SA Bound! An email newsletter from Bob and Jackie Braswell In this issue: Still Africa, but South How it Came About Changes to Budget and Timetable Prayer Update
{i} Still Africa, but South	Dear Friends, We are still in the USA, still visiting churches and individuals and trying to raise our budget. Even though much is the same as the last time we wrote to you, much has changed. When we return to Africa, we will be based at the Cape Theological Seminary in Cape Town, South Africa, instead of the Assemblies of God Bible College in Dodoma, Tanzania. This is a big change for us, and though it is not one we looked for or expected , we feel it is a good fit and we are excited about the opportunity.
{ii} How it Came About	In the year and one month since we left Tanzania, we have been talking to our supporting churches about the need in Tanzania and fully expecting to return to Tanzania to continue the important work of training pastors. Now we have been asked to do the same work in another location. In mid-January we had a meeting with Rev. Mike McClaflin, our Regional Director for all AGWM missionaries in Africa, and we were surprised that he suggested we should change fields from Tanzania to South Africa for our next missionary term. We had been approached about this by our good friends Greg and Emily Johns (Greg is the Area Director for South Africa), so the subject matter of the meeting was not a surprise--the surprise was that we had fully expected our leader to counsel us to return to Tanzania even if he had permitted us to hear about the needs elsewhere. We went to the meeting prepared in our hearts to go wherever the Lord might lead, but feeling fairly certain that would be Tanzania. Our leader talked to us about the national church relationships and needs, as well as the number of missionaries leaving South Africa even as several have come in to Tanzania, and explained that he saw South Africa as having the greater immediate need given the situation in each country. He talked about the need for the missionary force to be more mobile in these days when we have fewer missionaries than 15 years ago working with much larger and growing national churches throughout Africa, with all the needs that represents. He did not force us but he definitely encouraged us to change fields. This is a big change for us. It is not going to be easy to drop in on old friends in Tanzania, as the distance between the two schools is about 2,200 miles, about the same as from Sacramento, California to Tallahassee, Florida.

	As of this writing, the decision has been made that we will not return to Tanzania. We have delayed the public announcement a bit as we attempted to let the folks in Tanzania hear it from us before making it public, but at this point we are trying to get the word out to everyone. We have peace about this change and believe the Lord is leading us.
{iii} Changes to Budget and Timetable	Living in South Africa is just a bit more expensive than Tanzania, with the biggest difference being in the amount of rent we can expect to pay each month. Along with this change our budget has increased slightly. We have also been asked to raise some monthly income for the school itself, if we are able. Because of the increased pledge support we need to raise for South Africa, but also because of the need to synchronize our schedule with the academic year at the new school, and because the house we will live in will open up at the end of July, we have been asked to stay in the USA through July. We had already planned to stay through the end of April to participate in the ordination service at District Council (we passed our tests and interviews!), so this adds three months to our planned time in the USA. We are now trying to book services and appointments for these additional months.
{iv} Prayer Update	In the last several newsletters, I have requested prayer for my sister, Melinda Rozean. She has been in a struggle with cancer, but the Lord is responding to our prayers and she has been making progress. Here's a quote from the most recent update from her husband, Curt (who is the Christian Education director for the Southern Missouri District). Melinda has been doing well on her new chemo. She just received a good report this week that her tumor markers went down in number. Praise the Lord! She will continue the chemo for another few months and then we hope the cancer will be in remission. Please continue to pray with us for Melinda. Pray also that the Lord will help us to find favor as we try to finish our budget and get back to Africa, and that He would guide us and give us wisdom every step of the way! Every blessing, Bob and Jackie Braswell