I was looking for the meaning of life. And I found it!

I was born in the city of Sokyryany in the Chernivtsi region (on the border with Moldova) in the ordinary Ukrainian family. But my birth was very unusual: on my way, on the train, during my mother's journey from Sokiryan to Chernivtsi. For all passengers, including for mom, this was an event that could not be foreseen, but people who were at that moment were giving their shirts (good, it was summer - July 7, 1994) so ​​that you could to infuse a child, and that he (that is, me) was comfortable before arriving at the station and the arrival of "fast"...

This is how my life story began.

I could never think that the name given to me - Benjamin (a beloved or happy son, son of the right hand) will have such a profound and important meaning for me. And that God still in my mother's womb guarded me when she beat her stomach, not wanting my appearance on the light, and then, from the day of my birth (when people who were encouraged by Him, they sacrificed for my sake with my clothes) He will not be more than once Come to my aid, substituting My hands, protecting and supporting.

They took me away from the central hospital of Chernivtsi, where, after seven years of my life (after the combination of some circumstances), I will fall again.

The family, in which I originally grew, was, so to speak, big and unusual: mother and six brothers, and all - from different dads. Therefore, all of us, both physically and emotionally, and even with regard to vital interests and priorities, were little like each other. Probably the genes also affected.

My childhood passed in the fields. I fed sheep and from the age of five already earned the first money. At the end of the day, I was paid for a five-penny bill or a piece of brynza. How now I remember what she was delicious! I've never been to this place any more. Even in Kiev.

But my childhood was short lived: she soon left us all. She wanted to go for a walk and have fun ... And with such a plow of children it was unrealistic. Therefore, we were taken by a wonderful person, our countryman, Victor Shambra. He became our stepfather. Maybe to some of us he was a father, but we did not know it. On this occasion there were only assumptions and guesses ... Mom gave birth to children and left them, and took his stepfather and raised it. We lived with him like God in the bosom, milk and cheese.

Our house was on the edge of the ravine. A small river with a stream of water flowing down ... On the contrary - a soya field, forests, oak groves and a stone mine, where the white shellfish were mined. It was not a very heavy, but rather durable stone that retains warmth. People in that area used it everywhere. We also built a house from him.

At that time, there was no internet and phones, so we walked around expanses around, caring for animals: cow and sheep.

Running, playing and shouting, I often paid attention to echoes. I liked playing with him, I remember, I even spoke some of the prayers heard from my stepfather and listened to how they stretched and muffled back to me.

When we were once in the field, I heard the priest sings. I was very interested in this, and I tried to repeat him: "Let's pray to the Lord!" And later he trained in it more and more! Echo reflected my shouts, and I enjoyed it.

But such carefree childhood did not last long. Victor, who brought up our education on our shoulders, was not officially a father or a guardian. Therefore, when I was seven years old, we were taken to a hospital in which I got after birth, and after a while, after the examination, they were transferred to a boarding school. Of course, the authorities only managed to do this with a third attempt: we did not want to leave Viktor's house and hid each time.

We all missed our stepfather very much. Only there, probably in the boarding house, we really realized what a wonderful person he was. He took care of each of the six brothers. I can say that he raised and raised from the first days of his life. One bicycle and - all the children with him on it ... Every attention was given, to eat at all ready, a cow, and so on. At the same time, he managed to save us from each other, from the manifestation of cruelty and disobedience. This is a stunning man, courageous, clinging to life with all his strength. And, perhaps, we would not be taken from him ...

But ... an unexpected happened. I hate to recollect it. My stepfather went to work, and we were alone at home and very eager to eat. We still did not know how to cook ourselves. But they knew how to light the matches to heat something ... And we lit them. I do not know how the fire started and vaguely remember the whole horror of what happened: how we ran out of the house and how some fled away. As a result of misfortune, we lost two brothers. They died. Later one of us was sent to Italy. And we could not find it. And today, unfortunately, we do not know whether he is alive or not.

...In the Chernivtsi boarding school I spent 12 years. There was formed all my youthful "career". Life in the boarding house was different: sometimes funny, sometimes - deplorable. During these many years I have realized a lot. And I realized that all the roads lead to people. Therefore, regardless of which family you were born, what kind of education you received, you must become a person. It was not an easy task. In the boarding there were sensible boys and girls, but difficult. Undrained, boring. And therefore, the development and upbringing of such children was very difficult. Teachers have not always been able to influence them, in their character. The DNA of these children, to put it mildly, was "colorful". They did not understand and did not know what was the norm for others (grown up in full and normal families of people) - the warmth of relationships, love and interest in each other. Such children, as a rule, do not know how to reciprocate love, and even when they grow up, they are often unable to respond adequately to any of its manifestations: affection, tenderness, caring. They are alien to them.

