April in Bloom Dear Friends and Family, Hello from Kona Hawaii! Yes, I am home, well at least for a little bit! I arrived back from the islands about 10 days ago and have been busily preparing for the DTS (Discipleship Training School) which begins next week! Before I dive into the stories about my most recent trip, I want to begin by saying thank you. I am so blessed to have you apart of my team and I am extremely grateful for all that you have given. I would not be able to do anything that I am without your help! So as I share, listen with the lens of wow look what I helped with! For that is the truth, your support through prayer, your gifts of love and the financial contributions are what enabled me to go and share the love of Christ to those who needed to hear that they have not be forgotten by Him. If you were with me in July you would have experienced the joy of unexpected living and unknown transport. Yes, welcome back to the land of the unexpected! Papua New Guinea for some reason has a special place in my heart and it will probably always will as God chose this nation to be the first location of a working lab. In July I was back in Kikori to meet with those I trained in March. The five that graduated stayed and are thriving, they have taken on the ownership of the the lab and I am so proud of them! The picture of the month is featured on the next page, one of the graduates from the March training organized and planned on his own to teach the first year interns how to test for malaria (a skill he learned in March). So we are all ready seeing multiplication in process! I then spent some time in Kapuna where I trained some more people and help set up a lab, so the count is now two functioning labs in the jungle of Papua New Guinea! Another project I worked on was preparing a TB Awareness video in several local languages, this will aid in the project to see TB stopped. After PNG, I flew to Fiji to board a boat. The m/v Pacific Hope from Tauranga, New Zealand with Marine Reach was docked outside Nandi, Fiji. Marine Reach is a ship ministry with YWAM. The Pacific Hope as well as the YWAM PNG vessel are the two ships I am working with to develop labs on board. The YWAM PNG vessel is under the direction of YWAM Townsville (Australia) and it it focused on serving PNG (Papua New Guinea). The Pacific Hope is focused on serving many islands in the pacific, one of which is Vanuatu. After boarding the boat in Fiji, we sailed to Vanuatu and to answer some questions, no I didn’t get sea sick and yes it did take about 3 days to sail most of which was on open water. Once we cleared customs in Port Vila (island of Efate) we sailed to another island. What another island? Yes…many nations in the pacific are “clusters” of islands. Vanuatu is one of these, shaped like a “Y” is is an archipelago of about 82 islands 11 of which are inhabited. During my visit, we sailed from Efate to Malakula. We anchored in Lambubu bay and traveled everyday onto Malakula to teach, have a primary health care clinic, evaluate eyes, help rebuild structures, and patients traveled to the ship to have dental care done. In the time we were there, we served 1,700 people over half were seen in the primary health care clinic, were I was located. I was also privileged to travel to the hospital were I taught staff. It was such a full time and a lovely one! I was struck by how much they need, they have so much potential, but simply need to be taught. Because we were at the right place at the right time, we were able to bring help and see a few precious ones saved. While there I also had the joy of doing a diagnosis on board the ship! In Port Vila we were donated microscopes and because I brought the reagents, we were able to detect malaria in some children and one adult during our clinics. When I left Vanuatu, I went to Townsville to check in with the group there leading the efforts to refit the ship. I met with some people I am hoping to continue to work with J they are currently considering moving to Townsville to steer the project with the lab on board the ship. I pray they do! It is hard to summarize such an amazing trip. Please know so much more happened than I am able to write. My heart is full and I look forward to sharing with you all in person some more stories. Thank you so much for your continued support! Don’t stop reading though…pictures to come!

Donations should be sent to YWAM Tyler, PO Box 3000, Garden Valley, TX 75771 My name can not appear anywhere on the check. Please attach a separate note with my full name on it. Bank draft donations are now possible! Please contact me for further information J

Next Steps… Next week starts a new chapter in my life…I am part of the core leadership team developing a new school here in Kona. We are taking the normal DTS and adding specialized skills in geography, linguistics, bible innovations and science. During the school I will be leading one outreach to New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea. I am needing to raise $3,500 for this trip. Could you please consider donating for this? This trip will be significant in that it will give me an opportunity to encourage people to join in this adventurous life of traveling to remote places and use the skills they have in community development, science, and share the love of Jesus to those He died for. It is my prayer that some of the students of this school will have the desire to serve on the mission field afterwards. It will be an added bonus if they desire to work with me! In New Caledonia, we will be helping bible translators determine how many languages they need to begin to work on (application of the linguistics training) in Papua New Guinea, we will be visiting those I have been working with to encourage and help them further develop their skills and travel to remote villages on a TB awareness patrol. We will also hopefully be apart of an outreach on the YWAM PNG vessel which is due into the Gulf region of PNG while we are there! Our team will be departing Kona late December and returning early March. In the months to come I will be introducing you to them. Prayer Requests… Grace, peace and wisdom…we need it! As we embark on this new school it will take a bit to juggle all that we have on our plates. I am also needing to raise some funds as I have fallen short of my goal for this past trip. Please help if you are able. Many blessings to all! Love, April J

Donations should be sent to YWAM Tyler, PO Box 3000, Garden Valley, TX 75771 My name can not appear anywhere on the check. Please attach a separate note with my full name on it. Bank draft donations are now possible! Please contact me for further information J

The picture of the day/month/year! Here is Joe leading the malaria testing!

April in Bloom

A B

C D

E

(A) Me teaching how to stain for TB in Kapuna (B) The group I worked with in Kapuna (C) First landing on Malakula, Vanuatu (D) The road entering the

village of Lambubu (E) The group I worked with at Norsup Hospital…the final picture of me on the Pacific Hope looking at the first diagnosis of

malaria.