'Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!' Patrick Henry's Rallying Cry for Freedom Turns 250

It was a dark scene. It was chaos coming here, trees down, there's power lines down, there's houses that are still burning, and I just could only imagine what it looked like here. 
In my mind, I'm thinking it. It had to be. If that's gone, there's no way this could have survived.
 
“But in the back of my mind, I'm saying it's gonna be there. It's gonna be there.” Bryan, a victim, stated.
 
“I'm standing at the entrance of Brian's home. This is what's left of his childhood home.” Noted Gordon
 
The home that his mother lived in, that he and his son lived in. And as you can see, there is nothing left. And this is just one.
 
“I just passed through block after block of devastated homes, like a graveyard of homes. The only thing standing in memory is the chimney left from the fire.” Gordon continued.
 
Operation Blessing is on the ground here. We've been here since the beginning to let people know that we love them. We're providing food for them; we're providing hygiene kits and whatever it is they need.
Going forward we're identifying families just like Brian, where how can we help you get back on your feet?
 
“How can we help you rebuild businesses and have a life going forward. With your help, Operation Blessing will be able to do that.”
 
For those of you who have given, thank you, you're making such a huge difference for Brian's life, for the life of his young son and for lives of many of the residents here who have said, yes, we need help. We need to be able to rebuild our lives.  So, thank you for your giving and stay with us because
 
“We're going to be partnering with local churches to do even more. If you haven't joined with us, I encourage you to do so. Now it's simple. Just give to the Operation Blessing, disaster Relief Fund.”
 

Richard says, “Knowing that Cindy was following me in her vehicle. And that was the other thing that I thought was I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”

On October 17, 2022, Richard and Cindy Palazzolo would face the beginning of a 15-month medical trial.

Richard recalls, “I felt these shock waves going through my arms, my chest, my back and my neck. It was pretty incapacitating.”

Cindy called 911. Within minutes the ambulance arrived. Richard was transported to the emergency room at Houston Methodist Willowbrook hospital.

Cindy remembers, “I was continuing to pray and got in touch with our kids, and our family and our friends to also be praying that God would protect him and that God would give these doctors wisdom to find out what's wrong.”

Richard shares, “I started praying silently to myself and just saying, ‘Lord, please help me.’ That's all I was able to do.”

The cardiologist who examined Richard believed there was a blockage in one of his arteries. The next morning, a heart catheterization performed revealed no blockages. So, Richard was released. Two days later, he began to feel the same sensations.

Richard says, “And I tried to fight through it, and they weren't going away, and they just kept intensifying.”

Cindy dialed 911 for help. She followed the ambulance to the ER when suddenly the siren lights were turned on.

Cindy says, “I just prayed God’s resurrection life to bring my husband to that place of healing and wholeness and to give the doctors wisdom to find out why this keeps happening to him.”

Carlos Manriquez, a paramedic with the fire department in the Houston area was the only EMT in back with Richard.

Carlos says, “Once I matched his appearance with that cardiac monitor, I knew that this was for real, this was happening.”

Richard remembers, “Everything became dimmer and dimmer and dimmer. So I said, please help me. I'm dying. And then that's the last thing that I remembered.”

Richard went into sudden cardiac arrest and stopped breathing. Carlos began to pray.

Carlos shares, “The first thing was, Lord, I need your help. I need you to do something right now, to save this man's life. I look at the monitor and I see a cardiac arrhythmia that's really lethal called torsade’s de point. It is extremely rare, cardiac dysrhythmia. I did not have enough time to defibrillate him, which is deliver an electric shock. Before I noticed that his heart rhythm converted itself into a normal sinus organized rhythm. The chances of coming back from that less than 1% without any pharmacology or electricity. It is almost impossible. He came back too, and I remember him looking at me saying, what happened? And I said, ‘you just died and came back to life.’ And it was just one of those, God, you know what? You, you really do exist. You know, it's a miracle.”

When they arrived at the hospital Carlos shared the miraculous event with Cindy.

