Slava's Helping Hands, Part 2

Last week we heard about a little boy named Slava who lives in Russia. Slava was new in town, and he was lonely. He wished he had a friend. Then Slava met an old woman named Babushka [bah-BOOSH-kah; grandma] Masha. She was pushing an empty wheelbarrow down the gravel road. Slava ran out to meet her. "Where are you going?" he asked her. She said she was going to get a load of bricks.

Slava asked if he could help Babushka Masha get her bricks.

While the old woman and little boy walked along with a load of bricks, Slava asked Babushka Masha if she had read the Bible every day. She told Slava that she had never even seen a Bible before.

They were just passing Slava's house, and suddenly he told Babushka Masha, "I'll be right back!" He ran through the gate and into the house. Slava grabbed his mother's Bible and hugged it close as he ran out of the house, through the gate, and into the road. He ran as fast as he could trying to catch up to Babushka Masha.

Mother's Bible

Slava's mother was returning from the store and saw Slava run down the road. She saw that he was carrying something. But Slava was in such a hurry that he did not see his mother as he ran past her. Then Mother saw that Slava was carrying her Bible, her precious Bible. "Slava, stop!" Mother called after him. "Where are you going with my Bible?"

"To Babushka's!" Slava called over his shoulder. "She has never read a Bible all her life! She needs to read it right away!"

Mother turned and ran after her son-and her Bible. She saw him turn into a yard several houses down. When she arrived she found her son and a smiling old woman standing beside a pile of bricks. Slava was telling her, "You must read this book every day!" he said, panting. "It has wonderful stories in it!"

The old woman looked up as Mother entered the yard. "I am Slava's mother," she explained. "What is Slava doing here?"

Babuska smiled at Mother. "Your son has been helping me carry bricks," she explained. Then she looked at the Bible in her hands. "And he brought me this Bible to read. Your son was telling me about the Bible, and when I said I had never read it, he brought me this one." Slava's mother could tell that suddenly the older woman was afraid that Slava's enthusiasm might have caused trouble.

Mother smiled and assured the old woman that she could borrow the book for a few days and read it. "Now that you know where we live," Mother said, "please come and visit Slava and me anytime you wish."

Babushka hesitated to visit Slava's house, for one does not bother a busy priest. But Slava went to visit Babushka Masha every day. He was too young to go to school and had no other friends, so he adopted Babushka Masha as his grandmother.

Every evening Slava's mother or father read a Bible story to him from his Bible story book, and the next day Slava told Babushka the Bible story that his mother told him the night before.

One day Babushka asked Slava, "Do you mean to tell me that every story you have told me is in this Bible?"

"Oh, yes," Slava said.

Don't Be Afraid

Many times Slava and his mother visited Babushka Masha. And many times Slava invited her to church. When she did not go, Slava asked again. "Babushka Masha, will you come to my church with me this week? You do not have to be afraid, for I will sit beside you."

After several months Babushka Masha agreed to go to church with Slava, and after her first visit, she continued going. Slava made sure that Babushka Masha would get to church. He always walked to her gate and waited for her to come to church. As he took hold of her hand to walk to church, he told her, "You do not have to be afraid, Babushka. I am with you." And Slava always sat with Babushka, because in his church there was no children's Sabbath School.

Several months later Babushka Masha asked Slava's father if she could become a member of his church. On the day of her baptism Slava stood beside his special friend as she waited for her turn to be baptized. "Don't be afraid," he whispered as he squeezed her hand. "I'm right here."
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Lidia Necours is children's ministries director in the Euro-Asia Division in Moscow, Russia.