Have you had a meeting that made a fundamental impact on your life?

I have! My name is Alexandra and I want to tell you about a meeting that solved a huge problem for many future students. Scholarship is a magic word!

I'll start from the beginning. After I finished high school I had no idea what I would like to study next. My parents trusted me and didn't put pressure on me. I was so scared of choosing a major that I would later regret that I didn't apply anywhere.

After working in different capacities I realized that I was interested in directing and began looking for a theater school. I prepared for entrance exams on my own but didn't get enough points for scholarship. Since I couldn't pay for my studies I had to postpone entering a college for one more year. During that year I had a professional tutor who helped me prepare for the exams. Yet I still didn't get a scholarship and began studying at a branch of Kiev Arts University in a provincial city. My dream was to get to a better school on scholarship!

A month before the beginning of the second year I received a phone call from the university. I was told that my group had been dissolved and that we could try to continue our studies at the Arts University in Kiev. As a believer I had been praying for my dream to come true and received this news as an opportunity from God!

I'll never forget that day, August 31, 2005, when four of my classmates and I came to conquer the capital, Kiev. We were alone in this large city! The people at the university administration weren't impressed by our story and said they couldn't help us. My classmates just went back to the train station to buy tickets home, but I didn't give up. I believed God could do a miracle. As it was getting hot outside and I had no place to go, it was harder to believe… but in my mind there was, "Believe Me till the end!"

And then the most interesting things began to happen. I saw Mikhail Poplavskiy, the university president and a well-know public figure in Ukraine, arrive escorted by his guards. As I followed him I realized that many other young dreamers like me wanted to get an audience with him. "If I get in line I won't be able to talk to him today," I thought. I was surprised by my own assertiveness, for I usually considered myself to be a mild mannered person. When the president stopped to talk to someone in the hall I just stood next to them waiting. After they finished talking I addressed him and showed some documents that I had in a folder, including my grade report and a letter from my mom for him. At the end of my short speech I said that I had been praying for a scholarship. The president looked at me closely and told me to follow him. We came to a room where there was a list of university groups on the wall with the number of scholarships available for each of them. He asked what my major was and how many of my classmates had come with me. After a short consideration he said we all could get scholarships if we would be in his office in 30 minutes.

I couldn't understand anything but was happy. As I was calling my classmates to tell them to get back to the university they said they had already bought train tickets and weren't in the mood for jokes. Even though they didn't believe me until the very last moment they came to the university and we went to the president's office. Our documents were signed and as we stood next to each other the president patted each of us on the shoulder and warned us that we'd better study well!

"What did you tell him? How is this possible?" my astonished classmates asked me. I told them that I had prayed to God for a scholarship for myself.  

Here you go, one talk helped provide scholarships for five students!

You probably think everything depended on Mikhail Poplavskiy?

Of course, I am grateful to him, but before he gave his answer I prayed to God.  

It is said we need connections among influential people.  Yet as someone who has seen miracles I can say that no one except God can take the best care of us.  

There is a verse in the Bible that says, Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

You don't become a child of God by just being born in a Christian country or getting baptized early in life. You need to realize that God exists and that you are a sinner who justly deserves to be in hell but through Christ's death on the cross can be forgiven and saved. People like these are called Christians, or children of God.

Are you connected to Him?