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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Carissa Vitorovic

Unto the End

My husband and I are so excited to see you all this weekend.

And it's especially precious to come back to this community that we love and to bring our little boy, so he gets to meet all of his aunties and uncles here, as well as another little treasure that'll be joining us this spring.

So we are just so grateful for the chance to be here.

You know, when you leave an area, when you move from an area, It's interesting the things that you begin to deeply, deeply miss.

I have been craving their burritos for months now, and I look forward to getting a few this weekend.

And for me to say that and then to say, I missed you all even more, that's saying something.

So I am so grateful my husband, Danilo, who's taking care of the munchkin back there, We are also so grateful to be here with you.

Now I recognize that sometimes it, or at least in my opinion, can be highly overused, but in this situation it may indeed be appropriate.

This message may come with some level of a trigger warning.

I've been eyeing the audience to see, you know, essentially if there are children, so this might not be a message that is quite as ideal, though I will be sensitive in what I share.

But again, I don't see any children currently present, but for those that might otherwise be listening.

I wanted to share with you today parts of my testimony, parts of my testimony that I have definitely never shared in a public setting like this before, and for reasons that will probably become evident as the stories unfold.

You see, I had a bit of a non-traditional upbringing.

I was raised in Northern California, not far from the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains, which we frequently took advantage of.

My education was split between an Adventist academy and homeschool as well.

And as you're listening to these points, you might say, well, that doesn't sound so non-traditional.

Do you remember as a kid going out on the playground and you're talking with your friends and the little childhood competition begins?

Because you see, my dad was a murder investigator.

He did murder investigations for the state.

He did political investigations, med board as well, and also, for those of you that are now squirming in your seats, right, medical board, as well as cannabis enforcement unit and a few others.

And that of course made for very interesting dinner conversations.

If you were to join dinner at our house some nights, we might just be discussing where they hid the body as you pass the potatoes.

Do you think it was the husband or the boyfriend?

And while these conversations were incredibly fascinating and we found so much excitement in them, it felt like we were part of my dad's job as we're little detectives discovering the truth and justice warriors protecting the victims, right?

And we enjoyed so many elements of that experience.

But as you can imagine, there were elements that we did not enjoy.

My dad frequently traveled for work for these investigations.

And 1 particular night, all of us girls had already gone to sleep, when my mom received a phone call.

The man on the other end of the line said, I can see you in the kitchen washing dishes.

To which the caller said once more, I can see you in the kitchen washing dishes.

And he simply replied, my name is the shooter.

Again, late at night, 4 little girls tucked into bed, and my father off at work.

Another time, my mom noticed, as she was quite observant in order to maintain safety, that there was a vehicle that was parked out on the street, and it appeared to be watching our house.

And as the hours passed and the vehicle and occupant did not move, her alarm continued to grow.

We were told to play only in the back room.

Ultimately, my mom quite bravely went outside with her phone, pretending to call 911.

And at that moment, as the individual saw her walking outside, he, as you can imagine, took off.

That night when my dad got home from work, my mom said, you know, it's interesting.

We had a man sitting there on the street in his car, staring at our house for several hours, watching us.

And he was a man that appeared to be from such and such a region, such and such a country.

I'm currently doing an investigation that involves a business from that region Another time we received a package in the mail That was suspicious now when you hear what made it suspicious, you might say, well, that doesn't sound so creepy.

But when you hear the context of what we experienced, it becomes suspicious.

And when we picked it up, you could hear there was some object inside.

So the package was set back down gingerly.

And I remember as a little girl my excitement at getting to see a bomb-sniffing dog come to our residence.

Coming out to the side yard while we all stayed on the far driveway until he cleared the package and confirmed it was not a threat.

In fact, it was a sweet little old lady from church that had sent us an audio cassette that she thought we would love.

And I carried that little picture with me, the picture the officer gave of his little bomb-sniffing dog.

I carried that picture for years, a special little memento that no other kid had.

And while, again, some of these things sound exciting, well, for 1 reason, you might understand why I do not like watching movies.

And while in some ways it may sound exciting, As a child, there were also elements of it that were quite terrifying.

And certainly as I became older and had a greater understanding of what the implications could be.

Because you see, I had the incredible blessing of being raised in a home that was very supportive, very loving.

My parents, I just feel like they were incredibly nurturing and present for us and so many of the things they did I'm constantly like, okay I want to do that in my home and for our son.

But at the same time, our home in some ways felt like a war zone.

You see, usually when soldiers go off to war from the States, they go to another country, they fight the battle there, and then they come back.

But for us, the home was the place receiving threats.

The home was the place that was being watched.

The home was the place where phone calls would come late at night.

Yes, most kids are taught to clean up their toys each night before going to bed, but not many Kids are also taught to make sure they clean up anything that could be used as a strangulation device.

And you might say, hey, this sounds kind of paranoid.

That's what we needed to ensure occurred.

And as I thought about my experience, again, I hope you don't think too differently of me now.

So as I thought about my experience, of course, in some elements, it can feel highly isolating.

And yet, it's not too dissimilar from what each of us have experienced in our own lives.

It's just that the curtain is not pulled as dramatically as it was in our lives sometimes.

We don't realize that again, the great controversy is actively happening, that the devil and his angels are fighting against God in this conflict for your life.

And sometimes again, it's not the good cowboys wearing the white hat and the bad cowboys with the black hat, it's not that clear.

It's a battle with confusion, with deceit, with manipulation.

With this battle occurring in which we are all present, how can we ensure that we are not among the casualties?

Would you bow your heads with me as we pray?

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Unto the End

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