The first to look into Christ's empty tomb were "the women." A woman, His mother Mary, taught Him the stories of Moses, Aaron, David and Jehoshaphat.

"The women" cared for His meals on the road. They brought their children to Him and stayed for the stories around village wells.

"The women" listened, believed, were healed and then shouted for their neighbors to come.

It was true in Palestine, and it's still true in Michigan, in Mozambique and everywhere else around the world. "The women" are still core to communicating the gospel.

Take Mozambique, for instance.

In this East African country the women carry an empty five-gallon container three to five kilometers to a community water hole where they talk with friends, fill the buckets and then walk home with five golden gallons perched exquisitely on their heads.

Hauling water is just one small part of their day. They plant crops, hoe weeds, tend children, gather food, cook the daily meal, wipe runny noses, scrounge clothes and deal with father whenever he's home.

Only 17 percent of Mozambique women can read and write their own names. They've been too busy carrying little brothers and sisters on their backs, raking the dirt in front of their reed huts, and fulfilling a hundred other tasks Mom delegated their way.

But a glacier of tradition is washing away in Mozambique.

The South Africa/India Ocean Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has placed the needs of Mozambique at the top of their "to do" list and has enlisted support from Maranatha Volunteers International and Hope for Humanity to help meet those needs. This includes a thousand new church/community centers, a thousand wells, eight schools, numerous health clinics and a literacy program for "the women."

Hundreds of village women are attending literacy classes in spacious new Maranatha church/community centers. These buildings are home to Bible study, worship, wells, literacy and health.

"The women" are learning the basics in these buildings—the sounds and swirls of alphabet letters, how simple everyday words look on a blackboard, and how to copy those shapes and words into their cherished school notepads.

Taught by literacy instructors whose training is funded by Hope for Humanity, women meet three afternoons each week—after the chores are done.

These women are serious, and nothing interrupts the flow of learning. The chief's wife Imo nurses their youngest daughter as her chalk squeaks the day's lesson across the school's blackboard. Beside her another mum wraps a child closer as she sounds out a new set of squiggles. It's multi-tasking for the future!

Outside the building Maranatha volunteers are drilling a well, a well that will bring fresh water close to home and save each of "the women" several hours each day. Time enough to study!

Several times Jesus had to slow His male disciples down and ask them to care for the needs of the mothers and children. That's happening in Mozambique as more and more women move to the forefront of ministry. They're reading the Sabbath school lessons, sounding out the names in Luke and John, and leading praise songs with the children.

It's ministry like in Bible times. For the future!

Dick Duerksen is the official storyteller for Maranatha Volunteers International. Readers may contact Dick at dduerksen@maranatha.org.

To learn more about Maranatha Volunteers International's projects visit www.maranatha.org; to learn more about Hope for Humanity projects visit www.hope4.com.