March 3, 1998
Dear Prayer Partner,
Thank you so much for your prayers during February. They were felt here in Kenieba as we made many decisions.

As you know from my last prayer letter, our strategy is changing. We are changing to a "go and stay" strategy. In our old strategy, we would climb over the cultural wall, do a Bible study in a village and then climb back over the wall, into our culture. People came to Christ but had no idea of what it meant to abide in Christ.

We finally realized that because Malians have a strong oral tradition, they learn best when teaching is combined with modeling. The best example we have of someone who modeled this type of strategy is Jesus with His disciples. Using this strategy, we will climb over the cultural wall and stay there awhile, modeling Christian living, appropriate evangelism and teaching the people.

What this means for me is a new house on the mountain. The villagers were excited about me coming to live with them and offered to build me a house there. When I was in the village last week, they had just finished making the mud bricks. This week they plan on constructing the single room, round mud hut, thatching the roof and digging the hole for the latrine (the only one in the village).

The village is about 35 miles from Kenieba; a 3 hour drive over rough "roads/paths". Hopefully with my new bike (modeling again---few people have trucks), it won't take long...then again, it might take considerable longer. This village will be my home and I will come to Kenieba occasionally to rest, restock and refit (and enjoy running water, electricity and indoor plumbing).

To help us, we've turned in a number of personnel requests---most will be working and living in the villages as teams. Hopefully our personnel will be working in the villages for two years, concentrating on key leaders. Then the leaders will be ready to begin some intense training in mobile training centers to better equip them as pastors and evangelists.

Those who have heard our new strategy react in different ways. Most are very encouraging and supportive. Some ask, "Won't this be difficult? Are you sure you can do it?" The answer is, yes. Yes, it will be hard. Yes, I can do it---not myself but Christ in me. In the past I've noticed that moving our of a comfort zone is always difficult and a little scary but I've found that it's then that I grow the most. After all, God never promised any of us an easy life---He just said "go", and He promised to go with us.

Praises:

1. Praise the Lord for the Word of God and the examples we have there of God at work among mainkind. Praise Him especially for the ultimate example of the life of Jesus.
2. . Praise the Lord for International Mission Board personnel who are supportive of us as we change strategy and are encouraging us to join God where, and how, we see Him working among the Malinke people.

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for us as we change strategy. Pray for our health, stamina and wisdom.
2. Pray for us as we do survey work among the Malinke in another country later this month. Pray for health, travel mercies, and that we will talk to the right people in the right villages and ask the right questions.
3. Pray that all the personnel requests that we turned in will be filled and everyone will be able to be on the field by the end of summer. Pray for those whom God has called out to fill these requests. Pray that they will be mature spiritually and emotionally and ready to be part of a team, reaching the Malinke people for Christ.
4. Pray that we will be able to have housing ready for everyone.
5. Pray for Shirley and me as we take on new responsibilities. Pray that we will be flexible. Pray for God's continued guidance and His wisdom.
6. Pray that each Malinke person, wherever he or she is located, will have an opportunity to hear and understand the Word of God.

Special Request:
Because of the change in strategy, Shirley and I will be spending most of our time in our respective villages on the mountain. Because of new responsibilities within the strategy, we feel it will be essential to have access to computers even in the villages. We will also be using computers to help field test in this area, Malinke translations done in other countries, prepare appropriate public health workers as well as for literacy students.
Unfortunately, we don't know much about computers. If you do, and wouldn't mind doing some research on lap-top computers and solar battery chargers, we'd appreciate it. Saving money is hard enough but if you don't have a goal as to how much you need to save, its about impossible---for me anyway.

Next month we will begin sending out our team prayer letter in which different team members will be in charge of writing the letter each month.

Thank you again for your sacrifice of prayer and praise on our behalf and on the behalf of the Malinke people. With Great Joy and Affection,

Susan Tidwell
(for the MPGT---Shirley Farley, Susan Brown, Trevor and Robin Barton, and Susan Tidwell)