Wake-Up Call: Adult Mission Story for October 19, 2024

By Andrew McChesney

Marisa woke up suddenly at 2:30 in the morning. There was no reason for her to wake up. She had been sound asleep in her third-floor apartment in Spokane, Washington. She wondered if she needed to go to the bathroom.

A few minutes later, she was walking back to the bedroom from the bathroom when she noticed an unusual yellow glow outside the window. Looking out the window, she saw hot flames shooting up outside her bedroom wall. Her apartment building was on fire.

Marisa called out to her two dogs, Maggie and Daisey.

“Girls, come!” she commanded.

The dogs were cowering in a corner. They knew something was wrong.

At Marisa’s command, the dogs followed her to the living room. She opened the front door, and black smoke billowed in. She slammed the door shut.

“Girls, come!” she said.

Marisa and the dogs went to the balcony. Looking down from the third floor, Marisa saw people running around. The apartment building was across the street from a park where homeless people slept. Now homeless people were banging frantically on windows and doors, urging people to get out of their beds and apartments. One homeless man seemed to be in charge, and Marisa called down to him.

“Help!” she cried. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t get out my front door.”

The man looked up and grew very serious. “If you want to live, you have to jump,” he said.

“But I have two dogs.”

“You have to throw them down.”

Marisa scooped up one dog and dropped it. Then the other. After that, she climbed over the railing and fell to the second-floor balcony. From there, she dropped to the ground.

She sustained bruises and a sprained ankle, but she didn’t notice them. Her only worry was for her dogs.

“Maggie!” she cried. “Daisey!”

A neighbor said she had seen the dogs land safely and run toward the park.

That was a huge relief to Marisa, and she headed to the park, calling for them.

There was no sign of the dogs.

Marisa remembered that her cell phone was in the apartment. The only phone number that she had memorized was her brother’s. Marisa borrowed someone’s phone and called him. He answered on the second ring. Marisa was surprised. He slept soundly and was hard to wake up.

Marisa told him what was happening. “I need you to come get me and help look for my dogs,” she said.

Her brother came over, and the two drove around, looking for the dogs.

Fire trucks arrived.

“I’m impressed that we need to go back to the park,” Marisa said.

At the park, she called for the dogs, and Maggie came running up. Marisa was so happy! She fell to the ground, crying and hugging the dog.

It took 17 hours to find Daisey. Strangers combed the street. A social media page for missing pets posted a notice. A local television channel interviewed Marisa about the dog, and the police even put out a bulletin.

That night, Marisa’s brother called to say that Daisey had been found. He had been calling for Daisey on the street, and the dog had recognized his voice and run to him. Bystanders pulled out their cellphones to record Marisa’s joyful reunion with the dog.

For Marisa, it was a night of miracles. She lost everything in the fire. But God saved her life and the lives of her dogs.

But why?

As Marisa prayed for answers, she sensed God reply, “Because I am not finished with you yet.” The words were balm to her soul.

Marisa worked in adolescent and child mental health. She had been employed by the U.S. government as a juvenile correctional officer and by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. But when Covid hit, she found herself unemployed. Normally upbeat, she found herself in a dark period that she couldn’t seem to escape.

The fire snapped her out of the deep sadness. Realizing that God wasn’t finished with her yet, she remembered her calling to work with children, and she decided to return to it.

Months later, she moved to Arizona to work as the head girls’ dean at Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School. In the girls’ dormitory, she oversees several dozen girls with the help of Maggie and Daisey, who the girls love.

She couldn’t be happier.

“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” she said.

This mission story offers an inside look at a face behind the scenes at Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School, which received part of the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering in 2018 and 2021 to construct a Student Life Center. Thank you for your Thirteenth Sabbath Offering this quarter that will help spread the gospel in the North American Division.