Today, Kent and Jessica Atwood have a happy life with their children. However, soon after they were married, Jessica gave her life to Christ after the death of her brother and their relationship changed. “Kent,” Jessica said, “I found Jesus and I want to be a Christian. I want to go to church and tithe. I want to do it all, I'm all in...and he was just silent.” In Kent's words, “You know, I thought I married someone and then six months after our wedding, I didn't marry that person and it was a completely different person. It all started from that and rolled downhill after that.” 

As Jessica began to live out her faith, she also desired to start giving money away. She began tithing on income she received from being an auditor for a hospitality company. “As soon as we started giving, we started having extra money at the end of every month,” she recalled. “Finances became easier almost immediately.”

Nine years into their marriage, they had two sons with another on the way and better paying jobs. Kent got a promotion and became a project manager for a construction company and Jessica got a new, higher paying job for a major auto manufacturer. Kent reluctantly agreed to allow Jessica to tithe off of his income too. However, as their giving increased so did his unhappiness. “I felt like that was our money,” Kent said. “And to give it away for something I'm not all about yet…it kind of hurt me and created tension between us.” 

One Sunday while they were at their church service, Jessica noticed Kent was crying. “I put my head down,” he said, “and I just heard, 'go get baptized.' I went to the back and I was so emotional in the back, the lady couldn't even understand me. She said, 'oh, sir, are you okay? Do you need me to call an ambulance?' I just said, 'I need to be baptized.' I was baptized that day and I've never felt anything like that, ever.”

“Kent came back to me after that and he was a changed man,” Jessica recalled. The couple began tithing together. “God has absolutely provided for us in the financial space and in our careers.” She exclaimed, “He's given Kent and I both favor and ability to do the things that He has called us to do.”

Today, the Atwoods are united by their love for God and happily married. They love to give and continue to tithe on all their income. “It's all God's money,” Kent said. “Money is nothing and it doesn't buy happiness. It makes you happy for a minute and then it's gone the next minute. To me, tithing is just the way of saying, 'thank you.'" 

“God is so good,” Jessica exclaimed. “And it is the one place in the Bible that has a promise that if you bring your tithes to the storehouse, He'll open the gates of heaven. He will provide and He is our provider. You can't outgive God.”
 

The Lius were thrilled to have twins and hoped their girls would always be happy and healthy. Then, the couple found out that one baby, Xinyi, had a hole in her heart.

Mr. Liu recalls, “She was diagnosed with severe pulmonary hypertension, which would lead to breathing difficulty, suffocation, and heart failure. When I heard this, I couldn't catch my breath. I’d heard about heart attacks on TV, but never thought anyone in my family would have one.” Mrs. Liu adds, “A doctor told us if Xinyi didn’t get surgery, she might not live to be a year old.”

Day after day, Xinyi struggled to breathe. “Her lungs didn’t have enough oxygen, so she stopped breastfeeding and choked, and her body didn't grow,” her father recalled. “She couldn’t speak yet, but she cried and screamed a lot. I think this was her way of asking me to rescue her.” 

Mrs. Liu asked family members to loan her money for Xinyi’s surgery, yet they wouldn’t help. So, Mr. Liu got a job in a coal mine. “Sometimes I wanted to quit,” he confessed. “But then I would think about my daughter and knew I had to go on.”

Meanwhile, Xinyi got weaker, and the hole in her heart got bigger. The Lius worried she wouldn’t make it. “My daughter’s blood vessels were really thin, and the doctor at the hospital had to try over and over to get a needle into her veins,” revealed Mrs. Liu. “Her father and I both cried as we watched.”

Mrs. Liu grew up as a Christian, yet she’d since forgotten her faith. Now, desperate to save her baby, she prayed. She explained, “I remembered how God had helped me when I was younger. So, I prayed, ‘Lord, I want Xinyi to get better. I hope you can come and bless her. Everything is up to you.’”

Soon, a nurse told the couple about Operation Blessing, and you helped make it possible for Xinyi to get heart surgery.  

“God listened to my prayer and helped us through Operation Blessing,” exclaims Mrs. Liu. “Without you, our daughter wouldn’t have been able to get this successful surgery.”

Mr. Liu added, “She’s gained five pounds. Now, she can crawl and she loves to laugh. I’m so happy to see her changing. She's like a different person.”

“Xinyi loves to play with her sister. Now she can have a wonderful life,” concluded Mrs. Liu. “I’m grateful from the bottom of my heart.”

Child of God Gracelet, Your Identity in Christ

Kara Diehl, a divorced, single mom raising two sons pinched pennies trying to make ends meet. Kara recalls: “Clothing that I wasn't wearing anymore, it was sold. Candlesticks that weren't needed. Sold my wedding ring for mortgage. It was sold.”

