Ensenada Outreach Center - YUGO

“How many fingers am I holding up?” The question I most despise because I am someone who has been wearing “coke-bottle” glasses since I was five years old. People looked through my glasses, without my eyes, and assumed that all I could see was a blur.


But, for Jonathan and Alejandro, two brothers from a village on the outskirts of Ensenada, the “how many fingers am I holding up?” question wasn’t an insult, this time. Jonathan and Alejandro have grown up trying to see the world through their cataract blindness. Watching them, you’ll see that they hesitate. They feel their way forward until the next object comes into their obscured focus. They stumble.

Someone was watching Jonathan and Alejandro closely. They were seen on a DVD from a church group ministering through the EOC to Jonathan and Alejandro’s colonia. It was obvious to someone watching that these boys had a problem with their eyes. At the prompting of the church, the boys were able to see a doctor and be diagnosed for their eye condition. At hearing the prognosis, the church pledged the funds to have the Jonathan and Alejandro operated on.

After the first operation on one eye, Jonathan and Alejandro’s bandages were removed and tested by Dr. Samuel Leon Beal of the Instituto de la Vision. The institute is run by the 7th Day Adventist church and has the mission of “Following the healing ministry of Jesus”. When Dr. Beal asked Jonathan and Alejandro “how many fingers am I holding up?”, I wonder how they felt? It wasn’t an easy question. They both moved their heads and eyes around to try and focus their vision. They both didn’t get all the answers right.


A mighty deed that Jesus performed several times was to heal the blind and let them see. I have grown up skeptical of Jesus’ healing power in today’s world, “it doesn’t happen anymore”. Jonathan and Alejandro aren’t healed, they are healing. It will take at least one more operation and time and exercise to allow their eyes and the brains to come into focus (like looking through your new lens prescription for the first time). But, when the Spirit causes someone to see that Jonathan and Alejandro couldn’t see and provide the funds for the Institute to follow Jesus’ healing mission, how can we say that Jesus doesn’t heal anymore?

Jesus came to announce the coming of God’s Kingdom rule. Jesus spat in the dirt and rubbed mud into a blind man’s eyes, demonstrating the mighty deeds of God’s coming Kingdom. With observant eyes, giving hands, open wallets and professionals committed to healing in Jesus’ name, people living under God’s Kingdom rule are bringing Jesus’ healing to boys like Jonathan and Alejandro.