Perhaps, therefore, my youthful years passed in disadvantaged diggings, among alcohol, in constant fights ... Sometimes - at stadiums diluted by playing football... Well, what else could be ?! Thank God I'm not seriously addicted to alcohol and smoking. One can say that I was passing by this dependence. And, probably, a big and positive role in this was played by friendship with Victor Ogorodnikov. He was my classmate who led a more or less normal life, and we united the first common "business". Together with him, we collected and handed glass bottles of beer and wine ... and then, on the money, as a rule, bought a large baton, lubricated it in the mayonnaise purchased in the store and shared with each other and those who, as well as we were hungry. So we were saturated and at the same time we smelled the smell of cigarettes and alcohol.

And already then, in children's still years, I understood the value of each penny, which helps me to live today.

I met my mom before my wedding. I went to her. She handed her a bouquet of flowers and said the words she was pleased to hear: "Mom, I do not blame you. Who knows how I would have acted in your place ... What happened, it happened."

I did not give up my last name and I'm even proud that I'm Yvonyak. I understand that not for all children, unfortunately, prepared a cheerful and carefree childhood. My life story turned out to be complicated and even sad. But, despite everything, I survived. Without mom and her worries about me. Because, as I now understand, God was always there. I forgave my mother.

We came to her and with my future then wife, communicated ... And with her, and with her new husband. They got acquainted with my little brother Ruslan, and also with my adopted brother. Mom was very glad to visit us. She admitted that she had seen on TV channel "Nadia" one day about me and was surprised that it was God who did not allow me and my brothers to perish, saved us and showed the right way in life. It was difficult for her to understand this. But she confessed that our stepfather, who had educated and cared for us from childhood, was an Adventist.

And I was amazed at all: what unbelievable ways the Lord leads each person to his kingdom! Indeed, just then, in childhood, God through the stepfather laid in me a subconscious desire to seek Him. Someone was looking for pleasure in cigarettes, alcohol .., dulling the bad habits of the concept of the true meaning of life. And I, like, was with them, but it did not satisfy me. I constantly wondered who I am, why I live, why my situation is so distressing and how I live next. Where, what is the true meaning of life?

...Near the boarding school, where I studied, there was an orthodox churchyard. When I was in grade 6 or 7, an Orthodox priest came to us and read prayers. I was always interested in it. I wanted to know what a church, an altar is and what's going on inside the church. Therefore, one day I came there and was very surprised when I was offered to learn by heart a psalm and become a novice. I went into Orthodoxy, began to read a lot, attend meetings. One day we and a group of believers came to the Orthodox monastery "Gorecha". We were congratulated there on some holiday, we gave the sweaters ... A real archimandrite approached me and asked: "What is your name?" I answered. "Oh, namesake!" He exclaimed, "Come next week to visit." I came. We met closer. He invited me to help him, as a novice. And I agreed.

I was then 13-14 years old. Gradually I began to take me to this monastery and for a summer vacation. Then I came there every weekend and was there already as my own. I liked everything so much that I decided to become a monk.

I brought many guys to the monastery. But, unfortunately, they were not trained to work and did not want to strain so much: to read, to teach, to help. And although many of them were orphans, they used to be used only during the years of their stay in a boarding school. So I stayed alone in the monastery. I made friends with one monk who greatly influenced my spirituality. He was truly a God man, very straightforward and honest. His Orthodox upbringing taught me a sacred attitude toward God. I learned a lot about Him.

But the time has come and my Orthodoxy is over. It happened when I was in the 10th grade. I talked to one novice who was older than all deacons, served the third year, but he was not raised. He waited until I got into the haystack, and very much he drove me away. Probably, I needed to knock a lot so that I could see the entire system of "zealous" attitude toward God.

They helped us prepare for graduation, then some of us - for a wedding, and, like good angels, were led by life. Now, for the moment, Svetlana and Alexander, Yuri and Oleg Kilimniki are my foster family. It was not documented, I was already quite grown up, but they are my family, and Yuri and Oleg are my brothers.