By day, Kara was an administrative assistant for a financial advisor; at home, she crafted scripture-inspired jewelry. Kara says: “People started asking me for the bracelets and I would just make them as gifts and just getting orders from churches for, you know, a pastor's wife wanted to give it to her staff.”

As a new believer, Kara sometimes gave what she could at church, but tithing? That seemed impossible. Kara continues: “I felt like God understood that I couldn't afford it because I didn't wanna starve. So, I had to keep everything I had.”

Kara's prayers often left her with the strongest impression about her jewelry-making hobby as a business. Kara remembers: “God started just giving me this, this leading to do it full time. And, I thought that was kind of funny because I thought it was not financially viable, but His [God’s] leading was so strong. So, there was something in me, this gifting of courage. So, I went into the boardroom on our Monday morning meeting. I gave my notice to the four partners, and they were all very nice, but I could tell by the looks on their faces, they thought I was crazy. And I went back to my desk, and I put my head on my desk and I was like, ‘what did I just do?' I had benefits, 401K, paycheck every two weeks. What am I thinking?”

Sitting at her desk panicked, and overwhelmed with self-doubt, the phone rang. Kara continues: “So, I pick up the phone, ‘Kara Diehi, can I help you?’ And it was Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church, and it was the bookstore and they wanted to carry my bracelets.” 

Lakewood’s bookstore put her in touch with a sales representative, who quickly placed the bracelets in 26 stores in 2012. Kara’s youngest son coined her new business venture “Gracelets.” Kara was sure: To kickstart a thriving business, she had to go all in on tithing.

Kara adds: “And so even though I had never tithed before, I knew that this was now in Him. And we, we were doing this together.”

Immediately Gracelets sales provided for Kara's financial needs. Kara says: “So, I tithed on my sales. So, whatever came in, I would give back.”

By 2015, she amped up her tithing and giving to over 20% of the business's income. Later she restructured her marketing approach and traveled to shows where her sales revenue increased even more.

Kara reports: “So, at the end of the year, year after year, my accountant, she'd always be like, ‘Kara, I'm just calling to check on your, um, giving number. Is this correct?’ I'm like, ‘yep.’ So I'd give her all the, all the different numbers and it was God's way of letting me do what I wanted to do on multiple levels. “

In 2021 Kara met Darren, and by 2023, they were married. Darren left his previous career behind, and now designs the "Men's Warrior" line. Today, they commit over 20% of their income to tithing and giving to charities supporting human trafficking survivors. Gracelets' revenues jumped 525% since 2012, reaching customers in 40 states and on five continents.

Kara concludes: “I had this sticky note that I still have in my checkbook, and it says, ‘thank you Lord for 90%.’ Because I know that I can't outgive Him [The Lord, Jesus Christ]. And I'm just so grateful for what He's [The Lord, Jesus Christ] done in me, through me, for my family, for my boys, for my new husband and I. He [The Lord, Jesus Christ] has proven how trustworthy He is, and He continues to prove that to me.”

For more information about Kara Dieh's jewelry, please visit her website: www.Gracelets.com.

Nombekumbeku used to love to sing and dance. Now she mainly sits in silence, because she is blind due to cataracts.

Nombekumbeku explained, “I lost my vision very suddenly. I was walking home and I fell. That’s when I knew I could no longer see. Everything around me is foggy now.  I can’t do anything for myself. I need to be accompanied even when I go to the bathroom, otherwise I get lost.”

Concerned for her mother’s well-being, her daughter moved back home to the Eastern Cape, South Africa, to look after her. 

“Not being able to see has taken away my joy,” said Nombekumbeku. “I used to be very lively and independent. I worked hard and never sat down. I grew food in my garden and cooked for myself. Now, my garden is dry and unattended. It pains me so much.” 

Then they heard about Grace Vision, a ministry supported in part by Operation Blessing, and reached out to us for help. Thanks to your generosity, she received her cataract surgery.

As her bandages were being removed, her daughter sat next to her in anticipation. Then Nombekumbeku looked at her and shouted in joy and disbelief, “Xezi, my daugther! Is this really you!?” She then said, “God is with me. He is walking with me!”

Nombekumbeku broke out into spontaneous dance as she thanked everyone around her for their help.

“I can see perfectly now. I am so relieved. I feel like myself again. I feel alive!” exclaimed Nombekumbeku. “You have unshackled me from my pain, and I am no longer a burden to anyone. I am healed and very happy, and it’s all thanks to you! ‘Thank you, Operation Blessing. Thank you so much.’”