Inside Story: Part 2: A Cry for Help

Inside Story for Friday 9th of May 2025

By Andrew McChesney

Diana’s party lifestyle began taking a heavy toll on her by the end of the summer after her high school graduation. One day, alone in a park in Monte Vista, Colorado, Diana looked up into the leaves of the trees and saw sunlight gleaming through. At that moment, she heard a voice say, “If you don’t leave here, you will die here.” Diana knew that the voice was saying that her way of living would lead to an early death and that she needed to get away if she wanted to live.

She spoke with her mother about the future, and her mother asked, “Have you ever thought about the Navy?” Diana was annoyed at what she thought was a silly question, but, three months later, she was enlisted and training in Orlando, Florida. After that, she sailed the world. She saw many things that repulsed her. Every seaport had prostitution, gambling, and worse.

In rapid succession, Diana met and married a sailor, was honorably discharged from the Navy, and gave birth to three sons. They moved to Monte Vista, Colorado, but Diana’s husband wasn’t happy with family life.

Diana became depressed and began idolizing death. At first, she wished to fall ill and die. Then she thought about taking her own life. In desperation, she prayed, “God, I believe You are real, but I don’t know where You are.”

Strangely, over the next week, she had conversations with people from four different faith groups. First, two young missionaries came to her door. When she let them in, one missionary opened a book and read a text that said people with dark skin could not enter the highest heaven because they were cursed. Diana was offended. As a child, she had been the only white student in her class during a period of desegregation in Virginia. She knew God loved everyone and told the missionaries, “You have to leave.” She wondered, “Why did they read that text to me?”

The next day, three women came to her house. During their visit, Diana asked them about the Sabbath. “We worship God every day,” a woman said. Diana thought that made sense, and she agreed to see them again.

Then a tiny old woman knocked on her door on a stormy Friday night. She was collecting funds for a disaster-relief charity. Although the family had very little, Diana gave her the money that she was saving in a tip jar from her job at Pizza Hut. She never saw the woman again.

That same weekend, Diana was invited by a friend to another church. She felt an evil presence upon entering, and she fled after the service.

This mission story offers an inside look at how God miraculously worked in the life of Diana Fish, development director of the US-based Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School, which received the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering in 2021. Thank you for supporting the spread of the gospel with this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering on June 28. Read more about Diana next week.