Tweet, tweet, tweeeeeet! Edie’s whistle shrills from under a shade tree at the river’s edge. It is Sabbath afternoon story time. Boys and girls run from the village and from their places of play with big smiles on their faces. Even the boys and girls from the houses across the river paddle their canoes over to join in the fun as Edie begins to sing the watermelon song. Soon little hands are making motions, and bodies are wiggling as the children begin to sing uplifting songs praising Jesus.

After the singing, all 42 children sit quietly on the grass ready to hear a story. Edie opens the Uncle Arthur’s Bible Story book and shows them the pictures as she tells the Bible story in Tok Pisin. She has their rapt attention. They love to hear Bible stories. When Edie asks them what story they heard the previous week, they always remember.

This story time is a direct answer to prayer. Edie has been helping adults learn to read. But she has felt a growing burden for the children, especially on Sabbath afternoons. There is nothing for them to do between the Sabbath morning sermon and Sabbath afternoon youth program. They are left to run and play like any other day while most of the adults sleep.

It was a big stretch beyond Edie’s comfort zone to go down to the river that first Sabbath two months ago. Finding about 10 children in the vicinity of our shed, she gathered them together and told them a Bible story. From that Sabbath until now, the group has grown each week. Even a few adults sit in their doorways and listen.

Please keep the boys and girls of May River in your prayers as Edie tells them Bible stories. Maybe even the hearts of the adults will be touched.

• Twitter