A pastor in Texas spotted and extinguished a fire set against the outer wall of a church shortly after a woman entered the building and left a gift bag ahead of a vigil for conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Inside the bag, investigators later found vulgar threats and a handwritten Bible verse, along with business cards tied to the suspect.

Police in El Paso arrested 35-year-old Marynka Zarina Marquez of Denton and charged her with arson for the Sept. 17 incident outside Beth El Bible Church. 

"When police arrived, the investigation revealed that a woman had gone to the church, placed a large bag against the outside wall of the church, set it on fire, and then fled the scene," local authorities said in a news release. "Fortunately, the pastor was leaving the church when he spotted the fire and quickly put it out."

Investigators say the bag's contents include a paper plate with hateful language inscribed. Marquez is held at the El Paso County Detention Facility on a $50,000 bond.

In a statement following the arrest, Beth El Bible Church officials said they are "disheartened" by the incident.

"We believe in letting the local authorities do what they are called to do," the statement reads. "As a church, we choose to forgive. We give thanks to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for his protection of our facilities and our lives."

The fire was set near the church's exterior wall at 6440 Montana Avenue in the evening, one day before a scheduled vigil for conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University.

The message depicted hateful language towards Kirk. Volunteers reported that Marquez rang the doorbell during a prayer meeting and stated she wanted to deliver a package for the Kirk vigil, according to KTSM.

A volunteer led her to the sanctuary near the front stage, where Marquez left a blue gift bag with the floral arrangements. The volunteer then walked her back to the entrance. Marquez retained a second bag, a brown paper one with a towel inside, and left the premises.

Roughly 30 minutes later, as the pastor was leaving the building, he spotted a fire burning near the wall and quickly extinguished it. The pastor and volunteer then noticed the brown paper bag had been left at the scene of the fire. They returned inside to examine the blue bag left earlier by Marquez.

Inside the bag were paper plates, a printed photograph and several business cards bearing the name "Zarina Marquez" and a link to the website macuca.net, which advertises an art and strategy LLC called La Macuca.

One of the plates contained handwritten messages referring to Kirk, including "C Kirk is eating p— and s— in Hell" on the front and "Soon you'll help him eat and drink it all" on the back.

Another plate displayed a photograph of a young girl being carried by a man, with added text reading "C is 4 coward, C is 4 Conservative, C is 4 Control." In the upper corners of the image were the logos "trtworld" and a timestamp marked "0:22."

The outside of the blue bag was marked with the words "RIP" and "PSALMS 118:6."

A witness told police the contents of the bag were a direct threat meant to intimidate the church and disrupt the Kirk vigil, which was expected to draw between 100 and 150 attendees, according to KTSM.

The investigation, led by El Paso's Special Investigations Unit and the Fire Marshal's Office, traced the business cards to a photo on La Macuca's website. The image depicted a group of individuals, and the church volunteer identified Marquez as the person in the center of the photograph.

A subsequent check of state records confirmed Marquez had a prior citation in El Paso in 2007 and a listed residential address in the area.

Police determined that the fire was intentionally set using the brown paper bag left outside the church. Officials said the act qualified as arson with intent to damage a place of worship.