In 1991 my sister, Suzana, was wrestling with the decision to come back to church and be baptized. She had just started singing with a rock group and was doing well. All of a sudden people were noticing her and paying attention to her. But God was also paying attention and watching her. He was constantly trying to direct her toward Him, to bring her back to His family to which she had belonged since childhood. She knew all the Bible truths, but she was hesitant about her decision.
She said, “When certain conditions are fulfilled I will be completely on God’s side.” But time passed and nothing happened.
Then Suzana got a job as a secretary in a publishing house. All activities connected with the printing process were finished on Friday, so she had weekends free. She wondered, “Now that I do not have to work on Saturday, maybe God is telling me that I should come back to church.”
Then she thought, “What is the purpose of my life? Where am I going?”
Influenced by her thoughts, she decided to come to church one Sabbath. She saw familiar faces, sang songs, and listened to Bible verses. One of God’s commands became especially focused in her mind. She thought, “My boss is constantly telling me to lie, saying he is not in, when actually he is in. So I am lying. Though I am not working on Sabbath, I am breaking God’s commandment that says, ‘You shall not give false testimony’—the ninth commandment of God. I have to change and get baptized.”
Finally Suzana decided to serve God faithfully and keep all the commandments.
Not long after that something happened to strengthen her decision. She told us, “While I was driving to my job, I noticed a rather strange sound coming from my car’s engine. I managed to get to my office, but later I had to go to another part of town. I considered going by car or by bus. Finally I decided to go by car.
“While I was driving, the engine stopped. Somehow I managed to pull along the curb of the street. The engine was dead. At that moment a policeman came and said, ‘You could have lost your wheel. It is almost off.’
“I decided to leave the car there. Usually when something was wrong with it, my father would come to fix it and take it home. I went back to the office.
“I asked a coworker, a courier, to check on my car. He checked everything that might have caused the problem, but he could not find anything wrong. But the wheel was just barely on the car.
“That was a miracle! There did not seem to be any connection between the stopped engine and the unscrewed wheel. But he made sure that my tire was properly attached to the car. After work we went together to see the car. As soon as we sat down and tried to start the engine, the car started. The sound was as regular as it could be. The presumably dead car started working as soon as I put the key in the ignition switch.
That was really marvelous! When I arrived home, I warned my father that we might have some problems with our car and told him about my morning experience. I especially warned him about the irregular sound coming from the engine. But the engine never stalled again.
“I then realized that God was protecting me and intervened in His special way to save me when I was in danger. He stopped the car so my wheel would not fall off.”
Suzana was grateful to God for this experience and for the assurance that He was with her always; finally, she made the decision to serve Him completely.
Shortly after that she informed her boss that she could no longer work for the firm. Asked why she was quitting, she explained that she could no longer break God’s explicit commandment that says, “Do not lie!” Surprised by her new attitude, the boss accepted her resignation, though he could not understand why something that seemed trivial to him was so important to her.
My sister Suzana remained firm in her attitude to keep all God’s commandments, and she was baptized. God became the center of her life, and He is now completely leading her. We attend the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Skopje together, along with our mother. We pray that one day our father will join us, too. We believe God has ways to answer our prayers. In His plans for our lives, He certainly planned for our father to be saved too. I believe this is going to be a new life story that I will share with you next time.
