God called me from the fashion industry to train as a missionary.
“Something’s wrong. God doesn’t want me to do this,” said Nastasya in the midst of her early career. One can easily see how Nastasya Bravarets could have continued to be a model, which she started to do at age 15.
However, while the cameras were focused on the outside, God saw Nastasya’s life through a different lens. He convicted her that the modeling life would not lead her to heaven. “God gave me a reason to stop,” she explains. “He moved me to another city where I couldn’t continue modeling.”
A Hartland graduate, also from Russia, told Nastasya about Hartland when she was just 16. Although she applied for admission, she was too young. “I had already graduated from high school and couldn’t just sit home for two years and do nothing,” recalls Nastasya. “I left my parents and went to Siberia, where I studied business management for two years. But I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do something for God.”
For Nastasya, working for God meant leaving behind her comfortable life in Russia. “I had to leave a lot of friends. I had everything that I could wish for over there.”
Nevertheless, she left Russia, her university education, and her friends to study at Hartland. “I had no clue how things were going to be. I just knew that God was leading me here,” she says. “I wanted to study health so I could be a missionary. When I arrived at Hartland, everyone was so patient and friendly. I felt like I was at home.”
Nastasya, a Health Ministries major, now finds herself in a different kind of educational system. She doesn’t want the focus to be on her, but on what she can do for others. “I want to serve God wherever He wants me to go, especially in Russia. I would also like to go to South America.”
This year, half of Nastasya’s tuition is being supplied by the Missionary Training Fund. “I’m really thankful for the Missionary Training Fund,” says Nastasya. “This fund helps students who don’t have the money to study at Hartland to be workers for God. Thank you so much!”
