Boy healer Emmanuel Ruiz begins crusade

One by one he touches them “in Jesus’ mighty name.” “I come with the gift of God,” he says. Then later, “I’m one of the disciples of Jesus Christ.”

His birth is said to have been a miracle.

He’s only 9 years old, but at his Aug. 11 crusade, Emanuel Ruiz was introduced as “our brother and prophet.”

“I would like to be an evangelist-prophet,” said Emanuel, a well-spoken boy dressed at his Bakersfield crusade in a crisp gold suit and blue Van Gogh tie.

“This has been my heart’s desire, to be a preacher like (televangelist) Benny Hinn,” he said.

The Emanuel Ruiz Crusade began July 8 at Hodel’s Country Dining. The August event at Hodel’s was the boy’s second.

Judging by the reaction of the 17 people who attended, the Bakersfield boy is touching hearts. Rosa Meyers, 48, said she was healed of right-arm pain at the July crusade.

“To me, what he’s doing is God’s will,” Meyers said.

Emanuel has come a long way in the last two months. He has been asked to speak and pray at various evangelical Bakersfield churches. He has obtained a publicist to coordinate his crusades. He has undergone a wardrobe makeover. And he can be heard on his Saturday radio ministry program on KLHC-AM 1350. Too much, too soon?

“I’ve seen many children preachers, and it is a very hard road,” said the Rev. Sharon Elmore of the Word of Life Fellowship Church, where Emanuel has been a guest speaker.

Elmore compared children preachers to children actors, who many times exhibit difficulty adjusting to adulthood. But she is hopeful for Emanuel.

“He will make it if he has the Lord in his heart,” Elmore said.

The Emanuel Ruiz Crusade is a family ministry. Emanuel’s father, 45-year-old Miguel Ruiz, plays piano and translates the boy’s services for Spanish speakers. His mother, 50-year-old Eustolia, offers testimony about miracles in her life.

Emanuel’s siblings — Miguel Jr., 18; Salvador, 17; and Maria, 6 — sing and play instruments in the ministry.

The Ruizes are avid admirers of Benny Hinn, a well-known televangelist who prays and lays hands on people during healing crusades.

Miguel Ruiz said the family has watched Hinn’s television broadcasts since 1991, as well as other televangelists. They have attended three Hinn crusades in Anaheim, including one attended by 3-year-old Emanuel in 1999.

According to the family, Eustolia was healed of a blood disease while pregnant with Emanuel as she watched a televised Hinn crusade.

Records from her doctor, Bakersfield gynecologist Arthur Park, confirm that the woman was a pregnant patient in 1996 but did not confirm the blood-disease condition.

Crayons and publicists

Emanuel began his prayer ministry at age 3 at the Church of Apostles and Prophets, a Bakersfield apostolic house of worship where the Ruizes are members. He has since taken part in services at several other local evangelical churches. The Emanuel Ruiz Crusade began because his father thought the time was right, the family said.

When Emanuel lays hands on people, he experiences a sensation of fire exploding through his body, the boy said.

“I feel glad for the people and how the Holy Spirit touches their lives,” he said.

As for the future, his father would like Emanuel to continue to serve God. “Wonderful things are coming his way,” Miguel Ruiz said.

Emanuel’s time away from his ministry is spent in typical 9-year-old fashion — playing hopscotch, football, cowboys and Indians, and Army. He also enjoys coloring in coloring books. The boy said he mostly plays with his siblings rather than other children.

He is home-schooled by his father, who works as an auto mechanic. Recently Emanuel began daily Bible study with his publicist, Tina Miller.

The crusade

For those having dinner at Hodel’s, Emanuel’s August crusade cost between $11 and $14.85. For everyone else it was free.

As attendees dined and chatted in a restaurant suite, Emanuel ate by himself at a table next to a speaker podium. The family said he had fasted all day in preparation for the evening crusade.

The crusade began with singing, which Emanuel did not take part in. The boy was poker-faced and yawned a couple of times before taking center stage.

He began haltingly with a testimony. “The doctor said I wouldn’t be able to be born and they would have to abort me,” Emanuel told the audience, “but the Lord did a miracle.”

To the accompaniment of gospel piano music, Emanuel called people from the audience to lay hands on them in a manner familiar to those who have watched healing televangelists.

The boy seemed utterly self-possessed as he placed his hand on people’s chest or shoulder and shouted, “In the blood of Jesus’ mighty name. By his stripes you are healed. Give him the blessing.”

Emanuel’s mother and others wept during the hourlong service, which received $184 in donations.

Russell Kleinhans, a member of Liberty Christian Center in Bakersfield who has been a Christian for 81 years, was impressed with Emanuel. Still, he had concerns.

“It’s so easy to exploit a little child,” Kleinhans, 90, said. “I want God to keep his hands on him, because before you know it, Satan comes in like a flood.”

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