Ann Vitorovich, communication secretary for the Peoria-Sun Cities church, is a regular contributor to local papers for church and community services events. Pacific Press has just released her new book, Whom Shall I Fear.

Vitorovich is a first-generation American born to Croatian parents who lived on an island off the coast of Yugoslavia — a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The book recounts the experiences of Vitorovich’s husband, Voya, and his family who escaped from Communist Yugoslavia through a series of harrowing incidents which he related to his wife over many years. The story, set in Serbia, took place in a time when Adventists were indeed few in number in that part of the world and tells of the conversion of Voya’s mother, Maria, from the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Both Ann and Voya Vitorovich are fluent in many languages. “I speak, read and write Serbian in the Cryllic alphabet which Voya taught me,” Ann explains. “My parents spoke a Croatian dialect which was a mixture with Italian.“

As a baby, Ann was baptized in the Catholic church but when she was five, her mother converted to Adventism. She grew up in a small Yugoslavian church in Astoria, Queens, N.Y., where she met Voya when he and his identical twin immigrated.

Ann began her writing career by composing poetry for special occasions, weddings, farewell parties and birthday celebrations. While a member of the Jackson Heights church in New York City, she was public relations secretary and received recognition for getting the most inches of newspaper coverage in the Greater New York Conference. She was voted PR Secretary of the Year for many years and received the Secretary Award for Excellence from the Atlantic Union Conference.

“The book has been the subject of much prayer,” Ann continues. “Voya has many experiences to relate about his mother and family and how he and his identical twin brother escaped from Communist Yugoslavia. Whenever he told one of these stories to our friends, they’d respond by saying we ought to write a book. So I started doing that — writing about the twins’ experiences and their escapes.”

“Many people asked if I got to know my mother-in-law. I certainly did," Ann remembers. "She was a warm but simple and very faithful believer. I wrote to her when she was in Yugoslavia, and I visited the country in 1961 and met her and some of Voya’s family for the first time.”

Maria, the main character in the book, eventually moved to the United States and lived next door to the Ann and Voya for several years. She died at the age of 93.

Whom Shall I Fear contains much documentation for the beliefs of the Adventist church. Ann and Voya hope readers will find truth from the Bible as it is woven throughout the story. The book is available at www.adventistbookcenter.com.