Inside Story for Friday 7th of March 2025
By Andrew McChesney
To the Seventh-day Adventist pediatrician, the 13-year-old Alaska Native girl resembled a giant.
Four months after their first phone call, pediatrician Colette Reahl made the seven-hour drive from Anchorage to Fairbanks, Alaska, to meet Matrona for the first time at the facility where she lived with 19 other girls and boys. Matrona stood at 5 foot, 7 inches (174 cm). In comparison, Colette was a diminutive 5 foot, 3 inches (162 cm).
When Colette saw the girl, she thought, She looks like a giant to me. This should be interesting.
Matrona, who was sitting on the floor in a meeting room, was very shy and didn’t want to talk at first.
Colette sat down on a couch near her. A few awkward minutes passed, and then she remembered that she had brought a gift, an encyclopedia about animals, for Matrona. Colette opened the book and silently began to leaf through the pages. Matrona’s curiosity was raised, and she slowly inched her way over to Colette. Before long, Matrona was sitting beside Colette and looking at the pictures with her.
It was a pleasant first visit, and it lasted three hours.
The two met again the next month, and Colette gave Matrona a Bible. She suggested reading the Bible together over the phone. But when she called, Matrona made herself unavailable to talk.
Then Matrona moved to a facility in Anchorage. She was lonely and missed her friends in Fairbanks. She began to call Colette every day, trying to persuade her to adopt her.
Colette, meanwhile, started the process of changing jobs. Her work as a pediatrician in Anchorage was ending, and she was preparing to move to Bethel, the largest community in western Alaska, with a population of 6,000. She would work at a hospital there.
“Ewww,” Matrona said when she learned about the move. To her, Bethel was a small village, and she thought it would be boring.
This mission story offers an inside look at a previous Thirteenth Sabbath project. Pediatrician Colette Reahl is also coleader of Bethel (Alaska) Seventh-day Adventist Church, which received part of a 2024 Thirteenth Sabbath Offering. Thank you for helping spread the gospel with this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering on March 29. Read more about Colette and Matrona next week.
(0)Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-10-inside-story-the-persistent-visitor-part-2/
