Just One Day

“If you don’t come to school on Saturday, you won’t graduate, and you won’t be able to go to high school!” her teacher told her.

Olga comes from a very big family—she is the youngest of 13 children! Even when she was still very young, Olga’s parents began teaching her about Jesus and His Word, the Bible. One of the things Olga learned about was the seventh-day Sabbath—about how God blessed it and made it holy, and how it is a special time when God wants us to rest and come together to worship Him.

When Olga was old enough to go to school, she wanted to attend an Adventist school, but there wasn’t one nearby, so her parents sent her to another Christian school. However, during her last year there, the school began having classes on Saturdays. Then Olga started having trouble.

“You Must Come on Saturday”

“If you don’t come to school on Saturday, you won’t graduate, and you won’t be able to go to high school!” her teacher told her.

“Really?” Olga asked. Then she went home and asked her father about it.

“No,” he told her. “You don’t have to go to school on Sabbath. God will help you with your classes.” Olga was happy to go to church with her family on Sabbath, but going back to school on Monday was hard.

“Why weren’t you here on Saturday? You missed out on some really important things, and you’re going to fail and never graduate!” her teacher and classmates told her.

“No,” Olga calmly replied. “That’s not true. God will help me.”

During the entire school year, Olga never went to school on Sabbath, and at the end of the year a surprise was waiting for Olga’s classmates and teacher.

A Big Surprise

All of the students had to take an important exam, showing that they had learned what they needed to know before going to high school. Olga took the exam, and when the test results came out, she was one of the top students in her class!

“Wow!” exclaimed her classmates and teacher. “How did that happen? You weren’t even in school on Saturdays, but you are near the top of the class!”

“I believe that if we honor God, and keep His Sabbath day holy, He will help us,” Olga told them.

Olga graduated with her class and went on to high school, and now she is a student at the University of Belize. But sometimes she still has trouble with school and the Sabbath.

Problems Again

When Olga first started at the university, she was studying natural resources management—that’s a program in which students learn how to take care of the land, water, air, minerals, forests, wild plants, flowers and so on.

Olga liked her classes very much, but one of her teachers required field trips on Saturdays. Olga tried explaining about the Sabbath being God’s holy day, but her teacher wouldn’t listen.

“Why can’t you come?” he insisted. “It’s just one day! God won’t punish you because you missed one day!”

“But God said that we must keep His Sabbath holy, and we must obey,” Olga replied bravely.

Sharing Her Faith

Eventually Olga decided that she needed to study in a different program—one in which she wouldn’t have to go to class or field trips on Sabbath. Now she is studying business and is happy because she knows that God will take care of her. She also enjoys attending a weekly meeting of other Adventist students who attend the university. But the meetings aren’t just for Adventists—everyone at the university is invited to attend, and Olga enjoys inviting her friends.

“When my friend and I do homework together, we always end up talking about God,” Olga says. “One day she told me that she wanted to learn more, so I invited her to come to our meetings. She came and really enjoyed herself. The best part of our meetings is when visitors come, they are blessed by the message they hear, and then they share it!

Some day Olga hopes to be a full-time missionary, but even now she likes studying the Bible with people. When they talk about the Sabbath, Olga always shares how God helped her to pass the exam in primary school, even though everyone thought she would fail because she didn’t go to school on the Sabbath.