< return to index

Tanya Vetrova
Tanya’s parents were very famous business people in her native town in Bashkiria. They had almost everything they wanted: several cars, beautiful clothes, a very big, nice apartment and so on. But her dad got into debt and one day they lost everything. They had to move to another city, where they lived in a very small room in a dormitory. Her father was taken to court, spent six months in prison, and then went into hiding at his sister’s place for one year. Tanya was eleven and twelve years old during these difficult times; it was a hard psychological stress for her. It was a very tough time for the whole family.

Tanya’s mom started to seek help. She became interested in non-traditional methods of medical treatment, including magic. One day, she opened the Bible, hoping to find peace and comfort in it. Through some friends of hers, the Lord brought her to the Baptist church, where she was baptized 3 months later. She talked a lot about God with her children (Tanya and her older sister), but they didn’t understand what she was talking about, at first. She even forced them to attend the church. In 1998, Tanya went to a Christian summer camp and there God touched her heart; she made a decision to change her life.

In her church, Tanya began singing in a worship team. She and her mom brought other relatives to their church, introducing them to the Lord. In school, everybody knew Tanya was a Christian – at first, her classmates made jokes about it, but eventually they began to treat her with respect for her faithfulness to her principles.