Last Sunday, April 15, I led two bilingual Bible studies in Skagit County Jail where God showed up in beautiful ways. Before inmates read Acts 5:27-32 out loud in Spanish and English I give everyone the background. Peter and the apostles had been thrown in prison by the temple police for preaching about Jesus. An angel of the Lord had opened the prison doors and led them out. The next day when the guards go to fetch them for court, they discover the jail break. Soon they learn that they’re back in the temple preaching about Jesus. When the temple police arrest them again and the high priest confronted them with their law breaking, they say: “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”

“So who are we to obey first and foremost according to this Scripture?” I ask the inmates.

“God,” everyone responds enthusiastically. I tell them that’s its important to obey the laws too whenever they don’t go against what God is calling us into. The men smile and appear to agree.

“What’s God like and what does God do according to verse 30?” I ask.

“He raises Jesus from the dead,” someone says. Others mention how the angel had just released them from prison.

“What about human authorities, what do they do?” I ask

“They killed Jesus by nailing him to a cross,” someone reads.

“So who would you rather obey, a God who raises you from the dead or authorities who can kill you by giving you the death penalty?” I ask.

At first everyone says “God,” until Rickie, a young veteran of gangs and the prison system says something very true and sobering.

“It’s not that easy. The people with the guns can be pretty intimidating as they have the power. God did resurrect Jesus, but you have to believe in him enough to trust your life to him, because you have to die before you can be resurrected, and you can’t know for sure you’ll be resurrected. And nobody wants to die. You might obey men to avoid getting killed.”

I invite people to read the next verse, looking deeper into what God does for Jesus and for us. Hopefully people we see that the benefits to receiving from God outweigh simple compliance with rules or going along with the pressures of the crowd. We read in Acts 5:31 how God exalts Jesus to his right hand—the place of power and authority. The men are encouraged to learn that God has made him the ultimate authority and Savior. We talk about how Jesus gives repentance, (understood as a new way of thinking) and forgiveness of sins. I ask the men if they feel like they need someone to lead them and save them who offers to give them a new way of thinking and forgiveness of all their sins. Everyone appears to want to receive God’s gift of Jesus and all he offers. We read Acts 5:32 where the Holy Spirit is described as a witness to these things. I ask the men if they are willing to let me pray that the Holy Spirit would show them whether God has truly made Jesus their leader and savior and is offering them a new way of thinking and forgiveness of sins. Everyone agrees and we pray for the Holy Spirit to come.

I then ask the men if they feel attracted enough to Jesus and what he offers to welcome Jesus as their leader and Savior and to give them a new mind and forgiveness. When I begin praying and invite people to pray along men begin agreeing out loud, in their own words, saying “yes” to Jesus, accepting his offer to be their Savior of a new way of thinking and forgiveness.

After each Bible study I suggest that God longs for each one of them to become witnesses to God’s acts of liberation. We pray for two men in the first study who are healed of pain, one in his heart and another his side. I tell the inmates in the second Bible study that I believe Jesus wants to free them from their pain. I invite them to place their hands on parts of their body where they have pain or know they need healing. Nearly everyone places one or both hands somewhere—on their neck, knees, lower back, heads, hearts, shoulders. After praying for God’s healing presence to come the men tell the group one after another that their pain immediately left. Nine or ten men experienced immediate healing! They are joyful and visibly pleased.

I had noticed that a big, tall guy, probably 6’7” who stood right across from me in the circle removed his hand from his right shoulder and lower back after a few seconds. He looked discouraged and said he felt no relief when I asked him about his pain. “Do you mind if I pray for you some more?” I ask. “Yeah, I guess,” he responds.

When I ask him how it happened he tells me the police had wrenched his shoulder when they’d pulled his arm behind his back to handcuff him. The handcuffs had dug into his back as they drove him to the jail.

“Do you think you might need to forgive those officers for anything?” I ask.

