Beauty From Ashes – The Santvana Comforter Aids Home

What a joy to see Dr. Edwards again. She’s a retired medical doctor, and a woman of great compassion and faith. She founded the Santvana Comforter Aids Home almost 6 years ago. There are 30 children who now call Santvana their home. These kids have been infected with, or affected by, the Aids virus. Most of them are orphans, whose parents have died of Aids.

 

I looked at her while we were together and said, “Dr. Edwards, you’re my hero”. She is truly a woman who shows the compassion of the Lord to adults and children alike. Much of her medical career was spent in community health, caring for the poorest of the poor, and providing outstanding medical care for them. In the course of her medical work, she soon found children whose parents had died of Aids. Her prayer was “God send someone to minister to these little ones”. The answer to her prayer came in an unexpected way. As she prayed, the Lord spoke clearly to her heart. “I want you to help them”. Out of that journey, the Santvana Comforter home was born.

 

Dr. Edwards told us the story of two different children in the home, each story had a very different ending than the other. The first story she told us was of a dear boy named Yogesh. Yogesh came in the very early days of the Comforter Home. In those days, Dr. Edwards told us that much time was spent in prayer for each child. Yogesh was tested for HIV, and the results showed that he was HIV positive. A second test confirmed those results. A year later, the staff repeated the HIV test, and the testing center called for Dr. Edwards to bring Yogesh back for another test. When the results came back, Yogesh had tested negative for the Aids virus. All of his subsequent tests have come back negative! Yogesh was healed of that disease!

 

The second story she told was of a little boy, Sanju. Sanju’s mother was a prostitute, and it was a lifestyle that she wanted to live. Sanju’s father loved her very much, and married her even though he did not approve of her choices. Sanju was born into that home and he too, was loved by this dear man. When Sanju was a young boy, his mother died of Aids. In another tragic twist, Sanju tested positive for the Aids virus. As is often the case, there was enormous social pressure placed on his father to send the little boy away. He finally brought Sanju to Santvana, and wept loudly when he dropped off his son. One day, Sanju became sick, and it was obvious that he needed hospital care. Dr. Edwards and a staff lady took him to a local hospital and were refused help because the boy was HIV positive. They sent them to a second and then on to a third hospital. Two other hospitals were called, and they too refused to help. Sanju died in Dr. Edwards arms. This was such an unnecessary death, all because of prejudice in the medical community against those with Aids. We were all deeply impacted by both of these stories. We experienced joy over Yogesh’s miraculous healing, and deep sadness over Sanju’s unnecessary death.

 

 

We arrived at the home just before the children returned from church. As they filtered into the home facility, the sounds of precious kids filled the air. These sounds impacted our hearts. We watched as the children played soccer in the courtyard, using a basketball for the soccer game. We brought a soccer ball for the home, and now they can use that for their courtyard soccer matches. Our team spent time loving children and then we broke out the bubbles that my grandson Will had sent for the children. As we saw at the last home, kids love bubbles! They laughed, chased bubbles and had an amazing time just being kids. Finally the time came to head off for our next appointment. Our lives were deeply impacted and challenged by this amazing ministry.