Leaving in 9 days

 

Hi friends,

 

These last couple weeks as the PHC we have looked at community development, mother and child health and nutrition.
Community development looks at how do we partner with community's for them to succeed without growing dependency, and using the resources they have.
Mother and child health looked at how we do antenatal checks, and what should be included in a birth plan and birth kit, and what a normal delivery can look like. We also did a workshop practicing asking questions and talking mums through their first antenatal appointment, and all the complications that come up with other religions and worldviews that don't value life.
On nutrition week we talked about food broken up to 4 main groups, vitamins and minerals, deficiencies when we don't have certain vitamins/minerals, malnutrition, 5 increased needs in pregnancy, and weaning foods. We took turns practicing teaching and getting comfortable being able to say what foods have different nutrients. We also practiced child weighing which goes hand in hand with weaning foods and making sure children are growing and developing.
Student have been getting so excited, getting more confident in their skills and knowledge, and so ready for outreach in 3 weeks.

We have had some developments regarding flights and departure times. The airfares from April 3rd are going up and jumped almost $500 per person. Rather than committing to that extra cost, we are now looking to leave about a week earlier on the 28th of March.

Last week Kathy was in Kona for UofN meetings, and as a school we prayed and researched Zambia and South Sudan. We started each day praying together for the nation's and researching different aspects of culture, history, religion, traditions, health care needs and ending it all with what God's heart is towards them.
We bought plane tickets on Thursday (still trusting to be able to get Christopher's ticket) and we'll be leaving March 28th which is so soon and exciting.
As a team we practiced setting up tents that we'll use in South Sudan, looking at our medical bags and glasses we'll also be taking which was really exciting since it so soon.
Next week we're looking at first aid, CPR, essential drugs, and mobile clinics + outreach prep in the final stages.

We have received 2x more donations of $50 today so far. We are down to now trusting for $1,400!
God has been so faithful to provide through you all, we are so thankful and blown away.

Prayer-
- still trusting for the finances to come in so Chris can come with us on outreach, $1,400
- prayer since we leave in 9 days and then will be on the ground running
- for everything to come together and next week's class and prep time will go smoothly.
- I’ll be helping lead the outreach, really trusting for wonderful opportunities and trusting for it to all go well.

 
Me and Chris have an fb page we update regularly, with even more pictures and what's going on if you'd like to join let us know. If you'd like to support anyway please contact me or check our Finance page with ways you can give.

Love you much,

Joannah and Christopher Whitby

PHC outreach 2023

 

This week we announced where the PHC is going for 2023. In 6 weeks time we are heading to Zambia (for 7 weeks) and South Sudan (for 4 weeks). We are teaming up with the Birth Attendant School which will make an awesome dynamic of healthcare and birth attending with the gospel. We'll be working alongside YWAM bases in these locations, local government, clinics, and hospitals.  While we are there we'll be focusing on sharing the gospel, doing mobile clinics, and healthcare teachings wherever we go.

As a family we are trusting to see God provide for about $25,000 for the outreach and staff fees.

The outreach is going to be about $16,400, and our staff fees will be about $1,000 a month for our home and utilities, and to clear a little bit of staff fee debt.

Because of Covid, the flight costs for 2023 are incredibly high and Africa isn't a popular destination making the prices also be high.

We're trusting to see the finances come in within the next 4 weeks.

I'd love for you to pray with us to see it all come in, for the students to continue to pursue God and grow in their skills. If you'd like to give you can message Joannah or Christopher or go to this page.

Love and Bless you guys!

Joannah and Christopher

(Check out our last two posts to see how we're posting our most frequent updates, and how the school is going- Growing Heart: New year new ways!)

January and February

Chris moving our plants to our flat, the bunk bed was a collection of Joannah's stuff as she sorted her stuff for moving and left over wedding stuff.

Chris packing down our first Christmas tree and our plant doing it's best to survive the Aussie summer.

Married 3 months and we've settled into our home. The craziness of moving furniture we got together, moving our separate flats, and getting what we need to create a place to call home for the Whitby family. So thankful for the process and being able to say we did it. It done and it's so homey and filled with so many plants and laughter.

Sunset and settled into home

The Primary Health Care school 2023 is running!!! For the first time in person since 2020.