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

I place a hand on his shoulder and another on his lower back and start praying: “Jesus, we thank you for your huge love for this guy. Show him that you had nothing to do with the use of force that damaged his shoulder and back. I ask that you reverse the damages done by the police. Thank you that you’re all on his life is still there, and that nothing he’s done has made you give up on him.”

After praying I step back to where I’d been standing. I ask him if he notices any improvement.

“Well, it doesn’t hurt right now,” he says. “But I’m sure that if when I pull my arm behind my back the pain will still be there.”

He moves his arm behind his back and I watch surprise fill his face. He tries it a few more time and looks up astonished and says:

“Well, I grant you this one, I’ll grant this to you. There’s no more pain.”

As the reality that Jesus actually touched him and healed him dawns on him I watch a wave of emotion flow over him. His face flushes red, his eyes fill with tears. He sits down, head bowed and slowly shaking back and forth. Manny, another inmate encourages him. “That’s okay man. You’re good dude.” I leave giving thanks to God for 17-20 men who had responded to Jesus’ offer of love and the signs that confirmed the word.

Thank you for remembering us in your prayers. $25,000 came in to cover Tierra Nueva’s March expenses. We are thankful to God and to you, our partners in ministry. Please continue to stand with us in prayer:

for financial provision to complete New Earth Refuge. We still need $72,000 to cover expenses related to putting in water, septic, electricity and the framing for our guest houses and meeting room that will sleep 20. We need an additional $60,000 to complete the project. See https://bobekblad.com/newearthrefuge.html. Donations can be received online for New Earth Refuge at the bottom of that webpage.
Tierra Nueva still needs to bring in $20,000 to cover April payroll and other expenses.
Prayers for my time in Venezuela, April 23-May 1. I will be ministering to the Innerchange team headed up by John and Brigit Shorack, who serve poor urban slum-dwellers and church leaders in Caracas. Pray for my family too while I am away.

Yours in Christ,

Bob Ekblad

Maundy Thursday April 5, 2007

This Lenten season we have witnessed two healings that are unprecedented at Tierra Nueva. Two men were healed from work-related accidents as we celebrated communion during our Spanish service. Around these healings the Holy Spirit has worked as Helper, Advocate and Provider.

Bonifacio, known affectionately as Boni, a laborer from Mexico in his mid 30s showed up at our service three weeks ago, complaining of intense pain in his finger after he’d shot a staple into it on a construction job. He’d pulled the stable, deeply embedded in the bone of his index finger with a pair of pliers. Gracie and others prayed for him. The next week he came to tell us that just after he’d received prayer communion wine had accidentally spilled from his bread onto the spot on his finger where the hole was. “All the pain went away right then and has not come back,” he told us. Hmm, sounds almost magical, but then it happened again.

Two weeks ago Boni’s friend from California, Victor showed up. He’d come up for a court hearing regarding custody of his two daughters, who CPS had taken away from his ex-partner. He hobbled into the service, and responded at the end when we invited anyone with pain to come up for prayer. Victor had caught his booted foot in a ladder on a roofing job and twisted his knee a week before.

“I could hardly walk,” he told me. “The whole way up in the car from California I was wincing, and often felt like crying from the pain,” he said.

After praying for Victor we moved into a circle and into our communion service. As we were serving communion Sara, who had not been present the week before came to me with what she called a strange idea.

“I don’t know what to do with this, but I just had a vision in my mind’s eye of wiping Victor’s knee with communion wine, what do you think?”

Since Boni had recently shared how the pain in his finger had left I was open to trying this. I had also been reflecting on how Isaiah 53 was appropriated in the New Testament to suggest that healing is tied to Jesus’ passion. I think of the Greek version of Isaiah 53:5, which says “by his bruises we ourselves were healed,” cited by 1 Peter 2:23-24, which links Jesus vulnerable suffering with forgiveness, healing and reconciliation with God as our shepherd.

And while being reviled, he did not revile in return; while suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously; and he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by his wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
I approached Victor with Sara after everyone had taken communion and asked him if he was open to us wiping his knee down with communion wine. “Sure,” he said, desperate for relief. He pulled up his trousers to reveal a swollen knee and Sara applied a liberal dousing of the blood of Christ.

