A few weeks ago I ran into a big, tough looking Caucasian guy named Philip during one of our Sunday afternoon Bible studies. “I’m the one you made cry back in April when I was in here. You healed my back,” he said.

I immediately remember him and feel embarrassed that he doesn’t say Jesus healed his back. I feel awkward at times about healings that happen, and am especially perplexed that so many people are finding relief from pain in their backs, necks, shoulders, knees, etc. I find myself continually pondering the purpose and value of healing.

I often think of the final verses of Mark’s gospel, where the narrator writes: “And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word with the signs that followed” (Mk 16:20).”

For years and years now I have been reading the Bible with people on the margins, many of whom are violent men who have heard lots of preaching from parents, judges and evangelists without seeing the reality of God’s saving, healing presence. Hearing the words without experiencing the power of God can anesthetize us to Good News that should turn our hearts towards God’s heart of love. Paul himself consciously avoided putting confidence in his ability to articulate the gospel. He writes to the Corinthians:

When I came to you, bretheren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God (1 Cor 2:1-5).

I remember well that Sunday in April when Philip was healed. I had invited a group of 15 or so men to put out their hands like I often do so we can invite God to put the anointing of the Holy Spirit for healing onto them so they can pray for themselves or others. “You guys are all made in God’s image,” I said and often keep saying.

“Your fingers weren’t made for gun triggers. Guns were made for your hands. Your hands weren’t made to slap around your girlfriend, to cling to a crack pipe or fight your enemies. Your hands were made so you can bless people. God made you to carry the Holy Presence. Maybe you don’t have enough trust to give your hearts, minds and the rest of your bodies to God. But I challenge you to present your hands to God right now as a kind of experiment or small step of faith,” I say.

Nearly all the participants that Sunday had put out their hands and I prayed. I then invited them to put their hands where they had pain and we prayed for God’s healing Presence to flow through their hands into their backs, necks, heads, hearts—wherever it is needed. That Sunday ten or so men claimed to experience immediate relief. Some were laughing, others crying or looking seriously perplexed. Philip had dropped his hands from his shoulder and lower back almost immediately, looking dejected. I asked him how he was feeling from across the circle of guys.

“The same,” he said, his head hung in shame. “Can I pray for you some more? I asked. “I guess, he said, trying to be polite.

I learned that his shoulders had been wrenched when the police had wrestled his arms behind his back and hand-cuffed him. His lower back had been damaged by the cuffs digging in behind his back.

“Do you need to forgive those officers for excessive use of force?” I asked, knowing that forgiveness and healing are intimately connected.

“No,” he said. “They were just doing their job. I’m a big dude.”

I prayed something like this. “Jesus, thank you that your love for Philip is constant. You’re call on his life is still there. Nothing has disqualified him. I ask that you would reverse the damages done by the police so he can fully know your love.” I then walked back to my place across from him in the circle and asked him how he was doing.

“I feel okay I guess, but as soon as I move my hands behind my back I’m sure I’ll feel that shoulder pain,” he said, and began to move his hands behind his back to the hand-cuffed position. He did this a few times, with increasing awe coming over his face until he said: “I’ll grant it to you. I’ll grant it to you. There’s no more pain.” He dropped down onto his plastic chair and began to sob.

So there he was over five months later, reminding me that I’d made him cry. There was no time to talk then as the Sunday group was big and we only had 20 minutes. After we finished looking at that Sunday’s scripture I suddenly got an impression that there was somebody there who needed healing from serious back pain. I immediately doubted this, a voice in my head mocking me that I’m always imagining these things. I went for it though, asking, and a Mexican man raised his hand, just as the door clicked open and the guard announced that the study was over. I quickly went over to the man, placed a hand on his back and commanded the pain to leave in Jesus’ name—accompanying him to the door, praying as we walked.

This past Thursday Philip showed up again to our Bible study. I ask him if he can share the story of healing back in April and he readily agrees. He tells a group of eight or nine guys about how he had grown up in the Catholic Church and had religion forced on him. “I didn’t believe at all until last April when I came to the jail. He told about how Jesus healed his shoulders and lower back. He then told about how he’d had a Mexican cellmate who didn’t believe in God at all and had never been to church, but had really serious back pain. “I told him about how God had healed me and convinced him to come. He received prayer, and before we were even back to our cell the guys back was completely healed,” he said in delight.

He then told how he’d been jumped by some gang guys and beaten up there in the jail pod just after this and they’d transferred him to another pod. He told how he had three big bumps on his head, and how he’d motioned to Chris and I through the glass and we’d indicated back to him with hand signs that we would pray for him.

“I woke up the next morning and the bumps on my head were all gone and I was completely better. Now I can say that I believe for the first time,” he said. “So what convinced you?” I ask. “Why do you now believe?” “This may sound kind of cheesy,” he said. “But it’s all these healings.” That night another Mexican man was there who said that his back was wrenched from the police throwing him to the ground and cuffing him. We pray for him and his pain goes away on the spot. Jesus keeps confirming the words of Scripture and the testimonies of new believers. The message is passed on as God’s power becomes visible here and now as the Kingdom of God comes close.

I appreciate your prayers. That God’s healings Presence would continue to touch people there in the jail, at our weekly English and Spanish services and wherever we go, confirming the words with the signs that follow.

