f in focus {How your partnership is changing lives} LEPROSY MINISTRY Caring for Body & Soul Ajay Karada and Neelam Changra liked what Vineet Gosai told them about Jesus. Was there really a God who could love them—even though they had leprosy? O ver the next few months, Ajay and Neelam learned that truth by seeing God’s love in action through Vineet, a Gospel for Asia-supported missionary. Vineet recognized Ajay and Neelam’s disease immediately and understood that their lives were incredibly difficult. Although leprosy is completely curable, it is difficult to obtain treatment in the country where Ajay and Neelam live—so thousands simply live with the devastating, disfiguring effects of the disease. It’s not just the physical aspects of the disease that made Ajay and Neelam’s life difficult. In their society, leprosy is considered a curse, so people affected by the disease are routinely kicked out of their homes and cut off from their loved ones. This severing of relationships causes deep hurt in a society in which the family is the foundation and center. 16 | send! | www.gfa.org Medical Treatment and God’s Love Vineet and his wife, Rebika, regularly visited the two men, bringing medicine to treat their disease. They lovingly tended to Ajay and Neelam’s open wounds and administered the life-saving medications these men could not afford any other way. The couple also prayed for Ajay and Neelam, while telling them more about Jesus and how He loves them. Soon the leprosy virus was cleared from their bodies, and their outward wounds were healed. The men were washed clean on the inside too, as they both decided to follow Christ. Because they chose Jesus, Ajay and Neelam found even more ostracism than their leprosy had previously caused them. The two men were forced out of their village because they refused to turn their back on Christ and the Christians who helped them. “When the whole village did not care for us, it was only the Christians who came and helped us, and our wounds were healed by the Lord Jesus Christ,” Ajay remembers.