Cindy remembers, “He goes, ma'am, ‘As I was turning to get ready to help him, all of a sudden Jesus came in that ambulance and I believe put the paddles on your husband's chest and brought him back to life. And it really is a miracle.’”

Doctors implanted a combination defibrillator pacemaker.  However, two days later, after having another episode, doctors diagnosed him with coronary artery spasms that were restricting his blood flow to and from his heart and gave him meds. After four days, Richard was released. Cindy, family members, and several pastors continued praying for Richard’s healing.

Richard shares, “God was just being pounded with all of those prayers. Knowing that people were praying for me was very comforting.”

Cindy says, “We can listen to the medical report. I had to listen to God's report. God's report said he will live and not die. God's report said He will make it through victoriously.”

Over the next two months, while Richard was in recovery he and Cindy prayed. They also visited a church where he received a word of knowledge from the pastor.

Cindy shares, “She saw the heart of a man in God's hands and said, ‘Your heart is healed, and you will live a long life to experience everything you want to experience in your life.’”

Richard says, “I just received it. We want to see our grandchildren grow up. Knowing that I’m going to be here for that now. Certainly, that was comforting.”

Richard went to the doctors who did further tests, and his electrophysiologist released him to begin exercising. He continues to take medicine for his heart and has been episode free since January 2023. He and Cindy have also been able to resume their full time Christian counseling practice where they speak at churches and conferences. They credit God and all of the prayers for his miraculous recovery.

Cindy says, “We would never be sitting here right now telling the miracle story without prayer. And not only our prayers, but prayers of many. So, no matter what you're facing, the bottom line is Luke 1:37. With man, it is I possible. But with God nothing is impossible.”

Richard shares, “Every single day. I never stop being grateful for what God has done for me. In fact, every morning when I pray, first thing I do is thank Jesus for saving my life.”

Nine-year-old Ablian (Ab-lee-an) and her family have always struggled to find clean water to drink.  When it rains, they collect water in buckets.  There is also a ditch that collects water for when the buckets are empty.  

“We have to drink the dirty rainwater,” Ablian admitted.  “The water in the hole in the ground is yellow.  It smells bad and is oily.”   

Ablian’s family used the water for everything: cooking, bathing, dishes and drinking.

“I remember one day after drinking it I got a stomach ache and diarrhea,” she told us.  

“I got a rash on my skin too.  But we had no choice. We had to keep drinking that water.”

During dry season, finding water was more challenging. They had to look for puddles in the forest or walk miles to the river—which was also unsafe to drink.  

Albian’s mother talked with us, too.  “The river water is murky.  Sometime there are dead animals in it.  I would cry and pray to God because I was so exhausted when we had to bring water from the river.”

Then, thanks to YOU, Operation Blessing built a water harvesting system for Ablian and her family.  Rainwater is collected and purified with chlorine in a 500-gallon tank. 

It is then safe for drinking, bathing and cooking.

“I am so thankful that Operation Blessing came and gave us clean water,” Albian’s mom told us.  “I said ‘God thank you for hearing my cry for help.’”   

And Ablian told us that the water is cool, clear and refreshing to drink.  

“It is great to have CLEAN water to drink so close to our house!  Thank you so much to the people who helped us!” 

What a beautiful example of how CBN partners share the love of Jesus around the world with people in need! If you’re not yet a partner, we invite you to join us today. Help bring God’s love through initiatives like clean water wells, medical missions, feeding programs, and so much more—all in the name of Jesus! Join us today and become a part of what God’s doing through CBN partners. 

May 18, 2006. It had been three days since Diane Pinkins’ husband, Ron, brought their only daughter, Rita, to the ER at Ascension St. Vincent hospital in Indianapolis.
 
The 27-year-old single mother of four had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia. Now she was in a critical care unit fighting for her life.
“It was very devastating. Prayer was just the constant thing that held us all together,” Diane recalls.
While on chemotherapy, Rita continued to deteriorate and ten days later was on life support.  During that time, she coded twice and developed a blood clotting disorder that caused internal and external bleeding.
“It was so scary. She was bleeding from her eyes, from her nose, her ears, from everywhere. They were unable to stop the bleeding. Things were not going in the direction that I would want them to go. It was very devastating.”
The news only got worse. Rita’s oncologist told Diane that her daughter needed a plasma infusion to replenish the platelets that would help her blood clot. Without it, she would bleed to death. Finding a match, however, would take time, and Diane and Ron were not matches. 
 
