Jan is one of the many visitors from outside of Brazil who I met at the Casa. I got to know her over several visits to Abadiania as Jan stayed there for some months. As with many others, her illness became the catalyst for great learning and rich spiritual experiences. Here is her story. Josie RavenWing

"I am 24 years old, and life has been a mountain climb for me. The most difficult part of this journey started when I discovered at age 21 that I was HIV positive, and I had no other choice than to choose to die or to live.

One day I had heard this clear and warning inner voice whose message struck me so hard that I knew I had to go for a medical test. I had to go for four different tests just to be sure each one of them was right, and for me life was never the same again from that point, knowing that I was sick and that I would probably die from AIDS. I had watched people on the television with the disease, and just imagining myself undergoing all of those physical changes really scared me.

I never wanted to die when I was just 21 years old. I believed there was more to life than what I was going through. I became desperate to hear about miracles, stories and world legends of people who had overcome such life-and-death situations.

A friend who I was living with never stopped supporting me through that difficult time. However, he himself then found out he had cancer, and he needed a great deal of medical attention until his illness reached a point where his case was beyond medical help. Now we both were in urgent need of help and of any miracle we could get.

Then God opened a door for us, and we heard about the miracle man of Brazil. Wow. That moment for me was a major turning point. I felt that this man Joao de Deus had the key to my life and I really wanted to go and meet him. And so I did.

My first glimpse of the entity was already a healing for me. I walked through the line and explained my situation to him, and to my surprise, the fact that I was HIV positive didn't really seem to bother him. The fact that it didn't bother him was part of my healing. At first, I wondered to myself if maybe he didn't really understand the fact that I had HIV and was dying, as he wasn't repulsed by my illness and the only thing he said to me was to come for a spiritual operation the next day.

After my spiritual operation, I felt so weak that I had to go and sleep right afterwards. And while I was sleeping and dreaming, I began to realize a lot of blessings that God had placed in my life.

In the weeks following my operation, whenever I would pass by the entity to see if he had anything else to tell me, he would keep telling me to sit down in the medium's section of his current room. It's funny, because at first this made me feel really neglected, as I thought it meant he didn't want to hear what I had to say about my illness. But in fact, what was happening was that I was receiving my healing through concentrating on other people's needs rather than on my own. This is what it is to be a medium, concentrating on other people in need.

The entity will work on other people through the mediums of the Casa, and in that process he made me understand that he was preparing me to do spiritual work (spiritual healing). It wasn't my healing anymore that was the main focus, but the responsibility that I help others.

Sometimes the entity would take me with him to people who were sitting in the current room needing healing, and he would lay my hands on them. This felt really extraordinary because I never knew what I was doing until afterward when I was seated in the current again.

The most important experience for me was when the entity had me put my hands behind this lady who had a big growth on her neck - a cancer tumor. The entity was holding me from behind, and he then pressed my hands really hard on this lady's tumor for some minutes. In a while, the tumor felt like it suddenly disappeared! And on that same day the lady was told by the entity that her healing was completed, and she was free to go home. I haven't heard from this lady since that time, but I hope she's doing fine.

Being in Abadiania was really magical. And many of my most powerful experiences occurred when I was sleeping. During those times, like after my operation, it felt like I was dreaming but they were in fact true dreams that came to pass.

When I was in Abadiania, I never wanted to confess that I was HIV positive to anyone apart from the entity himself, but after some months there, the word went around somehow. There were some very narrow-minded people I met who were very prejudiced against me because of me having HIV, and they didn't think I was cured. They told me that I should go for a test and then we'd see who was right.

When I felt strong enough, I went for a test even though I was very worried that I might still have the disease. The fact that I was leaving Brazil for home the same week of the test made me feel a little bit safer, and my interest was just to prove to these guys that I wasn't HIV positive, even though it really was none of their business.

After two good weeks back home, I got an email from a friend in Brazil who'd gone with me when I went to have the test, and in that email I found out that the results came back negative! I have done some tests here in my own country since that time and they are still negative. I had been HIV positive for three years until my healing at the Casa. My friend who had had the cancer, who also went to the Casa, is also doing fine and wants to go back there again, as do I.

I am happy and blessed to have met the miracle man of Brazil who has changed my life. I hope this story will give you a reason to give yourself the chance to visit the Casa and to have your life restored abundantly. I have made it, and I have hope that you can make it too. Not only AIDS cases, but anything you are undergoing today could be helped at the Casa.

I believe in the work at the Casa one hundred percent because I have been there and I have seen for myself what really happens."

This is an excerpt from
"The Book of Miracles: The Healing Work of João de Deus"
by Josie Ravenwing.

Josie Ravenwing is a guide for people who want to visit The Casa de Dom Inácio. She can be reached at jravenwing@aol.com or visit her website at www.healingjourneys.net