first impressions of my new wife!

I find myself in a strange but beautiful country, where the cars drive on the wrong side of the road, and the drivers are on the wrong side of the car...where even the yield signs look different, and stop signs are replaced with round-about's.  The people have been friendly and helpful, but the language, while using mostly the same words, is more lyrical, and sometimes hard to follow, especially when the conversation is going full-tilt.  The talk centers more around tennis than football, and I find myself quite in the dark when it comes to Wimbelton, but I nod and smile and enjoy the friendly banter around me.  The shops are smaller here and the money is quite colorful, while the buildings are more gray, although by no means uninteresting or lacking in character.  Rather, the architecture is remarkable, with buildings often made of stone and wood, accented by spires and turrets and wrought iron gates.  And the flowers are beautiful - bursting color into the towns and decorating the lawns of cottages, flowing from window boxes and hanging baskets.  The rainy summer, apparently unusually so, has created a deep green landscape, befitting the title of "The Emerald Isle."  I find it at once intriguing and exciting, yet a bit overwhelming and strange.  I've a good bit of growing to do, but am content that God has brought me here and will continue to lead me on.

My heart has been warmed by the loving embrace of Geoffrey's family and my belly has been filled to bursting with the wonderful cooking and abundant sweets.  I am so happy to be a part of this family whose home is filled with laughter and children's squeals of delight, who tease each other mercilessly, but love each other fiercely as well.  I am so grateful God has seen fit to plant me here.

travels

Hello, friends!

God has been so faithful this past week as we packed up our house - who knew that it could be so much work to pack up a tiny little home?  But we are mostly there - having divided things into save and store, get rid of, and pack to take...all the while trying to keep in mind the size restrictions for our luggage and trying to limit our storage.  Whew!  It has been rather exhausting!

Some praises we would like to share with you:

- Our time here in the US has been so wonderful - and Geoff and the Marshall family feel equally blessed to have each other! :-)

- Our visa paperwork has all been worked out, Dar Gail's in a miraculously short time!

- God provided a renter for our home!

- We are nearly all packed and ready to go - with suitcases packed to the exact amount (thanks to Geoff's handi-dandi hanger scale! :-))

Over the next two days we will be saying our goodbyes to friends and family here in Florida.  Please pray for us!  Then we set off to Wisconsin for a few days to visit some of Dar Gail's family there before leaving for the UK after more goodbye's.  Then the hello's begin - With a month in N. Ireland/Ireland for Dar Gail to get some time with Geoff's family and friends, and then on to England where we'll be spending the majority of the next year with Dar Gail in school.  We have quite the adventure ahead of us!

Please pray for us:

- Goodbye's

- Comfort for Friends and Family left behind

- No trouble with our luggage (pray they don't hassle us regarding the weight!!!)

- Safety in our travels

- Sale of Geoff's truck and Dar Gail's car (and for Dar Gail not to stress as God has this under control!)

- Adjustments for Dar Gail in a new country

Thank-you all so much for standing with us in this time.  God has been so good to us and we are excited about what He has ahead, but at the same time know that often that involves sacrifice.  Pray that we will willingly and joyfully go where He calls!

Blessings to you all,

Geoff & Dar Gail

God of the impossible!!!!!!

We figured it would take at least 2 months we figured we would be buying our tickets for the UK in the last few days before we leave or at least buying them with out knowing if my wife would get into the UK!
What am i talking about - my wife's visa for the UK, she just got word today that she Got her UK Visa so this means she can work and study in the UK.
Again we see a God who rules and reigns over all powers on earth even governments!
Praise God for his amazing grace in this thank him!

june prayer letter

Dear Friends,

When I last wrote, I was wrapping up my time in Hoskins and heading to America to get married.  Well, today marks 10 months since God brought Dar Gail and me together. Very shortly we will be celebrating 4 months of married life. As we look back, it amazes us to think that a year ago we had no idea what He had in store. God has continued to knit our hearts together and direct our path and we are excited to share some of the things He is doing.

Our Life

While Dar Gail has continued to work at Wycliffe Associates (WA), I have been spending time coordinating our plans and working on paperwork, volunteering at WA, helping family and friends, and even fitting in a little bit of tree work.

We have enjoyed the opportunity to spend some quality time with both of our families and even hosted some friends from N. Ireland.

God has blessed us with a wonderful church family here and has even opened doors for sharing our ministry in another church’s Sunday school class.

We plan to head to N. Ireland the beginning of August and then on to England in September.  We will be living at the NTM Training Center in North Cotes where Dar Gail will attend the Cross Cultural Communication training while I serve on staff.  Following our year there, we hope to be able to return to Papua New Guinea.  However, we recognize that God is in control and want to yield ourselves to His plan.