“The next day I woke up and there was no more pain,” said Victor, in amazement. That day he also went to court with Roger and had a positive outcome.

We had wanted to interview Victor about his healing and follow up with his court case, but couldn’t track him down until today. This morning I took my 16-year-old son Isaac down to the Department of Licensing to get his drivers license. As we awaited the examiner who Isaac would take for a spin, there was Victor parked beside me, waiting for his wife to take her exam. The lady examiner stood behind the car and called out to Isaac to turn his right and left turn indicators on, and to step on the brakes to test the brake lights. She called me over to tell me that Isaac couldn’t take the test because the third brake light didn’t work. Isaac was really disappointed. “Wait,” yells Victor, running towards us. “Here, you can use my truck.” Isaac was able to borrow Victor’s truck, which had insurance and all indicator lights in working order. Isaac passed his test and I was able to interview Victor.

For the past nearly 13 years we at Tierra Nueva have loaned our personal cars to countless Mexicans in need of a car with insurance and everything in order so they could take their driver’s tests. Today, Tierra Nueva’s Director gets some timely advocacy from an immigrant worker for his son, so he can get his license. We are forever enjoying the way God works.

Just after this while waiting for Isaac to have his picture taken I get a call on my cell phone from Angel David in Honduras. On the few remaining minutes left on his cell phone he tells me some news and asks if money will be sent soon to cover the salaries of Tierra Nueva’s 15 half-time peasant lay pastors. I tell him that we’re $25,000 short to cover March expenses and there may not be anything, unless God intervenes. “Pray David,” I urge and he clicks off, just as a call is coming in from Ron, an Episcopal priest friend in Florida.

“How are you doing financially?” he asks. “Anything more come in?”

I tell him we’re still waiting. He tells me he’s sending us $10,000 overnight mail. He had just received a gift and wanted to share some with us. “We love you guys,” he tells me, and I feel it­from him, from Victor and from our Shepherd in heaven, the Guardian of our souls. We are filled with hope in a God who accompanies us and are ever watchful for God’s provision and deeds of power. May this resurrected Shepherd richly bless you this Easter and the weeks that follow.

We appreciate your ongoing prayers as I finish up my book On Earth As In Heaven. Check out www.bobekblad.com and www.tierra-nueva.org for travel schedule and events.

Yours in Christ,

Bob Ekblad

Dear friend,

I just returned from a weekend conference in Cincinatti. There were some 150 pastors and leaders from around the country, many from Vineyard churches and most self-identified as “emergent church” people. Vineyard Central in Norwood is an intriguing place. The community there acquired a whole Catholic parish center, complete with a cathedral-like church, a convent and house. The community there is part of a house church movement, and many members have bought or rent homes in their working class neighborhood, which includes a growing number of Hispanic immigrants. The group is strong on community, contemplative prayer, the arts and other things, but wants to do more direct outreach to people on the margins right around them. That’s why they invited me, because of my book Reading the Bible with the Damned.

I spoke on the ministry of Jesus and his mission statement in Luke 4:18ff. I told how we at Tierra Nueva have come to recognize the need for continual empowerment by the Spirit to face the big challenges of working with inmates, ex-offenders, undocumented immigrants and the homeless. I recounted stories about how we are learning to expect God’s presence as Advocate before the courts, before the internal voices of accusation and as Healer.

One of the stories I told I also want to share with you. In a recent Bible study in the jail with four inmates I told how the first three men introduce themselves as cooks in restauraunts on the outside. The fourth man in his early twenties introduces himself as a meth addict whose work and life consists in acquiring and using drugs. I tell the guys about Jesus is like a good shepherd who seeks after lost sheep until they are found.

“Who might qualify as lost sheep today?” I ask. “We do,” everyone seems to agree.

“Well, do you see any signs that God is seeking and finding you these days?” I ask.