The Primary Health Care School started January 9th here in Perth, with five students from America and New Zealand, Kathy (the dean of college of health care in the University of the Nations) is leading and with Joannah staffing. They started with orientation and someone sharing on the Character and Nature of God. Really challenging us as a school and individuals on how we view God. 

Teaching how to teach week 2

On week two we learned how to teach, health care topics, along with major keys in primary health care and our roll in seeing people get these keys. Then we looked at anatomy and physiology, vitals and fever illnesses. 

Steve the skeleton helping teach the bone structure, and Jess teaching on vitals and some medical terminology

Making Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) for diarrhoea

This is currently week four (Jan 30 - Feb3) and we’re looking at water borne diseases, worms and diarrhoea. Something we've really taken away this week is how the statistics can be overwhelming, but we're here for the individuals and no matter how large or small the sickness and death rates are, they're deeply heart breaking and we want to see them change.

We have had amazing and experienced speakers who have been in missions and health care for a while and who teach out of their experiences and their walk with God. Very deeply challenged in how I (Joannah) stop for the individual and respond to God.

Dr Suneetha teaching, our students practicing teaching

School Sausage sizzle by the beach

Week 5 of the PHC- we've had Dr Suneetha from India speak on HIV, TB, STI's, leprosy with such a deep deep humility and softness to God. This week we walked away with a deep challenge of how do we look more like Jesus with the vulnerable and outcast/estranged people. What does it look like to enable them and see community's transformed.

New year new ways!

Hello Friends,

We pray you're all well and can't wait to hear what God is speaking for this new year in your families and lives. We wanted to try something new this year, as a new family we want to create a place where people who might know Christopher or Joannah can see how we are going, can pray for us, support, and see what God is doing in, through and around us. I've made an FB group that will hopefully do all that and we can be more regular with it and have a lot more small and quick updates so you can journey along with us. If you would like to join our group please message Joannah or Christopher and we can add you. If you're not on Fb I'll try to continue to add the updates on here as well.  

I'm sure some of you know either Christopher or Joannah, but maybe not both. We want to share a little of who we each are, some of what God has spoken to us individually for missions, what we're currently a part of and maybe even a little of what we're hoping for in this coming year, and bigger dreams and hopes as the years go by. We will do this by post finishing with a little bit about each of us so y’all can get to know us!

Meet the Whitby’s:

We meet in 2019 while doing schools with YWAM Perth, Joannah was already on staff when Christopher joined staff end of 2020. We got to live in share accommodation, and become good friends bonding over bubble tea, missions, coffee, a fondness for cookies and tomato soup. End of 2021 we started noticing each other and started dating beginning of 2022. In April-May Joannah and Christopher took a holiday and met Christopher’s and Joananh’sfamilies, in New South Wales and Texas respectively. July-Sept Christopher staffed the FIE online. End of July we got engaged and started planning a wedding. In August Joannah was asked to pray about staffing the PHC in 2023 and lead it in 2024, after seeking God and talking to Chris she got a yes.

November 5- we got married and were so blessed to have loving family come around, supporting and celebrating with us. We spent end of November and beginning of December setting up our home in Perth.

As a family we currently don't have an end to our commitment with YWAM Perth, we’re here until God leads us somewhere else.

Meet Christopher:

Hi, I’m Christopher, originally from New South Wales, the East Coast of Australia. I'm from an incredible loving family, that has loved Jesus, and believed the best and God's leading over my life. I came to Perth in 2019 to do my DTS, with YWAM Perth. After completing that school God spoke to do the Foundations in Education (FIE) school. I returned home end of 2019 for Christmas with the intention of joining staff but was unable to do it for a while because of COVID and border closures. While at home with family for most of the year I did the Transformation School (TS) and the School of Frontier Missions (SoFM) online in 2020, being able to join staff with YWAM Perth in December of 2020. I joined volunteer staff helping initially in the under Christian Education, Pathway, and Media ministries. Under Christian Education I was helping with the Preschool and later helping to staff the FIE in an online capacity due to more COIVD limitations. Pathway was a ministry that would reach out to refugees that have been placed in and around Perth to feel and know Jesus’s love for them.

Within the Media team I served part time with the other ministries, but I later joined full time and applied to focus applying my IT skills to help the base operational and secure, improving systems and solutions to enable ministries and schools to continue, and to train and minister no matter their focus. In 2021 I staffed the FIE online, and again in 2022 where it ran online and in-person which was such an amazing step forward to see other nations included that wouldn’t always be able to get that kind of training.

