‘God had his hand on them’: Lakeland families await students’ return from Israel

LAKELAND, Fla. — Families at Victory Church are finally breathing a sigh of relief as their loved ones have safely made it out of Israel and are now just a few flights away from home. 

Inside the church, member Charity Diehl has been trying to keep busy as she waits for her family to return.

“I know that they are safe. They’re doing the best that they can, but there’s also all those other things that go through your mind that are what-ifs, and it’s hard to keep those quiet — to shut those out. So it’s kind of what we’ve been dealing with as parents who have kids there,” she said.

Twenty-four high school students with Christians United for Israel, along with their chaperones, left for an educational trip to the country last Monday. Four of the teens are from Lakeland, including Charity’s daughter, Maya. Her husband, Brandon, is leading the group. She says this was their first time back in Israel since taking a break in 2020.

“They went to the Jordan River, saw many places. They got to walk the Palm Sunday Road, so some great experiences there that they got to go and see before all of this started,” she said.

Charity says she got a text from Brandon letting her know that Israel was under attack. She was told the group quickly went to shelter, spending most of their time in a bunker. Since then, Charity has been staying updated on their whereabouts and kept in contact with her daughter.

“She said, ‘One of the hardest things you can do in life is to get woken up by a siren, grab whatever you can, hopefully finding your passport, and then walking eight flights of stairs down hoping that you don’t fall because you’re still half asleep and doing all of this in under a minute,’” she read from a text message from Maya.

As for Brandon, he told Spectrum Bay News 9 over Zoom that the hardest part has been wanting to do everything he can to keep each student safe.

“You know, I’m responsible for someone else’s child — that they entrusted me with their safety and security — and just basically the weight of knowing that there’s some stuff going on, and I want to keep them absolutely safe and secure at all times.”

Thankfully, the group is in Rome with just a few more flights until they return home. Until then, Charity and other parents will continue to lean on their faith, which she says has carried them this far.

“Things could have gone terribly wrong. There could’ve been anything — the what-ifs come back in your mind, but I know that God had his hand on them,” she said.

The group is expected to fly into the U.S. on Friday. Several of the students live out of state and will head to separate destinations once they arrive.