Just then my colleague Chris notices a shiver go across the face of one of the men. “Hey dude,” he says, “you’re feeling the presence right now, aren’t you?” he asks. “Yeah, in fact,” the man responds. At this point I decide to affirm what God is doing and move in God’s direction, something I’m learning to do. I ask the men if they are interested in experiencing more of God. They all say they want to know God more, so I invite people to put a hand on each other’s shoulder and pray. The man to my right starts shaking. As we continue to pray the phrase “father wound” drops into my mind. I am aware that everyone has some sort of father wound, and especially in the jail but decide to move in the direction of the impresion and say: “Maybe some of you were beaten as children, or didn’t see you dad much or know him at all.” The man to my left who said he was dedicated to acquiring and using drugs tells me how he was severely punished by beatings by his dad as he was growing up. He tells the group how nine months ago he almost died after trying to take his life, stabbing himself seven times! Others share pain of not knowing their fathers. At the end of a short Bible study I sense that God wants to heal someone with abdominal pain. The main to my left says “that’s me,” and pulls up his jail issue shirt to reveal seven knife wounds throughout his abdomen. “I’ve had constant pain where the wounds were,” he says. We pray for him, amazed by the precision of God’s revelation “father wound.” A week later I see the man in another Bible study. He tells me that all his pain is gone.

“I’ve even been able to do sit ups for the first time since my suicide attempt,” he says. “And what’s strange is I’ve had a thirst for reading the Bible, I can’t put it down.”

So there in Cincinatti after telling more stories of being led by the Spirit to minister to people on the margins I invite anyone longing for more of God’s empowering Presence to come up to receive prayer. It seemed that nearly half the group came forward. The next day some of the leaders take me to a Mexican family’s house that make great tamales. There we learn that the Hispanic community in Cincinatti faces the same problems as here: inability to get drivers licenses, problems interfacing with agencies, deportations from jails. I sense God wants to heal our Mexican host, a veteran farm laborer, from a back problem. We end up praying for both him and his wife, who has pain in her neck, lower back and heart. The Spirit comes gently but surely on the two of them and their pain goes away. It is so beautiful to see how Jesus is the same here and now as when he walked this earth– I suppose because he keeps walking the earth through us.
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I am also writing to request special prayer for financial breakthrough for our ministries and for a trip I’m taking on March 27-29 to Austin and Houston.

New Earth Refuge is a center for healing, deliverance, impartation and hospitality tied to Tierra Nueva/New Earth here in the Skagit Valley. New Earth Refuge sits on 35 acres. We have build one guest house that sleeps 5 that we currently use for prayer and hospitality. We have moved forward on a larger meeting room and two guesthouses, that are all framed up, with power, water and septic complete. I have a build er who is willing to work to complete the project who will donate his labor. He can begin work as soon as we have some funds. However we still owe $70,000 for the work that has been completed and need an additional $60,000 to complete the project. Please pray for God’s provision of $130,000. Check out my website www.bobekblad.com and click on New Earth Refuge.

Tierra Nueva, a ministry to migrant farm workers, inmates and the homeless that I direct is also in need of help. We just made our Feb payroll March 23 and still need to raise $25,000 for our March payroll, which goes out the first week of April (see www.tierra-nueva.org).

I am traveling to Austin to speak in classes at the Episcopal Divinity School on March 27 and then to Houston where I am a keynote speaker at Christ Cathedral– an Episcopal church in downtown Houston that reaches out to immigrants and the homeless. I really want to see the Holy Spirit poured out on these people. Please remember me in your prayers: for boldness, humility, and clarity of hearing as I speak and minister.

One final prayer request: I am writing a book called On Earth as in Heaven on the ministry of Jesus and the Kingdom of God that is due to my publisher Westminster John Knox by April 1. Pray for wisdom, revelation and discipline to complete this book. Sopresa Sithole of Iris Ministries had prophesied over me in Mozambique in May 2006 that I was to write a book and that it was “urgent, urgent, urgent!”. This book began just after that and has really flowed. It’s been a lot of fun to write so far, though I’m dealing with many sensitive subjects.

Yours in Christ,

Bob Ekblad