Robert Rogers used to have a family.

In 2003, he was blissfully married with four children, living and working in Kansas City, Kan., as an electrical engineer. The children were young — three of them still in car seats — and one had been recently adopted from China. Two were special needs.

On a night drive home from a wedding, all of that changed. A flash flood tore the family minivan off I-35, sweeping Rogers, his wife and their oldest child in different directions. When Rogers emerged from the waters almost a mile away, he was the only one alive.

All he had left was his faith.

This weekend, Rogers will tell his story at Brethren in Christ Church in Manheim. He will speak today at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9 a.m. about interpreting tragedy in one's dialogue with God.

"I couldn't see, hear or feel them," he said of the experience. "It was all so sudden."

Even as he fought in vain to rescue his loved ones, the three youngest still strapped in their car seats, Rogers recalled feeling no fear.

"In a strange way, there was a tremendous sense of peace," he said. "I could literally sense the peace of God assuring me that they were all going to heaven and that it was all going to be OK."

After the flood, Rogers described his engineering career as a "shoe that no longer fit," and he turned to ministry full-time.

"Everything changed," he said. "I just completely let go, had to surrender everything and ask God, 'What do you want me to do with my life?'"

Today, he travels the country sharing his experience, usually to small churches. So far he has recounted his tale approximately 670 times to more than 186,000 people.

"I've seen people's lives change and transform," he said. "I challenge people to know God, and live a life of no regrets."

He has no agent, no representation, and he doesn't charge a dime. He is supported entirely by donations and the revenue from his book "Into the Deep: How One Man's Story of How Tragedy Took His Family but Could Not Take His Faith," which he often distributes for free.

Rogers said that by divorcing himself from the finances the message of his work remains pure.

"If I tried to charge you for it, you couldn't afford it," Rogers said. "It all belongs to (God) anyway."

Gary Haldeman, a parishioner at Brethren in Christ Church who helped organize the appearance, said that he saw Rogers speak at Lancaster Bible College in September and found the story compelling.

"I think that (Rogers) is a man of incredible encouragement," he said. "He has an incredible spirit about him. He really believes it, and you can tell that he lives it out."

Brethren in Christ Church is at 54 North Penryn Road in Manheim. For more information, contact the church at 665-2133 or visit Rogers' ministry online at http://www.intothedeep.org/.

jpianka@lnpnews.com