God leads and guides people to Himself in many different ways. Sometimes it happens instantly through a conversation or the words of the Gospel message for the first time. Other times though, it happens after a journey—a journey that might come with the memories of Sunday school as a child, visiting a church later in life, hearing the Gospel message more than once, through conversations and kindness from others, and then maybe even the words of a song at just the right time.

Although life may have been difficult and full of unanswered questions along the journey, God was still directing the paths, speaking through the family of God and through His Word. During these journeys, He opens our hearts to His saving faith in His ordained timing. Sometimes it is difficult to understand why some of us search for Him longer than others, however, we can rest assured in God’s perfect timing and perfect ways for each one of our lives.

Please continue to pray for the SGA-supported missionary pastors and their church congregations as they continue to be a guiding light for the sake of the Gospel.

From SGA-supported missionary pastor Mikhail . . . 

A testimony of God’s work in leading a person to faith in Christ

We met Vera when she was looking for answers to questions about the meaning of life. She was 26 years old and already she had been through a lot. She attended Sunday school for several years but became disillusioned with people and stopped going at all. Instead, she tried developing relationships with young men but was disappointed by them, too. She immersed herself into the spiritual world through the occult. She pursued fortune-telling on cards, runes, tantric yoga, and other spiritual practices which led her soul into another dead end.

When Vera was only about five years old, she fell out of a third-floor window. All she remembered from this story was how someone very strong caught her and gently laid her on the ground. There were no people around when she fell and her mother made an unequivocal conclusion that the person she was talking about must have been a guardian angel.

She also concluded that God had a special plan for her daughter’s life. For this reason, they began to take her to Sunday school, and her mother began to attend church. But neither religion, nor relationships with young men, nor involvement in the occult, nor even her family could give Vera answers to the questions about why her life was spared. She could not even determine what the meaning of life was in general.

While surfing social media on the Internet, Vera came across the page of our church. She began to look through photos, read posts, listened to several excerpts from sermons, and her heart somehow reacted in a special way to what she saw and what she read. She decided to visit our fellowship.

When she came to a Sunday church service, she was greeted with a warm welcome and people tried to minister to her soul. Christ spoke to her heart through our brothers and sisters. Someone offered her a cup of coffee. Another just came over to get acquainted. The pastor of the church briefly talked to her about the Gospel and told her the basic truths that everyone should hear. After the service, she stayed for youth fellowship and the Lord’s work within her heart continued.

Vera decided that someday she would definitely return to these friendly people and maybe even attend their activities. But one evening she decided to go to a disco to distract herself from the continual questions that tormented her and just looking to have some fun. The DJ played a secular, yet beautiful song in English, and Vera began to listen to the words while everyone else paid attention only to the rhythm of the song. The words of this secular song hit her right in the heart. These are the partial lyrics that she heard:

“Check me out. Lighten your soul with Confession.
And I’ll absolve you of your sins.
You know I’m very forgiving.
Find faith. Your personal Jesus.”

In the midst of the music, dancing, and semi-sober people, those words tore at her heart! She remembered the conversation with the pastor at church, the words she had heard: “Faith, only Christ can fill your life with real meaning. He came to give you life, to free you from the destructive power of sin, to forgive you, to fill your heart with peace!”

The lyrics called for a decision. And right there, in the club, alone in the bathroom, Vera cried out to God, confessing her sins, and asking Him to change her life. She left the club a different person. She left the company of her sinful friends and went to church on Sunday, deciding that now they would be her new family where she would be accepted.

For several months, the church’s ministers periodically communicated with her, answering her numerous questions and sharing their experiences of the Christian life. They also prayed with her about the experiences God was taking her through. The youth of the church involved her in various activities and taking care of her soul. In October 2025, Vera enrolled in the “Fundamentals of the Christian Faith” course. These courses are held in the church in order to familiarize people with the beliefs of our church family, to tell them about the values that the church adheres to, and to help them make a decision about water baptism.

On December 28, 2025, Vera was baptized and became a member of the church by God’s grace! Her path to Christ was not easy, but thanks to His grace, she now rejoices at the changes that God has made in her life.