Bless Those in Need This Christmas

“I felt like not only was He rejecting me, I felt like He wasn't real. I felt like I hadn't seen God do anything for me. So He's not real. I mean, where is He at?”

Rhoda Diehl grew up as the equivocal “good church girl” and had high expectations of her life being the fairytale she’d always hoped for. However, unexpected heartache began chipping away at her young faith starting at age 16. That’s when she learned her mother had breast cancer. “I didn’t know if my mom was going to live or die. It was hard…seeing my young, beautiful mom just fight to live.” Though her mother’s cancer then went into remission with treatment, this experience had already launched Rhoda onto an unraveling journey of anxiety, depression, and hopelessness.

At 19, she married her childhood sweetheart. It was far from the fairy tale marriage of her dreams and quickly ended in divorce, but not before the birth of her first child. Now as a new mother with an infant, left feeling alone and rejected by her divorce, Rhoda concluded that her faith was useless. She began smoking cigarettes and drinking. She became a chain smoker as she realized that the nicotine calmed her down more than her medication.

“I trusted that God was going to heal (my first) marriage and put us back together, and it didn’t happen. I blamed God…I was like I’m going to do a different route now…I’m going to go out with guys that don’t go to church now.” She did this to spite God because she felt like He didn’t answer her prayers concerning her first marriage. 

Since her first marriage with a Christian guy didn’t work, she chose a non-Christian to marry next. However shortly after the wedding, her second marriage also experienced significant issues that led towards its eventual demise --- but not before her second child was born. By 25 she was divorced again, but now with two children by two different ex-husbands. The feelings of shame and rejection began to intensify.

She hit rock bottom in 2006 at age 27 when her mother died from the breast cancer that had swiftly returned. Rhoda was devastated when her mother passed away. “She was everything to me…she was my provider…she was my friend…she was like a mother to my children…I was broken into a million gazillion pieces.”

Her parents’ home was then sold, leaving Rhoda and her two kids homeless. She went on welfare and shuffled between the homes of her three brothers. Her breaking point came about a year after her mother’s death. She was nearly 28 and driving to her brother’s house one night. When she pulled into the driveway, she looked in the rearview mirror at the big Tupperware box on the backseat that held all their belongings. “The car was literally our home…I started to cry and weep, and I cried out to Jesus at that point…I was sitting in my car. I began to say the sinner’s prayer. I rededicated my life back to the Lord. I literally felt the Lord just wrap His arms over me…I felt his love…I felt a peace that a beer bottle couldn’t give me…a peace that a cigarette or my anxiety medicine…couldn’t give me.”

Rhoda began going to a Spirit filled, Bible teaching church. She had seen her mother often fast and pray in the past. She says, “I began to fast. I began to pray…and the Lord broke down every wall in my life…He healed my heart…and set me free.”

Two bad marriages had made her give up on the thought of ever marrying again --- then she met Troy Diehl, an older, godly, well-established businessman nearly a year later. They married on October 9th, 2009. 

Troy and Rhoda have been happily married for the past 14 years. In all those years, she has never had to worry about financial provision for herself, her own two children, or the three biological children she has with Troy. Today, she (in her word), lives in the house of her dreams with the man of her dreams. (A special aspect to note --- when Rhoda and her children were bouncing from house to house, her 2-year-old daughter used to always tell her she wanted a princess room. When Troy and Rhoda married, her daughter got her pink princess room.)

Rhoda has written a book called, The Jericho Fast. Rhoda says, “That’s how my book got birthed…because…through all that hurt, through all the pain I began to fast; I began to pray.” She began to see incredible results because of her fasting and prayer. Her heart’s desire is to help others fast and pray so that they can have the same miraculous breakthroughs that she has experienced through fasting and prayer. 

“God is able. He can take you from the pit to the palace. He can take you up out of a mess and turn your whole life around. My story shows people that there is a God. And if He can do it for me, He can do it for many others.”

Purchase Rhoda’s book, The Jericho Fast here: https://rhodafayediehl.com.

August 8, 2021, the Routh family were on their way to their annual vacation, camping in Myrtle Beach, SC. As always, they prayed before getting on the road. Mike recalled, “And we just pray for traveling mercies that we would be a bold witness for everybody that we come in contact with while we're out and on vacation and everything else.”