Diane was distraught. “The doctor just said, there's nothing else she can do. I just felt so out of control. I just broke down, I had fallen to my knees and was just praying, that God would forgive me for thinking that I had any control over anything. And then I asked that I would be able to accept whatever his will was gracefully, that I would be given a word as to what God's will was, whether we are losing her or whether she's gonna make it through.”
 
Diane and Ron weren’t alone. From the start Diane had gotten word out for people to pray – and it had spread.
“Previously the prayer had been, just pray for us, we need prayer,” says Diane. ‘“But then it changed, and I was like, ‘I need everybody to pray for a complete divine healing.’ The prayer lines were not only locally and nationally, but they were international.’”
 
People did more than just pray-- they showed up to donate plasma when a local radio station organized a blood drive for Rita.
 
“That was mind boggling, the people that got involved. The blood center downtown said they had never seen the influx of people coming in to donate plasma like they had with Rita.”
 
When the drive ended, they’d found a donor match and Rita got the platelets she needed. The bleeding stopped and one week after going into the ICU, Rita was taken off life support. She continued to improve, was eventually released and declared in remission… for now.
 
“My prayers were that God would just save me. I never even asked for healing,” Rita recalls. ‘“I remember a moment where God said, ‘I'm giving you my blood.’ And I believe that God was the anonymous donor. I was so excited. I was so grateful; I was so happy. I was just in disbelief; I was just in awe.’”
 
Rita was sent home with dozens of medications for maintenance and to kill any remaining cancer cells. Then, about a week after she came home, she says she heard from God.
 
“‘Right when I started to take it, he said, ‘Let this be the last time you take the medicine. No more medicine, you're healed.’ So, I stopped at that point. I was very, very adamant, about not taking it because I heard his voice so clearly that there was no doubt, no doubt at all.’”
 
For Rita and her family, it would become a journey of faith. Because a year later, in November 2007, the cancer was back and had spread. Rita was readmitted to the hospital for treatment.
 
“I didn't understand why it came back at the time, but I knew for a fact that God said I was healed. I never questioned God. I never asked him why. I just went through the process and trusted him. My faith never wavered. My relationship with God was a lot different this time around. And I remember laying hands on myself and praying. I experienced what he did for me. I knew that he could heal me.”
 
Diane agreed. “It was not good news by any means, but we were not defeated. We had had a word from God. We thought, well, this has to just be a test. The odds were completely against us, but we had God.”
 
Rita went through more radiation, chemotherapy and experimental drugs. Nothing seemed to be working.
 
“I remember the doctors telling me that there was nothing that they could do,” Rita remembers. “They've tried everything and there's nothing that they could do. And that is the point where I felt the most relief because I knew that now it's out of their hands and in God's.”
 
Then, after 4 months of treatments and prayer, Rita was again declared in remission. On March 25, 2008, Rita was released from the hospital and the next Sunday in church, there was a celebration.
 
“That was the most glorious day, even though in our minds we knew it was gonna happen. It was God's time,” Diane recalls.
 
Rita has been cancer-free for over sixteen years. Since then, she’s remarried, had another son and is more active than ever, working three jobs and constantly volunteering to help those less fortunate.
 
“My faith before was mustard seed faith, but that's all that it was,” Rita claims. “My faith now is mountain top faith. I believe God can do anything.”
 
“God is still performing those biblical proportion miracles today,” Diane declares. “He hears the voice of the masses, and he hears the voice of one. And if we would just humble ourselves and submit, then everybody can experience great things. I just want people to know that his love and his power, his omnipotence is real. It is so real.”
 
“Know that God is with you; you're never alone,” Rita agrees. “There's nothing that he can't do.”