Each Monday my team-mate Natalie Booth and I are working with 5 Quichua women to help them complete their primary education and Cecilia now has 8 women who are learning to read. It has been so much fun! On our first official day of class I made cookies and took them to share. I thought a recipe would be one way to help motivate the beginning class to read. What I did not consider is that you do not find an oven in the average Quichua kitchen! All have gas stove tops for cooking, but of the 12 women there that day, only one had an oven!

After the first portion of our class, Cecilia and Natalie are teaching the 'meat' of our time together - the foundations of the gospel. Each week they take a topic such as Sin, Forgiveness, Grace, Redemption and break it down to the basics. Both are fantastic teachers and even though the women are the focus of our time, a few men gather each week to listen in. It is encouraging to see a group hungry for biblical truth.

We pray your Easter has been a joyous reminder of Jesus' resurrection. This morning Frank sang with the choir at the English Fellowship Church where we have been worshiping recently. We attended the Palm Sunday service at the Sembradores church last week and the youth prepared a drama. Despite a little rain, their enthusiasm was not dampened! Imagine 15 teens covered in bedsheets of all colors. As they waved palm branches one teen 'rode' on a burro - actually two men under a dark green tablecloth. It was both humorous and a great reenactment!

Fanesca is the traditional meal served around Easter. It is a thick fish-based soup made with 12 different legumes that we are told represent the 12 apostles. Frank and I were invited to a meal Friday night with a short-term missionary group from Michigan and I tried fanesca for the first time. It tastes a little like very rich split pea soup and it was delicious! One girl told us that fanesca is eaten for six weeks from Lent to Easter and everyone makes it to share with family and neighbors. By the time Easter season is over, they don't even want to think about fanesca for another year!!

On Tuesday Frank will travel to the US to spend two weeks helping raise awareness about the Quichua ministry and introduce our Ecuadorian team-mates Ramiro and Maria Araujo. Please pray for safe travel and that they would enjoy the opportunities they have to share. I wish I could go along but I am thrilled he will be able to visit a number of the churches who support us. We so appreciate the 'family' we have who share this ministry. Your prayers and support are tangible and make a difference every day.

Yours for the Kingdom,

Darlene & Frank

Address:
Frank & Darlene Helmly
Casilla 17-08-8403
Quito, ECUADOR 
S. AMERICA

Or care of MTW
1600 North Brown Road,
Lawrenceville GA 30043
(Helmly Acct #013184)