Making Others Happy

In Sagunto, Spain, siblings Pere and Anna love surprising neighbors with lemons, drawings, and homemade meals. When a friend’s mother left on a mission trip, the children cooked for the family all week—showing how small acts of kindness can share Jesus’ love in everyday life.

Pere and Anna like making surprises in Spain.

In their yard, they have a big lemon tree that produces lots of bright yellow lemons. Pere and Anna like to pick the fruit and put it in small bags. Then, they give the bags as surprise gifts to neighbors.

The neighbors are always happy and grateful for the gifts. Sometimes, they give Pere and Anna small treats in return. Receiving gifts makes the children feel happy, too.

Pere and Anna also enjoy drawing. Whenever someone has a birthday, they like to draw pictures and give them as gifts. The people who receive the drawings are always delighted.

Father and Mother encourage Pere and Anna to find ways to make other people happy. They tell them this is how they can share Jesus’ love. So, Pere and Anna have made it a kind of game to try to find ways to brighten someone’s day.

One Sunday morning, Pere and Anna learned that a 13-year-old friend named Leo had been left at home without his mother. She was a doctor and had gone on a mission trip, leaving Leo and his father to cook all their own meals for a whole week.

Pere and Anna thought it must be hard for a boy and a man to cook for seven days. They wanted to help, so they told Mother, “Let’s cook some food!”

Soon, Pere and Anna were busy in the kitchen, preparing homemade bread and tortilla de patata, a traditional Spanish omelet made with potatoes.

The children cracked eggs while Mother fried potatoes in a pan until they were soft. Then she poured the potatoes into a bowl with the eggs, mixed everything together, and poured the mixture into the pan again to cook.

Next, the children worked on the bread. They measured flour, water, yeast, and other ingredients, poured them into a bread machine, pressed a button—and waited. Soon, a big loaf of bread popped out.

The children helped Mother make other food as well. When they finished, they had enough to feed Leo and his father three meals. They wrapped up all the food and added a note that said, “We want to help you out, and we love you.”

Pere, Anna, and Mother delivered the food to Leo’s house just in time for lunch at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. (People in Spain usually eat lunch at 2 o’clock.)

The children held out the surprise bag of food, and Mother said, “We thought you might be very busy and not have time to cook, so we brought you some food.”

A big smile spread across Leo’s father’s face. This was a wonderful surprise!

“Thank you so very much!” he exclaimed.

Later, Mother received an unexpected message on her phone. It was from Leo’s father. He sent a photo of him and Leo enjoying a meal prepared by Pere and Anna.

Then Father also received a message on his phone—a second photo of the special meal.

Pere and Anna continued delivering food for the rest of the week. Every day, Mother and Father received new photos of a happy father and son.

Pere liked seeing the photos because he knew he was helping his friend and his friend’s father.

Anna was happy because Leo and his father were happy.

It felt wonderful to share Jesus’ love by making people happy!

Pere and Anna attend school on a campus that received part of a previous Thirteenth Sabbath Offering, also known as the Quarterly Mission Project Offering. The campus includes a Seventh-day Adventist elementary school, high school, and college in Sagunto, Spain. This quarter’s offering will help more people learn about Jesus in Spain and other countries in the Inter-European Division. Thank you for planning a generous offering.

Automatický systém — Misijné príbehy