Soul and Medical Care for All
As part of GMI, Carlan Wendler is proclaiming truth and discipling medical missionaries in Burundi, Africa.
When Carlan Wendler graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School, he could have practiced medicine wherever he wanted to. Graduating from a top ten medical school opens doors in medicine. Alumni from Carlan’s class have completed residencies in radiation oncology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, and cardiovascular surgery. Instead, Carlan is the chief medical officer at one of the largest hospitals in Burundi, Africa, practicing medicine in a much different way, and with much different means, than the typical American doctor.
A small country, sharing a northern border with Rwanda, an eastern border with Tanzania, and a western border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi is a landlocked country, struggling with the scars of ethnic strife and a violent colonial past. It’s GDP (gross domestic product) was one of the lowest in the world in 2022 at $260/year. Before medical school, Carlan had never been to the country, and he knew little about it. So how did he go from one of the world’s most prestigious medical schools to one of its poorest countries?
“At the University of Michigan, I met a group of people who were passionate about using medical education to advance the gospel in places that didn’t have a lot of doctors or light,” Carlan said.
After medical school, Carlan returned to his hometown, Los Angeles, for his residency at the Los Angeles County USC medical center. Carlan knew he wanted to serve overseas after his residency. He just wasn’t sure where and in what capacity. Wherever he ended up, he knew he wanted to integrate his faith with his medical practice. Thankfully, the Lord opened an opportunity like that through his home church, Grace Community. There Carlan connected with Grace Ministries International (known simply as GMI), which primarily sends out pastors and Bible teachers, men who can build churches and train local pastors in theological schools overseas. Though in many ways Carlan would be a unique missionary for GMI, in so many ways he could fulfill the mandate GMI has always had, to proclaim the gospel and disciple local leaders. That is exactly what Carlan is doing today, having served for the past ten years in Burundi.
“Our hospital is blessed to have a bunch of Christian staff here,” Carlan said. “It’s a Christian mission hospital working in partnership with a Christian medical school. Our main discipleship focus is training the next generation of medical missionaries from Burundi, for Burundi. We get to work alongside a bunch of pastors who are employed by the hospital as well as our phenomenal chaplains who are reaching our patients for Christ.”
Throughout the years Carlan and his wife Michelle have been in Burundi, they have seen the Lord work in remarkable ways, far beyond what they anticipated when they moved there.
“Just to give you a sense of the scale of what God is doing here. Last year we had 1,523 people come to Christ through the ministry of the pastors, chaplains, and staff at the hospital. That is the equivalent of planting more than 20 average-sized churches. It’s a big work. It’s an awesome work. And it’s really exciting to watch God work here in Burundi.”
Working in a hospital brings Carlan into contact with people from every background imaginable. His hospital is one of the largest in the region, so patients are often referred there from across Burundi, as well as other countries such as Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Among all that diversity, Carlan is often interacting with nonbelievers as well as professing Christians who do not share his theological commitments. This has given Carlan countless opportunities not only to share the gospel, but to disciple others in the faith.
“One of the first years we were here, I was teaching ‘Fundamentals of the Faith’ to the medical student Bible study at our hospital,” Carlan said. “We got to lesson five and we were talking about the person of Jesus Christ. A question about the person and nature of Christ revealed some interesting theology when a student answered that Christ had to be, ‘more than 50% God because He was more divine than we are.’ I was able to address that and help him understand the true nature of Christ as wholly God and wholly man. Today he is a wonderful man of God. I’m so grateful for the progress we made over that year studying ‘Fundamentals of the Faith’ together.”
The ability to both teach medicine, care for students, and disciple others in the truth of God’s Word is why Carlan loves the work in Burundi. He is able to care for people’s physical pain and point them to the truth that will care for their soul. In the past ten years, Carlan has seen extraordinary fruit in the ministry. He is eager to see what the Lord will do in the coming years.
Grace Ministries International supports dozens of missionaries like Carlan Wendler. Currently, more than 100 families are serving on the mission field as part of GMI. The global church is being strengthened and souls are being saved because of the work of these servants. The John MacArthur Charitable Trust partners with GMI in the work of sending out missionaries, like Carlan, to take the truth of God’s Word to the nations.