When I found out how wealthy people they were (both businessmen and two wonderful sons in the family), I could not understand why they came to us, which induces them to endure mockery and even spoilage in their address? Now I understand: Jesus died for all and for each and, of course, the chance to understand this and accept Him as the personal Savior of all. And they came to us to reveal this biblical truth to us. But then I was very skeptical about what I heard. Yet some unknown power encouraged me to think, to doubt and to seek answers to the questions arising in my consciousness. And over time I began to send Svetlana a letter.

In my childhood, it was very difficult for me to approach someone and start a conversation. Or even just say something. For me, another person is a separate universe. I was very afraid to open people. But it was easier for me to communicate through letters, I even wrote verses in them. That's how we made friends.

Then, after a certain time, Svetlana Alexandrovna told me that she was praying and God urged her to try to take me to her family. For the first time she invited me to a winter vacation: I wanted to see if I would live with her sons. Any woman, mother must understand what a child is from a boarding school. He can easily steal, he is not taught etiquette at the table, he can not communicate normally with other children ... It's all one hundred percent concerns me. And, inviting me to my house, his mistress was at risk. But apart from the disadvantages, I had one advantage: I was very curious. And that's exactly what helped me somehow immediately make friends with Svetlana's children - my present-named brothers.

Thanks to this God, the chosen woman and the living conditions and opportunities that I provided, I realized that one could be another person: neat, elegant, intelligent, inquiring, kind, open, frank. And at the same time, believe in God and understand that all that man has is His blessings that he should cherish.

Svetlana is a very good person, her house has always had a lot of guests, orphans. I have lived in the Kilimnik family for four years. She became a lifeboat for me and taught me to live.

Although, in spite of valuable life lessons, at the time of admission to the university, I began to practice boxing and, instead of always appreciating every penny, I began to appreciate completely wrong things. I was mastering pathos, not God. But He still loved me and cared for me.

One day, when I returned from the workout, I saw a large banner on which it was written: "And what if this is the end?" It was an invitation to serve. I asked the girl with whom we were friends then: can we go? And she agreed. I invited friends and we all went to this meeting together. That evening I began to understand what the Bible really is. I never read it, because I believed that reading the Bible and explaining it to people was the work of the pastor. But from that day on, with the help of my girlfriend Daria, who turned out to be an Adventist, she and her parents began to study the Holy Book for themselves. Their help was very important to me. And I consider this another gift of God in my life.

After some time, I also decided to become an Adventist and received a baptism.

From that moment my life has changed a lot. I constantly visited the church and at the same time I was preparing for the ZNO. I was attentive to what I was saying and how my first pastor, who baptized me, preached. He was in many ways a model for me, an example. And somehow at one of the Sabbath services I looked at the chair and said: "I would also very much like to serve and tell people about God, share my story about how the Lord changed me."

God seemed to have been waiting for these words.

My adoptive family was not at all against my choice: to become a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (ADS) and serve the people. And when I did not enroll in the faculty of journalism, which I wanted to study at first, I was offered (and free of charge) a higher theological education (plus one more - philosophy and religious studies) at the Ukrainian Humanitarian Institute in Buche, Kyiv region. And I took a chance.

At first I studied at the Dnipropetrovsk National University (DNU), then I moved to Kiev National University named after T.G. Shevchenko at the Faculty of Journalism. Moved to live in Kiev. And in the end it turned out to be in UIA.

A lot of opportunities appeared in front of me, one of which - work on television. I conducted the author's program "In the spotlight" on the TV channel "Hope". I met my best friends there.

On my way of life, as on the stairs leading me up to the knowledge of the Truth, God constantly "put" people who have beneficially influenced my life and helped move from step to step. And now I understand that without Him I could not achieve anything in this life.

At this stage, I still get a third higher education, specializing in journalism. What I've been dreaming about for a long time. And in parallel (as the Lord has arranged), I and my wife Margarita, with whom I met in the Ukrainian Humanitarian Institute, graduate, are engaged in business. I dream of raising business to the level when it will work for me, and I will serve God and people. We can serve financially and wait for God to open the door for us and show me my place: to do business or serve people as a pastor.

When I ask the question: Why am I an Adventist? I answer this: "Because there is no other alternative. Show me an alternative, and I will definitely consider your proposals." But there are none. All the ways of knowing the life, its laws and its meaning lead to the Truth, fully represented in the Bible and on its basis - in the teaching of the Adventist Church.

My life credo: "Promote the works of God, and they will promote you" - this is what always and constantly works. I am very grateful to God for this and for all that He has already done for me and will do.