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Hey guys,

Sorry I haven’t been very good with updating you! I know in my last newsletter I was headed to my last location in India for two more weeks, and then heading back to Perth, and then home. I’ve been home two months now, and since being home God has been faithful to speak. When I wrote my last newsletter I thought I was only going to be home for two months, but now I’m going to be home for another six months before going back to Perth, but more about that a little later!

I’m gonna be honest, sometimes I forget what I’ve told y’all, and not sure of what kind of personal stories to tell, because some of the experiences I had were just normal, everyday going to work and back, while others are unenjoyable, and hard to share with everybody. So most of what I want to share this time is what we accomplished at a team.

Well our last location in India, Ahmadnagar, was a beautiful city, where we worked along side the YWAM base there. While in Ahmadnagar we did a variety of ministry: we taught nursing students; toured multiple hospitals; were invited to pray for people at two of the hospitals; work in two government hospitals and deliver two babies (one at each hospital); did street evangelism; antenatal care visits. On one of our days off we tried to see Infinity War at two different theaters, but neither of them had it in english, haha. We went to quiet a few weddings (I even wore my first sari to one), and spent a lot of time with the lovely base staff and leaders, who made the most amazing food!!! They either brought food to us or had us come over to just love on us (or to help wrap our saris because we just can’t get them right). We got invited to two churches, at one we got to pray for anyone who had pain in their body and saw ten healings, and one deliverance!

 Mikaella delivered one of the beautiful baby's in Ahmendnagar.

 At the last hospital we got to work at the doctor loved us and we were so thrilled to be with her!

 We went to a wedding (picture above and below) and they decked us in sari's.

(Apparently I had my priorities right, I have no pictures of food because my first instanced was to eat it all.)

Over the time of our month and half of us traveling around India we did a lot of stuff like:

Hospitals entered: 12 (public and private) in two different Indian states

Healthcare teaching: 302 people taught

Prayed for: 844 people

Healed instantly: 57 people

Gospel shared: 827 people

Lead to salvation: 282 people

This may not mean much, so let me elaborate. In this month and half, at three different locations, that we as a school and YWAM Perth have NEVER been to!  For us that’s a pretty big deal because God gave us favor with 12 hospitals that we had to be invited to or have government permission to go into. We were invited to teach at clinics or nursing schools that we didn’t have to find people for, because people of influence would gather them for us, and provided translators because most of those people do not speak English! We prayed for 844 people in a country that is against Jesus, and is predominantly Hindu or Muslim. So 844 people that said they wanted us to pray in Jesus name for them! 57 healings dude! I know I personally got to be a part of quiet a few of those. One lady had pain in her abdomen for 6 years after a C-section, and was relieved of that pain when one of our group members prayed for her. We had opportunities to share the gospel and the number of people who responded was amazing!

The numbers above only represent six weeks, this is our end of the year statistics-

Healthcare teaching: 4,191 people

Healings: 347 people

Bibles given: 641

Prayed for: 12,659 people

Patients attended: 5,111 people

Babies delivered: 254 

Gospel shared: 5,576

Choose to follow Jesus: 1,988

After being in India for five months coming back to Perth was kinda weird, even though it was only ten days. Everything costs more than we had been used to paying, We didn’t have to take a taxi(3-wheel motorcycles or cars) with people that spoke broken english, and trust they understood enough to get you where you needed to go, and only being around people who spoke english and are just as “western  culture" as you. The ten days were good. I’m glad our school had times of hanging out over good coffee, praying for each other and taking time to listen to the hard things and the good things each of us had gone through, and how we had grown!

And then flying again, heading home

Being home has been interesting. In India and Perth I had pretty much had everyday planned for me, but here there isn’t a schedule. It’s weird trying to figure out how to live in the states again, like driving on the right side of the road, and the different stores and whats in them. Also, here it takes 20-30 minutes driving to get anywhere vs walking or taking the train takes 5-15 minutes to get anywhere on base or around inner city of Perth, has been kind of a hard transition, especially since I don’t have my own car.

Since being home I’ve realized just how much I haven’t been super connected with people here, and while I want to go back to missions soon, I’m also excited to take time to build friendship and relationship here before heading off. 

Before I left Perth I had some friends and leaders ask me to pray about doing the Primary Health Care school (PHC) before joining staff. Since being home, God has spoken to me in prayer to confirm their council. Since it starts in January 2019, it gives me time to build up support here, time to get to know my family and friends again, and really share the vision I have of doing the ministry God has called me to. After doing the PHC I’ll be joining staff in Perth, helping equip and teach others healthcare skills to take into the nations!

That’s all for now. If you like to hear more about the ministry God’s calling me to, I’d love to come share with friends, family or church. You can contact me through this email, or PM me on FB to set up a time.

I really want to meet with people, tell you in person what I’ll be doing, and answer all the questions you might have. I love you guys!

Jo