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Bartlett Support
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When we asked Anna what she wanted for her birthday, she said with a big smile on her face, “I want to ride horses!” 
Though horses are not at all common in Malawi, we did find a stable where we could ride along the beach of Lake Malawi (and even swim with them!).
“This is your time,” Ryan said during our first chapel service with the 58 women who came for training. 
“This is your time to set aside the things which distract you and keep you busy. This is your time to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from God’s Word and I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity.”
We are praising the Lord for the amazing things He has done in the hearts of our pastors’ wives and women in ministry these last two weeks. Jen Willson (our missionary in Blantyre), 
Jeanne Tucker (Canada) and Katie worked with several of our Malawian Pastors and Pastors wives to teach and encourage these women in ministry.
We were truly blessed to hear testimonies of how the Lord used this training to build up these women. “I now know the spiritual gifts God has given me and how He can use me to serve in the Body of Christ,” several women said. 
“In the past, I have been asked to lead Bible Studies, but I did not know how to study the Bible. Now, I feel empowered to teach because I know how to study the Bible for myself,” other women said. We were amazed when one woman said, “My children asked me why I would go to a module if I couldn’t read, but I knew God had a plan for me there. I was surprised that I would have the opportunity to begin learning how to read because of Mrs. Tucker’s reading class. I am praying that one day I will be able to read the Bible!”
After living in Malawi for nearly one year, we were ecstatic to have Katie’s sister, Laurie and her daughter, Sam, come to visit Malawi for two weeks in April. When Katie told one of our Malawian pastors that her sister was coming to visit, he said, “Oh, that is so great! That means you are loved, because you have family who want to visit you!”
Laurie and Sam blessed us so much as they traveled with us to visit some of our pastors and new friends, hung out with us at Lake Malawi and enjoyed seeing Malawi’s animals on a safari.
Wanting to do more than just “sight-seeing”, Laurie and Sam raised over $2,000 to assist the various orphan care projects run by our Malawian Free Methodist Churches. They also had the opportunity to meet the 
orphans from our Chilumba Orphan Care Project near Lake Malawi. Laurie and Sam presented chickens, books, crayons, a football and jump ropes to these orphans. Using the funds they raised, they also assisted the church in paying for the
remainder of the building they were using for the orphans. The church members were filled with joy to know that they could use their resources to assist the orphans now that the burden of the building payments was lifted.
Thank you to all who gave to support orphans in Malawi and thank you Laurie and Sam for loving us and sacrificing your time and money to visit us!
It is hard to believe that last Easter we were in Oregon celebrating the resurrection of our Savior with family and friends. So much has changed since then, but the story of Jesus is never changing and continues to change lives all over the world. For this, we are so grateful.
To all of our family, friends and supporters: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).
Last Sunday, as we were preparing to leave for church, a man came walking down our driveway and wanted to introduce himself. Dr. Matt Barnhart, Elita his wife, and their two children, had just moved to Malawi two weeks ago and were interested in attending one of our FM churches. To our surprise, they had discovered our family by searching online and reading our weblog.
It was obvious that Matt and Elita really desired to experience a rural Malawian church service, so we invited them to join us that morning. As we all piled into two cars and headed out of town to the tiny little grass church, we didn’t know the blessings God had in store for us. We were encouraged and inspired by Matt and Elita’s willingness to worship with our people joyfully.
Both Matt and Elita said that it was the best experience they had since their arrival in Malawi and we definitely look forward to getting to know this great family as we both seek to serve the Lord here.
In one of the villages we visited we found this young boy, whose name is Mabvuto, wearing a shirt from Flagstaff, Arizona. He had never heard of snow skiing, so Ryan explained to him what the little white guy on his shirt was doing.
Recognizing that a campus of our size has many maintenance needs, Joe Sivils, a church member in Roland Kramer’s church in CA, came for two weeks to help fix leaky roofs, broken plumbing, damaged light fixtures, jammed door locks, etc. 
Though two weeks were not enough time to finish Ryan’s long list of repairs, Joe did accomplish a lot and even learned a lot about Malawi’s people and culture. The highlight of his visit was participating in our evangelism event at Chinsapo.
These were the words of a new father anxiously awaiting the birth of his first child. Katie quickly gave Pastor Kaliguduze, a GCS student, the phone and went on with her duties in the office. When he finished talking, Katie asked if everything was okay, but noticed that he seemed extraordinarily nervous. He said, “Oh, I am so worried. We have waited so long to have a child, and I am just asking God to please bless us with even one child.”
The Lord did bless this young couple with a healthy baby, but Kaliguduze was sad that he had to wait two more weeks to visit them. He said, “If only I had wings, I would fly home to see my wife and baby!” 
After gaining permission from his teachers, we gave him “wings” (in the form of our car) and took him to see his wife and new baby. Everyone had told Kaliguduze that he had a new son, but when we arrived, he learned that his new “son” was actually a “daughter.” This news did not stop him from showering kisses on his baby and praising the Lord for this amazing blessing!
Luke says in Acts 13:49 that “…the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.” As we pray for the Word of the Lord to be spread throughout Malawi, it is evident that our pastors and students are wishing for this as well. Pastor Kaligwenje asked to be sent to a “dead church” in August because his heart is to see more people come to know Jesus. During our January-February 2008 module at GCS, we had the privilege of teaming up with Pastor Kaligwenje to flood the area of Chinsapo with the amazing story of God’s salvation.
To have the greatest impact, our GCS students walked all throughout the neighborhoods visiting people and inviting them to a special service that evening. 
Nearly 400 people attended the service, hungry to hear about Jesus. Even though heavy rains came and disrupted our plans, it was obvious that God’s plans were greater. Many people remained in spite of the rain and were excited about coming to church the next morning.
As we packed people into the small store building for church on Sunday, we were blessed to see that the Word of the Lord was being heard and that several people decided to join the church. Please pray for Pastor Kaligwenje as he seeks to spread the word of the Lord throughout Chinsapo and beyond.
The theme for our most recent module at GCS was “Unwavering Leadership.” It was inspired by Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord,” and was the subject of all of Ryan’s teaching during morning prayers and reflections as well as evening chapels. Please pray that our 32 students who were in attendance and instructed in this teaching would be unwavering leaders for Christ in their homes, villages and churches.
We would also like to introduce two new students to GCS. Demister Edson (below left) and Enock Namangwiya (below right) both began their training in January and evidence an authentic desire grow into strong and Spirit-filled leaders in the church.
We had two visiting teachers from the USA. Roland Kramer (aka the guitar man) taught on the subjects of Historical
Books and Basic Bookkeeping and Rebecca Hunt taught English. Both did an exceptional job and were loved and appreciated by our students.
