We wish you all a joyous Jesus-filled Easter. During this week we remember the sweet, painful journey of our Jesus as He prepares the Way. It is such a mixture of emotions as we recognize the agony and then……the GLORY of His love for us. All that happened shows us God’s love for us even when we didn’t know Him. It all began with Christmas; really it began way before as God looked down through the ages to see His creation being overcome by crippling sin. Sin was never a weight that God wanted us to carry so ‘He sent His One and Only Son to save us’.  God is definitely the most dramatic writer we have ever experienced. He stirs us at Jesus’ humble entrance into the world and then tops it all off with Jesus’ exit at His resurrection which is celebrated all over the world!!

We pray that you take it all in and let Easter live with you all year long.

 

 

It has been some time since our last writing so I will attempt to get you up to date with What God is doing with us and how you might pray for His work in Ecuador. Our Feb. newsletter has been detained so I am attaching an Easter offering opportunity that should have been in your hands 2 weeks ago. I know it is late but I couldn’t let this slide by all of you who faithfully pray and support us. If you have questions, just respond to this e mail. We love you all dearly and we DO pray for God’s presence and blessing on your lives.

 

We have begun out major project in Guayllabamba with the piece of land that the church owns. We have, however put our other projects on hold for now because of the great need this young Methodist Church has to supply basic salaries for its pastors. We have been studying how to put this land into production and have tentative short and long term plans. There are 180 lime trees which generously produce year round which means they also flower year round. The price we can get for the limes is not substantial but every little bit helps. We have come up with a ‘sweet’ way to bring in a profit to keep our pastors fed. HONEY sells for $5-8/pound so we have already bought and place 2 hives on the property. We will harvest honey every 30-40 days with 40 pounds per hive---now this will add up to a major help to the church. We are working with an emergent church which needs a leg up for awhile so they can become less dependent on outside sources. Join us in praying for this ministry.

 

This is phase one of our hopes and dreams with Guayllabamba (soon to be given a name). In the near future we plan to build a house up there so we can begin the work of reaching the people of this community for Christ. We are looking for a pastor who will carry the Word in one hand and a machete in the other.

 

As for us, we are all loving Ecuador and its people. We spent a few days a week cleaning up the trees and the land and the rest of the time learning. I, Daina, have begun teaching English with just 5 students with many more knocking on the door. I need computers and space to grow this ministry. Kevin has been co-leading the youth ministry at out local church with our pastor’s daughter, Sofi. They have already seen 8 new youth receive Christ!! We are having a retreat with these new kids and several more this Friday-Sunday. Pray for God’s hand to guide us and help us to love these new believers. Daina is the speaker for the 3 teaching sessions about the power of our words and God’s WORD. We will be joined by our church members on Sunday morning to celebrate the Resurrection and 7-8 baptisms. I admit I do miss having kids egg hunts(Baby Rodri had his first hunt last week and we missed it), they do not do that here.

 

We do pray that you see Jesus in new ways this Easter week and let His light shine in the darkness of the world.

 

Worship Him with all your heart and give Him all the glory,   Daina for the Datwylers

 

Tim and Daina Datwyler

Missionaries to Ecuador with The Mission Society

(706)534-0308

NOTE NEW Email datfam4ecuador@gmail.com