My heart is very much discipleship, education, and training. God has given me a heart to see a DTS pioneered with a focus of enabling people at risk, those with needs, come to know they have a place to serve Jesus in the nations, by sharing his love for them and those they meet. With this DTS it will have a focus in education and how it can break chains off nations, restore identity and raise up people to who God made them to be.

Meet Joannah:

Hi, my name is Joannah, I'm originally from Texas in the USA, and part of a large Christian family who has supported me so much in missions. I came to Perth Australia in 2017 to do a Discipleship Training School (DTS) with Youth with a Mission (YWAM) Perth. After completing that school, I did two more second level skill and discipleship schools with YWAM Perth- the Birth Attendant School (BAS) and the Primary Heath Care School (PHC). I joined staff with YWAM Perth as part of the Heath Care ministry and the PHC in 2019. Since then I've been a part of PHC twice, worked with an accreditation team part time over COVID, I've been part of ARMS- a ministry that focuses on the city of Perth, helping families going through a crisis helping by giving them a practical help to get back on their feet, and actively trusting for God to open the boarders again that we'd be able to go back into the nation's and train up Godly health care workers.

I met Christopher in 2019 during schools we were doing at the same time, becoming acquaintances. In 2020 he joined staff, and we had the opportunity to become better friends over the next year and in 2022 we started dating and got married November 5, 2022. I’m currently part of the Primary Health Care School running this January 2023, that will run for 6 months while we learn skills to meet people’s physical needs while also getting God’s heart for the poor and needy and to see beyond the physical to the mental, emotional, and spiritual.

My vision is to see teams of people with a variety of skills that can do health care, community development, upskilling, discipleship, training, education and more through relationship, prayer and worship. Focusing on one nation and a couple communities at a time and seeing nations transformed by Jesus and biblical community development.

Thank you for being a part of our lives and journey, we love you all very much.

Love you very much, 

Joannah and Christopher!

Wedding details

We're getting married November 5, 2022! 

We're so excited for all that's to come and to share it with you guys!

 

 Story time!

God has been so generous and wonderful with providing for our home. Around July 2021 God gave a very clear sense to Chris to gather stuff to make a home. During the year he was give or given the opportunity to acquire: dinning room table, kitchen cooking supplies, bookshelf and more.

The day after we got engaged, a family moving out of the country approached us, because they were moving they had a lightly used king size mattress, a washing machine, and some other houseware for us if we wanted it. 

A couple days later another friend called us about a house that was being cleared out, and asked if we'd like some of the furniture. On Saturday we were able to pick up a couch, some a clothes horse, a desk, a vacuum cleaner, a microwave, a rug, broom, mop, and other essentials. 

A day later a friend messaged about giving us shelves, photo frames, a nutribullet, a tower fan and more.

I am just so, so blown away by how within a week we have most of the essentials for a home before we even started looking.

 

Makes me so certain how God will provide for the wedding, staff fees, honeymoon, and starting this new chapter with Christopher!

Trusting for:

As we're getting ready for the next steps we're still trusting for different things like:

-Wedding
-Honeymoon
-Setting up a house (just a few more important things to get)
-Course’s Joannah is doing in October
-Joannah’s Partner Visa ($7,850AUD) 
-More monthly supporters! Let us know if you're interested in giving a tax deductible donation and we'd love to chat with you!

 

 

Please pray with us!

- Christopher is staffing a school which has a busy schedule
- My health: During winter and spring I get sick and it takes a while to recover + finances to continue taking care of my health
- Planning for the wedding, and getting all the details and bits in place for it to happen
- Courses: clear mind to be able to do the courses for the school + finances to do the school

- Getting ready for Primary Health Care School 2024

- Monthly supporters: We always want people to partner with what God is doing

 

Love y'all

Joannah Zimmerman

 

 

Processing the future with God

Hello!

I wanted to take some time to share with y'all the process I've been through for the last little bit, in preparing for the future- with being part of missions, schools and my relationship.

 

Future looks like what now?

Before me and Christopher got engaged there had been conversations about how it looked being part of two schools, almost full time, for two years straight. And the impact it would have with dating, and the hope of eventually getting married.  

