immune system, she was very susceptible to illness and she could die as a result of the journey. Janice was determined to go, however, and with her own doctor's permission the two travelled to Paris. The first night was a nightmare for Janice. The long plane journey had taken its toll and she felt very weak. Her temperature soared and unable to sleep she tossed and turned all night. She felt herself caught up in a huge spiritual and psychological battle. It had been a mistake to come, she thought. She realised she was not up to it physically and would have to abort the trip. The following morning, however, she and Emmir had arranged to go to Sacre Coeur for the 11am Mass, and not wanting to disappoint her friend she decided it would be best to stick to the plan, before telling Emmir of her decision to return to Brazil. "Profound experience of God's mercy and love" It was while she sat there in the Mass that she was suddenly overwhelmed with a profound experience of the love and mercy of God. She received a deep insight into her weakness and fragility and at the same time the enormous love of God flowing over her and healing her of all her past hurts. She felt loved, forgiven and cleansed of all her sins and as she sat in the pew she began to weep, crying for well over an hour. At this point she was not even thinking about her condition or asking to be healed. She felt herself caught up in the mystery of God's mercy. Meanwhile her friend Emmir requested that a special Mass for Janice's healing be said at the church for her on 22nd December and on that day in Brazil, the whole of the community attended Mass for that intention. "No sign of the virus ever having been in her blood" After this Janice and Emmir went to pray at Rue de Bac, where Our Lady appeared, over a century ago, to a young nun, St Catherine Laboure, and where today people from all over the world flock, to pray for Mary's intercession for their needs. Here Janice felt an impulse to go to the front seat of the church, and here she knelt down and asked Our Lady to ask her son Jesus to heal her. "I want to live", she told Mary simply. The next day when she awoke she had no temperature and felt very well, but she kept taking her medication for the rest of the trip. The holiday simply flew by and she felt stronger and stronger each day and generally had a wonderful time. She began to put on weight and by the time she returned to Brazil, she looked fabulous. She went to the doctors for tests. They were flabbergasted. Her CD4 count had risen from 50 to 260 and her HIV test even more amazingly proved negative. Not only that but there was no sign even that the virus had ever been in her blood. The doctors found it impossible to believe that she had been healed. They continued doing other tests because there was no medical explanation for such a dramatic healing. Because they had never seen anything like it before, moreover, they refused to sign her off the sick list, even though she felt perfectly healthy and felt a fraud still receiving her sickness benefit. "Let's wait and see", her doctor said, convinced that her illness would return. "Apostle of mercy" Janice, however, knew she was healed and stopped taking her medication. Her health continued to improve and suddenly instead of preparing herself for death, Janice found herself facing a new challenge - how did she want to spend the rest of her life? It would have been easy to return to her well paid computer career, but she felt, in the light of her healing, that she wanted to go to Africa, that continent which more than any other, suffers from the scourge of AIDS. Here she felt she could be a source of hope to people - to be a witness to God's incredible healing power. She said, "I don't know why the Lord has healed me, but because I have been treated with so much mercy that I now want to be an apostle of mercy for the Lord. This is the century of mercy, and I believe the Lord will evangelise the world through his mercy." Her desire to be an evangelist has been submitted to the Shalom community, who are considering opening up a mission there. And what of Elena? Her cancer treatment was successful, although the operation damaged the lymphatic system which means she finds it difficult to type for long hours or carry heavy things, but otherwise her health is fine and she is studying for an MA in linguistics. Like Janice she has joined the Shalom community's programme to become a consecrated member of the community. She comments, "In this day and age, it is impossible to walk alone as a lay Christian if you want to grow in holiness and serve the Lord effectively. We need others. Although I supported Janice in her illness, she also supported me in many ways, and gave me the confidence to do things, that because of my own personal insecurities I probably wouldn't have had the courage to do. We will always be very special friends because of what we have gone through together, but now it is time for us both to move on to the new thing the Lord has for each of us." I love Janice and Elena's stories because they are not just stories of healing but of discipleship and witness to the Lord, in sickness and in health. Their lives and choices reveal that whatever our situations we can trust our lives to God's divine providence, which He will use for his glory. << Top Home >>		Janice Elena and Janice