I was an Atheist. I taught physics and astronomy in a secondary school in Bulgaria and was responsible for teaching atheism. Then my brother became an Adventist Christian. I knew nothing about what he had gotten into, but I was sure it was trouble.

My brother told me of a man in his workplace who read his Bible during work breaks. He gave my brother some Bible literature and signed him up for a Bible course. My brother invited me to study the Bible course too, but I refused to listen to one word about God. Karl Marx had said that religion is the opiate of the people, and I refused to be tainted by it.

He kept urging me to study the Bible, and I finally agreed to read the lessons, but only so I could show him the errors of these studies. I read through them quickly until I got to the lesson about the second coming of Christ. It caught my interest. I went back and reread the earlier lessons and even filled in the study sheet. I grew impatient for the next lesson to arrive.

I began to visit my brother’s church. It was small and quite conservative. I experienced God’s presence and love in that church. I was learning to love others just because Jesus loves them. He relies on us to be His light in this world.

In my attempt to prove my brother’s new faith wrong, I found the Savior.

My brother eventually became a pastor, and I prayed that God would send me to a certain village to share my faith. God answered my prayer in an unexpected way. I was asked to become women’s ministries director for the Western Bulgaria Conference. I had been thinking of teaching a few old ladies in a village, but suddenly the church entrusted to me the care of all women in western Bulgaria! I am amazed that God could trust me with such a responsibility.

God has used this new role to help me minister to mothers with children who are not in the faith and to families experiencing abuse, and to help women find and fulfill their roles in ministry to their families, their church, and their society.

Your mission offerings help strengthen churches around the world and equip members to reach others for Christ. If my brother’s colleague hadn’t given him material to read, who knows where I would be today? Thank you.

Tatiana Modreva shares her faith in Vratsa, Bulgaria.

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