October 18 - The Great Garage Gathering

It just wasn’t fair. Every Friday evening, Dafne’s 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 their mom in another room.

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

Their 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. The girls asked their friend Gabby whether the children’s group could meet in her garage at the same time as the adults’ meeting. Gabby’s parents agreed, so, a place was found for the children to meet.

They had to find kids to come to their meeting. The girls went to a park near their house. They saw several girls talking on a bench and went over to invite them. One girl named Sofia said she usually was alone and bored at home on Friday evenings.

Sofia knew Gabby, and she happily accepted the invitation.

Dafne also invited Sofia’s friends to come.

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

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

Dafne welcomed everyone and 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.” After the Bible study, Dafne and her sister served popcorn with guava and mango juice.

All the kids promised to come back next week. They liked the meeting.

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 learning about Jesus. A few months after the first meeting, Dafne asked Sofia whether she would like to give her 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 wanted to be baptized.

Dafne is so happy!

Pray that many people in Brazil will know Jesus with the help of this quarter’s 13th 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.