Us

My name is Joannah (Jo-âh-nâh).  I am 24 years old, the oldest daughter of 9 children, married to a fantastic Aussie, I'm a missionary based in Perth Australia.
 I'm a primary health care worker and birth attendant for developing nations.
 I want to be used for the greater glory of God.

Malawi, June 2019 and November 5, 2023

^Hydrabad India, March 2018

Twenty seventeen

January I flew and left the country for the first time in my life and went to YWAM Perth for the 4WD DTS. Spent three months in Perth and camping in the south learning more about God, and then spent three months in the Philippines and in northern Australia in the Kimberleys! In July right after DTS I did the Birth Attendant School with YWAM Perth, it's an eleven months school that teaches God fearing midwifery for developing nations. We study for three months in Perth and then went for two months to the Philippines, came back to Perth for Christmas and more studying.

Twenty eighteen

Flew to India, and got the joy and pleasure of spending the next five months there, between twenty seventeen and eighteen I got to welcome sixteen beautiful little lives into the world in Jesus name. And then after eighteen months of world travel I went home and saw my family.

Twenty nineteen

I headed back to YWAM Perth, I did the Primary Health Care school and became a primary health care worker, went to Africa for the first time, 10/10 would recommend going to Malawi. My baby brother was born while I was in Malawi, he’s pretty darn cute, and already trying to walk! I went home fund raised for four months, and then headed back to Perth in November to join staff. I feel like I finally hit full circle, after three years of schools and breaks: I’m finally staffing a school!

Twenty-twenty

I staff the lecture phase of the Primary Health Care School, went into lockdown in Australia, God spoke to open up my commitment for being in missions so I currently don't have an end date to working with YWAM Perth. I helped with writing curriculum for different schools on our base, which lays a foundation for missionaries be equipped to be sent out into the nations. I also moved 3 times during the year.

Twenty-one

Australia was still in lockdown, and if I left the country I couldn't get back in, even though I am doing a course in Perth.  I started making teaching videos for health care, and staffed the first online primary health care school in July. I also was involved in the non-profit that is a ministry with the base. We go into families homes that are in crisis and assist them in getting on their feet and stay together so they can get through the crisis. I had the privilege of getting to go on holidays and visiting the little town of Esperance to wrap up my year. 

Twenty-two

I started my year with starting to date Christopher, who is also on staff with YWAM Perth. I have kept working with the Health Care ministry and the non-profit ministry that works with families in crisis. I had the privilege of visiting Texas to see my family for the first time in two and half years. I got to meet Chris's family in the East coast of Australia and he flew to Texas and met my family as well. I got engaged to Chris, and got married early November, and started setting up home after getting to visit NSW to see Chris's family.

Twenty-three

I started my year with getting ready for PHC and the school starting. Found out we're going to Zambia and South Sudan for outreach.

What does Twenty-Three hold?

I will be staffing the Primary Health Care School in Jan-March, and then the BAS and PHC will go on outreach together April-June. I'll be part of discipling people and learning skills to impact the nations. Chris will be staffing a DTS in July, while I get ready for the next PHC. 

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.