Great Garage Gathering

To Sabbath School teachers: This story is for Sabbath, November 15.

It just wasn’t fair. Every Friday evening, Mom and a group of other adults gathered at a neighbor’s house to talk about Jesus. But there was no group of children that gathered to talk about Jesus.

Ten-year-old Dafne and her big sister, thirteen-year-old Isadora, sat on the couch at their home in Brazil and talked about how it just wasn’t fair.

Then the sisters had an idea. They ran to Mom in another room.

“Hey, Mom,” Dafne asked. “Can we make a children’s group to talk about Jesus?”

Mom smiled.

“That’s a great idea!” she said.

Dafne and Isadora got to work right away. Returning to the couch, they wrote ideas for a children’s group on a piece of paper. They worked on a plan for the program for a whole week. They also needed to find a place to meet. Mom and the other adults met in the living room of their friend Gabby’s house. So, the girls asked Gabby, who also was 10, if the children’s group could meet in her garage at the same time as the adults’ meeting. Gabby asked her parents, and they agreed. So, a place was found for the children to meet.

Then Dafne and Isadora had to find kids to come to their meeting. The girls went to a park near their house. They saw several other girls talking on a bench. “What’s your name?” Dafne asked one of the girls.

“Sofia,” the girl replied.

“Good evening,” Dafne said. “Are you free on Friday evenings?”

Sofia said she usually was alone and bored at home on Friday evenings.

“Come over to Gaby’s house,” Dafne said. “We’re going to have fun games, snacks, and talk about the Word of God. You know Gaby, right?”

Sofia knew Gaby, and she happily accepted the invitation. She said she would have to ask her parents first, but she was sure that they would allow her to come.

Dafne also invited Sofia’s friends to come.

After that, Dafne and Isadora walked around the park, inviting every child whom they saw. Everyone who heard their invitation agreed to come.

On Friday evening, all the children from the park showed up at Gaby’s garage. Dafne was happy and surprised to see Sofia and 25 other children.

To open the meeting, Dafne and Isadora introduced themselves and welcomed the other kids. Then Dafne said, “We are so happy because it’s Friday evening. It’s already Sabbath.”

The other kids looked confused.

“How can it be Sabbath?” said Sofia.

It was exactly the response that Dafne had hoped for. She explained that the Bible teaches that the Sabbath lasts from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Then all of the children read in the Bible that God rested on the Sabbath after creating the Earth. They also read the fourth commandment, which says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8, NKJV).

“Ahh, yes,” said Sofia. “Now I get it.”

After the Bible study, Dafne and her sister served popcorn with guava and mango juice. Before everyone knew it, the meeting was over. It had lasted 90 minutes. “Come back next Friday evening,” Dafne said.

All the kids promised to come back. They had liked the meeting.

“It was cool,” said Sofia

“We’ll bring a present,” said another.

The next Friday, children arrived with gifts of candy and chocolate cake to eat after studying the Bible.

As the weeks passed, Dafne saw that Sofia really liked the meetings. She really liked learning about Jesus. About fifteen Fridays after the first meeting, Dafne asked Sofia, “Would you like to give your heart to Jesus and be baptized?”

“Yes!” Sofia exclaimed.

Today, Sofia and several other children from the children’s group have been baptized. And that’s not all. Sofia’s uncle and aunt heard her talking about the Bible and also want to be baptized.

Dafne is so happy! It’s great having a children’s group.

Pray that many people in Brazil will know Jesus with the help of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering, also known as the Quarterly Mission Project Offering. Part of the offering will help open a church for children at Pernambucano Adventist Academy, which is located in the region of Brazil where Dafne lives. Thank you for planning a generous offering for this important project.