Making Friends

To Sabbath School teachers: This story is for Sabbath, May 18.

By Andrew McChesney

T

en-year-old Dasha was talking with friends after school in Uzbekistan when she saw a little girl walk past. Something wasn’t right. The girl was wearing a blue skirt. But the skirt wasn’t hanging down properly. Part of the skirt was sticking up.

Dasha called out, “Hey, girl!”

But the girl didn’t hear and kept on walking.

Dasha ran up behind the girl and pulled down the rumpled part of the skirt. The girl was surprised. She didn’t know what was happening. But then she realized that Dasha had helped her by straightening out her skirt.

“Thank you!” she said.

A few days later, Dasha saw the little girl again after school. This time she was standing with her mother.

The girl turned to her mother and said, “That’s the girl!” Then she looked at Dasha and said, “Hi! Come meet my mother.”

Dasha went over.

“Nastya told me that she had met a nice girl at school,” Nastya’s mother said. “She said that I should meet you. It’s nice to meet you!”

Dasha also thought it was nice to meet Nastya and her mother. She smiled shyly. As she turned to go home, Nastya’s mother gave her a big hug. Then she gave her an oatmeal cookie and a kiss on the head. Dasha liked the cookie and the hug and the kiss.

After that, Dasha ran to Nastya’s mother every time she saw her. Nastya’s mother always hugged her and asked, “How’s your day going?” Dasha became friends with Nastya and her mother.

After a while, Nastya’s mother asked, “Who do you live with?”

“I live with Grandmother,” Dasha said.

Nastya’s mother invited Dasha and her grandmother to come over for a visit. But Grandmother couldn’t find a time that suited her. Before Dasha knew it, the school year ended, and she didn’t go to school anymore. So, she didn’t see Nastya or her mother anymore. She couldn’t call them because she didn’t know their telephone number. Grandmother sent her to spend the summer with her mother in another city.

Dasha missed Grandmother, and they spoke by telephone every day. One day, Grandmother said that Nastya’s mother had come over to visit. Nastya’s mother began visiting Grandmother nearly every day. “She’s a good woman,” Grandmother said.

After school started, Nastya’s mother invited Dasha and Grandmother to a delicious meal. Afterward, she invited them to come again. “Don’t only come for one special meal,” she said. “Come every Sabbath.”

Dasha and Grandma started going to Nastya’s home every Sabbath. Dasha learned that Nastya and her family were Seventh-day Adventists, and they worshipped every Sabbath in their home. Nastya’s parents had moved to the city to teach people about Jesus, and they hoped to open an Adventist church. Dasha and Grandmother were the first visitors to their house church.

Then Grandmother got sick and couldn’t go to Nastya’s house church on Sabbaths. So, Dasha went by herself. As she went, she began to read the Bible every day. She began to pray every day, and she noticed that God heard her prayers. Once she really, really wanted a dress, and she prayed and prayed for it. Then she got the dress!

Today, Dasha is 16 years old, and she goes to the house church every Sabbath. The house church has grown to include other boys and girls. It even has its own Pathfinder club with 10 children.

Dasha loves being a Pathfinder, she loves worshipping God on Sabbath, and she loves Nastya and her family. She wants to give her heart to Jesus in baptism.

Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help open the first Seventh-day Adventist elementary school in Uzbekistan. Dasha met Nastya and her mother at public school, which does not teach about God. Your offering will help open an Adventist school where children can learn about God.