Lately, I have been especially watchful for God’s presence with us as we await provision in times of scarcity at Tierra Nueva and New Earth Refuge. Someone recently asked if I ever wonder whether our financial hardships are signs that God is not blessing our ministries, or that we are somehow out of favor. When payroll is due and there is nothing in the bank, we do find ourselves examining everything, open to changing course if needed. During times of famine, it is tempting to imagine leaving for greener pastures or launching another tiring fund-raising campaign. But humble God is mentoring me. It seems Jesus longs to see us take the best theology he’s taught us further and deeper, learning to see him and receive from him in the “least of these” whom we can easily disregard.

In a recent Sunday dialogical Bible study at Tierra Nueva, I was struck as we looked at the journey of Ruth. In the story, Elimeleck, whose name means “my God is king,” together with his wife Naomi and their two sons, Mahlon (sickness) and Chilion (fragility) leave their hometown of Bethlehem (house of bread). They travel as immigrants, due to a famine (lack of bread). Did they feel somehow pushed to migrate to meet the pressing needs of their sons “sickness” and “fragility”? We are invited along on Naomi’s journey to discover how God is king in ways far different than Elimeleck, Naomi (or we) might normally think.

Elimeleck and Naomi migrate to Moab where their two sons marry Moabite women. There, Naomi’s husband and two sons die . . . and her image of God is about to die, too. The strategy of leaving for greener pastures apparently didn’t work. In fact, God did come through in the end, as the famine lifts in Bethlehem “when God visited his people in giving them food” and Naomi decides to return home . . . alone. She urges her two daughters-in-law (who are foreigners) to go back home and even return to their gods. Ruth refuses, clinging instead to Naomi and telling her: Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried (Ruth 1:16-17).

In the next scene, Naomi returns with Ruth to Bethlehem, where Naomi insists that the townspeople do not call her by her name, which means “My Gracious” but Mara, “Bitter”: For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me? (Ruth 1:20-21).

Naomi is angry at God, whom she envisions as harsh and punishing. Yet she appears blind to God’s presence with her through humble Ruth, her widowed daughter-in-law from Moab, whose name means “friend” or more precisely “comforter”—evoking the paraklete Holy Spirit, our defender, helper, comforter, guide. Ruth has just pledged total allegiance to Naomi, clinging to her. It is through Ruth that Naomi experiences redemption, as Boaz, a wealthy relative, embraces this nobody foreign widow, opening the storehouses to them both and fathering a child, Obed (Servant), who is a direct forefather of Jesus, Israel’s Messiah and our Savior (Matt 1:5).

Ruth’s clinging reminds me of the description of Genesis 2:24—a man clinging to his wife and the two becoming one flesh. Paul reads this as metaphorical of Jesus, the bridegroom’s union with the church (Eph 5:29-32). Is Jesus with us like Ruth was with Naomi—a clinging, close presence that we could easily disregard? Who has been clinging close to me whom I haven’t recognized? Who has been clinging to you?

This June, enough donations came in to Tierra Nueva to cover all expenses except my paycheck and Gracie’s. It was July 19 and our mortgage payment was due to be electronically transferred. Our account was nearly empty, short $1,000 to cover the mortgage payment. I came out of the jail at 9:30 pm, tired after four bilingual Bible studies. In the jail parking lot, a Mexican man to whom I have ministered for a number of years was waiting for me in his car. I assumed he wanted to talk with me about an upcoming day in court. Instead, he directed me to get in the back seat, and then sat beside me, pulling out his checkbook. “I want to give you this, Roberto,” he said, handing me a check for $1,000.00. I was shocked, and have since been meditating on God’s Ruth-like, clinging presence with me through unexpected mediators.

Since I first met him in a jail Bible study over five years ago, this man has at times clung to me for advocacy and friendship, as he has gone through many struggles. I have watched him take on “my God”, like Ruth took on Naomi’s, leaving behind his avowed atheist mindset. He has become an increasingly fervent believer, as God has rescued him time and time again from losing his legal permanent residency status and being deported far away from his young daughter. My faith has become much stronger as I have watched God rescue him over and over. He has ministered to me in many beautiful ways, even as he has needed my support. Yet I have often failed to recognize Jesus’ close presence mediated through him and others.

Now he has brought our family through the hardest financial month to date. Should I be surprised? No! This is God’s way of being Emmanuel (God with us), choosing to encounter us through the hungry and thirsty ones, the stranger, naked, sick and imprisoned one (Matt 25:35-36). God has chosen foolish things to shame the wise and the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27ff). And the strong ones like Naomi and Boaz certainly have their place too. In fact God has been blessing us more and more through stronger ones too.

• Over $35,000 has recently come in gifts from a number of supporters for New Earth Refuge, which us being completed at a rapid rate.
• Tierra Nueva made it’s August payroll on time.
• Cascade Lumber gave us a generous reduction on lumber costs.

Please keep us in your prayers: for God’s Presence to increase, bringing healing, liberation and provision.

I challenge you to ask God to open your eyes to God’s humble yet saving Presence that is with you now, and to read through the book of Ruth.

Abundant blessings in Christ,

Bob Ekblad