Jesus-like image seen on buckled drywall

SARALAND, Ala. – Church members here say a buckling of drywall in their flooded sanctuary resembles a crucifixion and works miracles.

“You never know how he is going to come,” says Ella Roberts, pastor of the Triumph Learning and Worship Center for Life. “You can’t explain it. It just is what it is.”

The image appeared after flooding from Hurricane Katrina left the church damaged, Roberts says. Though the image is some four feet above the waterline, the spot looks similar to spots along the floor.

Church members have been using the image that they say resembles Jesus hanging on a cross as a prayer tool, placing their hands on it as they talk to God.

Roberts, who suffered from extremely high blood pressure, says she recently experienced a miracle herself. During prayer on March 15, something happened, she says.

“There was a feeling I had never experienced before in my life,” she says. “I was shaking. The wall felt like it was moving. A chill came over me. I was cured.”

Recent tests have shown acceptable blood pressure, she says.

Some of the other 150 members of the church have similar stories.

Benita Bogan is a prophetess, a church designation that notes her spiritual maturity. Bogan says she was looking into getting a pair of glasses so she could see small print clearly. But after praying with the image on the wall, she says, her eyesight is perfect.

Others who have prayed report divine intervention cured ailments from depression to kidney disease.

Claims similar to those from the Saraland sanctuary pop up from time to time, says William Dinges, a professor of religious studies at the Catholic University of America.

“What’s important here is not what one person or another sees,” Dinges says. “The belief exists. The belief has effects.”

In recent years, people have claimed sightings of Jesus on everything from church walls to burn marks on a piece of toast sold on the Internet auction site eBay.

An empty picture frame hangs on the wall around the image at the Alabama church. The church now opens six days a week from noon to 2 p.m., allowing people to pray with the image.

It has been a blessing, says Diane McCowin, the church’s musician.

“A lot of times we tell people what we believe,” she says. “They say God isn’t working miracles now like he used to. I prayed for him to give us something tangible.”

Another of the church’s ministers, Marlette Holt, says she believes this wall will change minds about spirituality.

“It’s like God is trying to show people he’s real,” she says. “I feel he’s trying to open even the simplest minds.”