SOLOMON ISLANDS
CHILDREN’S STORY
The Snooker Hut Girl M y name is Ngatia Rezelda Apa. I’m 11 years old and in the sixth grade. I live at Betikama Adventist College in the Solomon Islands, where my dad works as a teacher. Here at the Betikama church, the children’s ministry department looks after the children and organizes programs that help us follow in the steps of Jesus. Of all the days of the week, I love Sabbath the best because that’s when, early in the morning, we children and our leaders walk to a nearby neighborhood to share Jesus with the children there.
I love to tell the children stories from the My Bible Friends books. Watching them enjoy the stories, songs, and prayer brings me great joy. The first time we went to this neighborhood, only six children came, and we worshipped under the shade trees. We prayed with them, sang songs, and told Bible stories. The children were so excited to learn more about Jesus. Week after week, our little group has grown so that we now have at least 16 children attending along with some parents. Everything was going well until one Sabbath. When we got to our meeting place, the trees where we had been worshipping were cut down!
Fortunately, the dad of one of the girls said that we could worship in his snooker hut.* When we got to the snooker hut, drunken men were still lying around inside from the night before. The owner assured us that everything would be OK. He woke up the men, and to our surprise, they stayed and enjoyed the music and stories! From that Sabbath on, we have been meeting in the snooker hut, not only with the children but with their parents, who are coming to listen to the messages that we share about God’s love in the songs and Bible stories. We pray that God will keep on using us to share His love with other children that they too may one day give their lives to Jesus and be ready to meet Him when He comes to take us home. * A snooker hut is a place where people play a billiards game called “snooker.” Usually there is a bar serving alcoholic drinks.
Ngatia Rezelda Apa with Gina Wahlen. Ngatia lives in the Solomon Islands. Gina Wahlen is the editor of the Mission quarterlies for the Office of Adventist Mission at the Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters. You can read more stories at AdventistMission.org/missionquarterlies.
31
