FROM BEACH TO DESSERT

Called to Serve: Loren and Diana Fish

My husband, Loren, and I had our dream jobs. He had a successful counseling practice, and I worked as a development officer for Global Mission Initiatives at AdventHealth. We were happy living the beach life in Florida.

We were both active in the church, but something was still missing. We began praying for God to lead us into full-time ministry together. In truth, however, we weren’t looking to move anywhere except maybe back to Tennessee where our children and grandchildren lived.

In 2014, I made a last-minute decision to attend a conference organized by the North American Division’s Women’s Ministries. It was a time of powerful prayer and surrendering of self to God. I happened to walk by the Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School booth in the conference’s exhibition hall, and I noticed some beautiful student-made, horsehair pottery. I bought three pieces.

As I made the purchase, a woman at the booth asked about my work. When I told her that I worked in development, she excitedly pointed at the other woman in the booth.

“She is our development director, and she is retiring,” she said, and then she proceeded to tell me that Holbrook was located in Arizona.

There is no chance that we are moving there, I thought.

My husband and I were partial to water. The desert was not on our list of places where we wanted to live. Besides, I had my dream job working for Global Missions. After I left the conference, I didn’t give any more thought to Holbrook Indian School even though I started receiving their monthly newsletters.

Six months passed. Loren and I continued praying about where God might lead us. During that time, a friend alerted Loren about an opening for a social work professor at Southern Adventist University in Tennessee. We were excited and began dreaming about a move.

Just as I had previously done with the Women’s Ministry conference, Loren made a last-minute decision to attend the 2015 General Conference Session in San Antonio, Texas. While there, he saw horsehair pottery off in the distance of the exhibition hall and soon found himself drawn to the same booth I had been – Holbrook Indian School.

A woman at the booth noticed his badge with the letters “LCSW” under his name.

“Does that stand for ‘licensed clinical’ something?” she asked.

Loren nodded his head and said, “Licensed clinical social worker.”

“We need one of those!” the woman exclaimed excitedly.

Loren nervously smiled, looking to make his escape, but the woman asked about his wife’s job. He responded that I was a development officer at Advent Health.

“We need one of those, too!” the woman said, waving at her husband, who happened to be Holbrook’s principal.

Later, Loren told me about what had happened.

“Uh-oh,” I replied.

A few weeks after that, we decided to pay a quick visit to Holbrook at the end of a previously planned vacation in Colorado. Shortly before we arrived, Loren received a phone call from Southern Adventist University. He was not chosen for the teaching position. Panic set in for me. I sensed that God was testing me to see whether I was willing to go wherever He led.

Loren and I spent more than nine hours talking with Holbrook staff about the school’s mission to Native American children and youth. We learned that the staff dreamed of having Christian counseling available around the clock for students dealing with post-traumatic stress and other mental health issues. I struggled to sleep that night in a Holbrook guestroom. I feared moving away from friends, leaving a job that I loved, and living farther away from our children and grandchildren.

Before I opened my eyes in the morning, thoughts began racing through my mind about how wonderful it would be to work at Holbrook. Jumping out of bed, I noticed a familiar-looking book on a bookshelf. I reached into my backpack and pulled out the same book, which Loren had received at General Conference Session. I had packed it at the last minute. The book was titled, “Follow: Anytime, Anywhere, at Any Cost” by Don MacLafferty. At that moment, I knew God was calling us to Holbrook Indian School.

I told God that He would have to put the same impression on Loren’s heart. I prayed and waited.

Several days later, as we entered our home in Florida, Loren announced that he felt convicted that God wanted us to move to Holbrook. That evening we submitted our resumes and began packing. Two weeks later we were hired.

We are amazed at how God used the challenges and experiences of our lives to prepare us for the work that He called us to do here at Holbrook. We are so glad that we followed Him.