Those of you who know me, know I love to think a head, consider the future, what is needed, what I want to do, how I want to reach those things, and what has to happen now to do that. Inside of that I spent time processing it with God, leaders, and my then boyfriend.

As I considered and processed it all with God, I felt that He asked me about laying down the Birth Attendant School. It was a very big ask for me. I came to Perth in 2017 because I really wanted to do the Birth Attendant School, and part of the journey with joining staff was because I really wanted to be a part of that school. I had committed two years ago to being part of it for two years when it started running. 

While I prayed and talked to God about it, I really felt that it was time to step away from the school that had held my heart for so many years. 

Two days later my leader approached me and asked me to pray about staffing the Primary Health Care School in 2023, like I had previously agreed to do. Along with praying about leading the Primary Health Care School in 2024, and step away for the foreseeable future from the Birth Attendant School. 

 

During my praying I felt God say yes, and start stirring up an excitement for the future- He’s given me so many other dreams for Health Care and Missions. How much better to start working towards them now as He gives opportunities to do so. 

The kind thing about how God says yes, is that it is always for the best. About two and half weeks later Christopher asked me to marry him, and I said yes. Being committed to one school gives space needed for me and Christopher to get married now in our own timing. I can't wait to do missions as I start my own family and continue to follow the call of God on my life

 

Getting ready!

As I've been preparing for the Primary Health Care School, one of the dreams is to have it run accredited by the Australian government in 2024. This would mean people could show proof to governments that they have approved training, could use it in missions or as a foundation to further their training in Australia and other countries. 

To run it according to government guidelines I have to become an accredited assessor and an qualified trainer, by the training organisation here in Australia. I started the process of getting that qualification last year by taking the first part of a 4 part course to be fully trained. 

The courses are a lot of brain work which can be a challenge sometimes with the past concussions I’ve had. Along with trusting for finances, time to do the work, while preparing for the 2023 school.

 

I love getting to be part of laying down a foundation for students to come in and get trained not in skills and knowledge but also the heart of God for the poor and needy, growing their own personal relationship with Jesus.

 

You're part of this!

I couldn’t be here without your support of prayer, encouragement, and the finances you partner with me and God.

As I get ready for the future these are some of the things I’m trusting for finances in:

-Rent, utilities, groceries

-Wedding
-Honeymoon
-Setting up a house (just a few more important things to get)
-Accreditation course I’m doing 
-More monthly supporters! Let me know if you're interested in giving a tax deductible donation or setting up a monthly donation, and I can chat with you about what the finances go to

 

I’d also love to invite you to pray for me with:

-My relationship with Christopher as we plan for marriage
-My health as I keep getting sick and taking a while to recover and wanting to do things like an iron infusion, go to counseling, and go to the dentist.
-Planning for the wedding, and getting all the details and bits in place for it to happen
-Courses: clear mind to be able to do the course

 

Love y'all

Joannah Zimmerman

 

Celebration

Hey friends,

 

I’m sure some of you have seen, me and Christopher are engaged!!!  

We’re still deciding on when and where to get married, but as soon as we have it confirmed we'll be so excited to share with all of you!

I'm blown away by so many people around the world who have come around us and cheered us on as we've stepped into a new stage of our lives. I've felt so welcomed into his family and I know my family has been thrilled to have Christopher join the family. I can't tell you how much I've felt loved by the video calls, text, comments, and questions I don't yet have answers for but get excited to respond to.

We're both full time volunteers in missions and have seen God provid over and over, finances for outreaches, schools, moving around the world, the friendships, prayers answered, homes in the strangest of places, even our relationship has been God's kindness to both of us. 

Even in the last week we've seen God provide furniture for our future home, a story I look forward to telling you in my next newsletter. 

In starting our new life and home in Perth Australia, we wanted to invite you to give towards some of our costs for starting life together.  We're so expectant for how God will continue to move, and so grateful for the family and friends who have prayed for us and with us, and supported financially, but we wanted to extend the invitation.

You can check out my Finance page and my next post about the details of what we're trusting for. 

We would also love your prayers in this time as we plan event logistics and prepare to be married. 

We will be having a livestream of our wedding – no matter where it is, so let us know if you would like the link closer to the day, we would love to celebrate from a distance with you. 

 

Love ya,

Joannah and Christopher