Soon several serious questions appeared. The first was could I be a Christian and create computer games? Sometimes it seemed to me that computer games were a great evil, because they distract people from reality and seeking of the truth. From the other hand, I played games myself sometimes, but yet I wasn't dependent on it. Besides I had responsibility before my boss who had already paid me a lot of money. Should I really quit everything and go away? If I did that it would be called «betrayal». It was also against my conscience to quit everything. I was in agony because of that dilemma. For a few days I couldn't work physically. I prayed and asked for an answer what should I do. It seemed there was no way out. I'd already decided to call my boss and tell him that I couldn't work with him any longer. But then I prayed together with my good friend. I decided to do anything that God wanted no matter what it would cost me. If I had to quit I would quit, if I had to stay I would stay. Those several minutes of praying I will remember for the rest of my life, because I've heard a clear answer. I saw a vision. I saw a city from the bird's-eye view. It was with skyscrapers shining in the rays of the sunset. I'd realized that God is higher and stronger than anything as He was higher than that beautiful city made by human beings. And I'd herd clearly a voice telling me the answer on my question: «Do whatever you want. Both of it is right before Me, because it's by faith». It was like an illumination for me. It became obvious that the choise itself was not the most important, much more important was the reason why I wanted to do this of that. My main motive in both cases was to act like a Christian and to please God, that was more important than the act itself. However it doesn't mean that every good ends justify the means. You can't blindly apply the rule: if my motives are right than my actions are right too. That's a wrong logic! In a hard situation you are just to cry out to God and He will hear. There is no universal principle or a rule out of touch with God Himself. In that minute my deep grief was replaced with great joy and relief. I cried because of joy. I decided to stay in the company. On the next day I went to work and invited my boss to study the Bible, though before that I even was ashamed to confess that I was a Christian. That day I just realized that God was absolutely real. Even though my boss refused but one of my workmates agreed to study the Bible and soon he believed in Jesus Christ. Through all those events I'd understood that the most important thing in life was to act according to faith and conscience.

    Soon after that another important question appeared before me. Taxes! For people from the West that question might seem to be strange, for it is obvious that taxes are to be paid. But... then it was not a simple question. At that time there was a chaos in our country. A lot of small companies were chaotically created and broken up. In most cases paying taxes considered to be something immoral because country was ruled by criminals. Once some people with weapons broke in to the company I worked in, they put everybody on the floor and took away all money from the safe. They pretended as they were from the organized crime struggle department. They asked about drugs in order to «keep the propriety», but it was obvious that everthing they wanted was money and maybe something else. Taxes were too big, so intrinsically all small companies were criminals. And desicion about whom to punish and whom not to punish was being made by the corrupted system. Such were the customs of that times. So people didn't pay taxes if they could escape of it.

    At that time we began to study The Epistle to the Romans in the church. We were on the 13th chapter. It says that we must be obedient to the government and that we are to pay taxes. How could I disobey God and say «should I do that too?» That question haunted me again. In the evening I prayed and firmly decided that I would go and speak to my boss and solve that problem with taxes. But when I woke up in the morning I felt myself an idiot. How can I say SUCH a thing to my boss? Right at that moment I saw the difference between God's and human's. Without grace and help of God I was just a weak person. But in prayer I recieved strength and resolution from God to raise the question. I came to my boss and said that as a Christian I must act according to my conscience and pay taxes. But he answered that paying taxes in our country was not only against conscience but also with a high risk of impoverish (taxes were about 50%). It was hard to disagree. How could we satisfy both our interests at the same time? And the answer came soon. I suggested him to make my salary 250 griven (about 60-70$). He agreed to pay taxes from that sum. Please, don't think that my boss was greedy. It was just a principled stand. He was always kind. We were friends who could totally trust each other. About 2 years or less I lived with that salary. That was really happy time for me. Of course that was very small salary, but yet it was enough. In Summer I got to my work by bicycle or just walked (the distanse was about 12 km). I ate at work without any payment. In fact, it looked like I was working just «for food» even though I had rather high position in the company. But it didn't bother me. The Lord was changing my value system, that money and riches would never be something important and valuable. The true happiness was not in having a lot of wealth but in living in peace with the Lord and yourself.

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