The Rescuer: One Firefighter's Story of Courage, Darkness, and the Relentless Love That Saved Him

by Jason Sautel, D.R. Jacobsen (With)

Overview

The true story—told with heart-pounding action and heart-melting romance—of a heroic firefighter forced to confront an emergency even he can't handle: saving himself.

Jason Sautel had it all. Confident in his abilities, trusted by his firefighting brothers, and nationally recognized for his heroism, he was making a name for himself on the mean streets of Oakland, California. There was no emergency he couldn't handle, and his adrenaline-fueled job helped him forget the suicidal thoughts of his dark childhood . . . until the day he looked into the eyes of a jumper on the Bay Bridge and came face to face with an evil he recognized in his own heart.

In the following months, a series of traumatic emergency calls—some successful, others haunting failures—drove Jason into a deep depression. Even as he threw himself into his work as the model firefighter, he sank deeper and deeper, realizing he could never rescue everyone . . . or even save himself. Just as he was ready to take his own life, Jason began to see hints of hope: the relentless power of love. Packed with dramatic action and romance, vulnerability and inspiration, The Rescuer is a compelling story of courage, faith, redemption, and the one Person who really can rescue us from the darkness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781400216536
Publisher:	Nelson, Thomas, Inc.
Publication date:	12/07/2021
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	159,701
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Jason Sautel spent much of his early adulthood as a decorated firefighter in one of the toughest firehouses in the country and today shares Christ-centered stories and lessons from his time there to his 600,000+ Facebook followers. He loves his wife of sixteen years, Kristie, his four two-legged children, his two four-legged children, and appreciates God's gifts of donuts, surfing, and Maui.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xi

Chapter 1 A Bridge to Evil 1

Chapter 2 Whose Fault Was It? 11

Chapter 3 The Familiar Darkness 25

Chapter 4 Day Off 37

Chapter 5 Apartment #312 47

Chapter 6 Mr. Wei's Donuts and Chinese Cuisine 53

Chapter 7 Jaws of Life 67

Chapter 8 Dress Code 81

Chapter 9 Ready 91

Chapter 10 Mother's Day 97

Chapter 11 Alone 109

Chapter 12 House of Love 119

Chapter 13 Girl Time 125

Chapter 14 Rescue 135

Chapter 15 First Date 143

Chapter 16 Hit and Running 157

Chapter 17 Uncharted Territory 167

Chapter 18 The Firehouse and the World Outside 181

Acknowledgments 189

About the Author 193

Editorial Reviews

08/10/2020

In this moving debut, high school dropout and Oakland firefighter Sautel shares his experience of job stress that led to depression and how he came to be saved by faith. One of the writer’s earliest memories is of his first day of school, when his teacher placed him in a dark closet because he misbehaved; it was there he learned to carry around his own “closet of fear.” After his parents divorced, his mother moved across the country to North Carolina, while Sautel remained in California with his abusive, emotionally distant father. Sautel became a firefighter at age 18, and initially he found the work and camaraderie rewarding. But the buildup of traumatic experiences nearly led him to give up after a particularly harrowing moment when he failed to convince a bridge jumper not to jump. Then, a near-death experience in a fire causes Sautel to take a relationship he’d started a few months prior more seriously, making him realize how much he wanted to live and that “the times of peace, the genuine love, was God.” Mostly concerned with the unique difficulties of his life in the line of fire, Sautel’s riveting account will appeal to Christians concerned with the effects of trauma on mental health. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly