Inside Story for Friday 8th of May 2026

Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering, also known as the Quarterly Mission Project Offering, will support projects in Kenya and elsewhere in the East-Central Africa Division. Read more about Rompas next week, and watch a YouTube video of him at bit.ly/Rompas-IS.

The pastor told Rompas, a Maasai boy in Kenya, that Seventh-day Adventists were devil worshipers. He also said Adventists entered church backward on Saturdays and worshiped without wearing any clothes.

Image © Pacific Press

When he was 16, Rompas decided to find out if the pastor had told the truth. Early Saturday, he walked from his village home to an Adventist church several miles away. He hid in the hills near the church and watched.

Before long, the first person arrived. The man was not walking backward, and he wasn’t naked. Rompas was impressed that the man was wearing a nice suit and tie. The boy wished that he had a suit and tie. He was half-naked, wearing only a traditional Maasai shuka, a red cloth with black strips.

Then the pastor and other church members arrived. They also did not enter the church backward, and they were nicely dressed.

Then the church choir began singing. As the words of the song “Oh Happy Day” drifted to Rompas’s ears, he couldn’t resist. Walking to the church, he sat in the back row and listened with great interest.

After the sermon, a young white man approached him. He was a missionary from the United States whom he had never seen before and never saw again. The man spoke with the help of an interpreter. “These are your pants,” he said, handing Rompas a pair of pants with many pockets.

Rompas was excited! He had never owned a pair of pants. He put them on and tore his shuka to make a belt to hold them up.

Back at home, his 82 brothers and sisters were surprised to see the Maasai boy wearing pants. They surrounded him and asked, “What happened?”

Rompas placed the prized pants under his bed that night. He only wore them again when he returned to church the next Sabbath. Putting on the pants attracted the attention of the children and women of his village every Sabbath. Some of them began to follow him to church.

Several months passed, and Rompas and his mother gave their hearts to Jesus in baptism on the same day. The first two members of a family of nearly 100 people had become Seventh-day Adventists. Rompas felt free for the first time in his life. Jesus told His disciples, “ ‘And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’ ” (John 8:32, NKJV).

“The truth has set me free,” Rompas said in an interview.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/26b-06-inside-story-changing-a-shuka-for-pants/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=26b-06-inside-story-changing-a-shuka-for-pants

Daily Lesson for Friday 8th of May 2026
Further Thought:

Ultimately, we should pray because we love God so much, and we just can’t help sharing everything in our lives with Him: our joys and life’s “wins,” our burdens and worries, our requests and daily needs.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“We may keep so near to God that in every unexpected trial our thoughts will turn to Him as naturally as the flower turns to the sun. Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him. He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of His children. . . . His heart of love is touched by our sorrows and even by our utterances of them. Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds, He rules over all the affairs of the universe. Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice. There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. No calamity can befall the least of His children, no anxiety harass the soul, no joy cheer, no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest. . . . The relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul upon the earth to share His watchcare, not another soul for whom He gave His beloved Son.”—Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, Pages 99, 100.

Discussion Questions

Summary: As we read about the prayer giants of the Bible, it can be easy to think that we can’t have a relationship that close to God or be quite as committed. But we can. Like Daniel, we can be steadfast and faithful in kneeling every day, despite opposition. Like Enoch, we can choose to walk and talk with God, turning to Him before we do the work He’s called us to do. Like Moses, we can lead those within our sphere of influence, interceding for our families and those in our com­munities when we choose to abide under the shadow of the Almighty, our Leader and Friend.

<–Thursday

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/26b-06-further-thought-prayer-warriors/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=26b-06-further-thought-prayer-warriors

Our Sabbath School program has always been linked to the support of the Seventh-day Adventist Mission program. This video provides a little insight into this important work.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/mission-spotlight-for-may-9/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mission-spotlight-for-may-9