Almost two hours into the trip, they stopped for gas and a bite to eat. While there, the father, Mike and their oldest daughter, Rebecca, stayed at the gas station as mom, Paris, started across a busy intersection with their two younger children, Calais and Fisher. After crossing the first two lanes safely, Paris and Calais stopped when they saw oncoming traffic. However, Fisher didn’t look and stepped in front of an oncoming car.

Paris remembered, “I saw what was about to happen and I said, ‘Fisher look right!’ And he was thrown in the air. He landed on his head and he landed in a crumple. I thought to myself...the thought crossed my mind, 'You just watched your son die right in front of you.'” Frantic, Paris called 9-1-1. By now, Mike and Rebecca had run to their side.

Mike remembered, “You go immediately to thinking the worse. What would he look like? Would I be able to talk to him? He was anguishing in pain and crying. It's a time that you realize there is nobody but God that can help you at that point." Paris shared, “I was just praying and begging God for his life and just saying, ‘Please don’t take him from me.’”

The paramedics arrived within minutes. After stabilizing Fisher, they put him, along with his mom, in an ambulance and headed toward Mcleod Regional Medical Center, a trauma 1 facility. By now, friends, family, and their church had been told to pray for Fisher. Paris said, “I wanted to let him know we had many people praying for him. And then the other thing that was really on my heart, I said, ‘Fisher, I love you.’”

In the ER, the doctor’s biggest fear was that he had suffered severe brain damage. Paris recalled, “We waited for those test results to come back. And that was anguishing time to wait.” Finally, the results…..other than a mild concussion, bruises and road rash, Fisher would be fine.

Paris shared, “There was no broken bones, no skull fracture, no brain bleed. There was no problem shown on the CT scan. I can just never say thank you enough to God that we're able to all be together and that we still had Fisher with us.” Mike recalled, “I just started thinking about the goodness of God in our life. All the glory, all the credit, you know, everything was to Him.”

Seven hours later, Fisher was released. Although bandaged up, in some pain and a little foggy, he and the family were able to continue their vacation. After a couple of days rest, Fisher was enjoying all the activities he loved. He even went swimming!

Fisher shared, “I realized how much worse it could have been and what I was protected from. I was thankful to God that I was alive and that I was able to go on vacation still.”

Mike said, “As I looked at him, I just kept going back to the goodness of God in that there were so many things that had to be aligned for him to be able to be standing there like he was.”

Since then, Fisher has completely healed and has no residual effects from the concussion. Police reports would later conclude the car was going almost 30mph, and he was thrown 15 feet in the air before landing on his head. The doctors said it was a miracle he survived.

Fisher said, “Prayer definitely had something to do with me just being okay. If you pray and are sincere about what you are praying, you will receive an answer.”

Mike shared, “We put God in a box, and if we'll trust Him and we'll put our life in His hands fully, He will bless us.” Paris concluded, “We could never say thank you enough for God to heal our son and to give us this miracle. God is faithful, He is trustworthy.”

Eight-year-old Claudia lives with her parents in El Mirador, a remote community in Mexico. Their greatest challenge has been finding and transporting the water they need for drinking, bathing, and cooking.

The path to the water source is steep and long, and can be especially challenging during the rainy season. Claudia's mother, Deyra, said that the water from the source is not safe to drink, and that her children have gotten sick from drinking it in the past.

But thanks to a rainwater harvesting system installed by Operation Blessing, Claudia and her family now have access to clean water. The system can collect up to 1,300 gallons of water, which is then purified and made safe to drink.

Deyra said that the rainwater harvesting system has made a big difference in her family's life. "It's great! We can take showers and there is plenty of water for us to use," she said. "We feel safe drinking water because we know it's clean."

Claudia is also grateful for the new water system. "Thank you Operation Blessing for giving us clean water!" she exclaimed.

Rainwater harvesting systems are a simple and effective way to provide clean water to remote communities. They are also relatively inexpensive to install and maintain. Operation Blessing is working to install rainwater harvesting systems in communities in Mexico, helping people to gain access to clean water. You can be part of this project too, when you support Operation Blessing! 
 
 

The annual tradition continues on the campus of CBN as The Founders Inn rings in the Christmas season with their annual Grand Illumination.