Family Update

¨ 3 new little ones: Jonah, Kaylan, & Sophie ~ Welcome to the family!

¨ Dar Gail’s Grampa Bickish went to heaven ~ Praise the Lord for the godly legacy he leaves behind.

¨ Lots of birthdays ~ including...

Geoff’s Big 40!

Please Pray ~ For the logistics of our move (visas, flights, packing, wrapping things up with work, home, & cars); for the many goodbyes to be said; for safety in our travels; for God to be glorified in all we do!

I am certain that a year from now, we will once again look back and be amazed at His plan for our lives.

The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him.” - Nahum 1:7

just a wee reminder of what the McNabb's are up too

Sorry for not getting to this sooner, I realize I have kept you all in the dark a bit about what is happening with us.

Firstly I have to say married life is pretty amazing God has been very gracious in giving me such a Godly wife whose desire is as mine, to serve the Lord and to reach the unreached. Secondly we continue to value your prayers and support over this time of adjustment for both of us. Finally just to restate my position with NTM at present I am on Home assignment till next September then we start at North Cotes again.

 I will say that we do have plans but they are very much up in the air at the minute as I’m waiting for a visa extension and my wife is waiting for her visa for the UK. We are basically waiting and trusting in the Lord for our next move.

I can however give you an overview of what we are thinking.

August we will be in N. Ireland, the first part will be a much needed Honeymoon for my wife but and I guess I will tag alongJ

Then September starts our time of training with NTM well primarily for my wife she will be doing the full 3C course whereas I will be working on staff mostly and have some classes to sit in on with Dar Gail.

After training is finished well as with all of the above its in the hands of the Lord but we still have a desire to go back to PNG, to do what and when we will be going we will leave in the hands of the Lord.

Please be in prayer for the Visas that they will come quickly and we could get our flight tickets sorted as we can get the tickets before the visa.

My new wife’s transition into a new culture, first N. Ireland then England.

Our last few months as we prepare to leave we have much to do like pack up and rent our house, sell our cars but most important of all spend time with our American family.

That’s all for now more will follow soon.

We are resting in Jesus’ timing for all of this only he knows the way, we are happy to be following him!

How do we look at the world?

John 1:46 And Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

How do I look at people, people groups, towns, cities? I tend to look at them collectively as a group not as individuals, tarring them all with the same brush just like Nathanael and Jesus. Unlike Nathanael I tend to stop there not going and seeing for myself, what if the individuals don’t like me or they hurt me or steal my stuff.

If this attitude pervades my life will I ever leave my home will anyone ever know that I love Christ, will I really love Christ if I follow this path? If Nathanael had followed his line of reasoning he would never have met Jesus the saviour of the world.

I was reading the story of David recently and again the classic verse of how God looks at us shot me between the eyes again 1Sa 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." Or what about one of my favourite verses in the Bible Ps 139:17 ¶ How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. Does God look at the big group of people and listen to the rumours about them, about their bad ways and say there too bad I’m not going there? No he looks at the individual heart and longs to see them saved.

We get so hung up on exteriors we forget the individuals, people who need Christ and his love. If people like Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Peter Fleming and Ed McCully Jim Elliot had listened to what the world had said about the Auca Indians they may be alive today but how many millions would be in hell now.

I pray the lord would give me a heart for individuals, it’s so easy for me to judge the world in groups and tar everyone with that brush, and never reach out to those in need because I think they are too bad to hear the gospel.  What joy I will miss if I live like this, what joy the Christian world misses living like this only going to the ‘safe’ places, we to will miss Christ we will miss His great commission – to GO and see – to make individuals disciples in all the nations.

Lord rid me of my judgmental attitude help me serve you help me to ‘go and see’.

I, rather we have made it to married life, the relations have all left after the wedding,  my new amazing wife has left for work, I'm left  here just catching up on things. It also has given me time to reflect on the past 6 months.

I was reading this morning in Exodus 37 about Bazalel building the furniture for the tabernacle and the thought struck me how God had everything planed to the smallest degree nothing was left to chance nothing left to artistic licence. Bazalel had to follow the master’s plan directly.

I think forward to another major event in the world where God had things planned to the tiniest degree- the life and death of His son. His Son followed His Father's plan perfectly as did those around whether they were aware or not. God wasn't sitting or pacing backwards and forwards wondering if His redemption plan would work or not, no He had it sorted. His amazing salvation plan unfolded before Him even as He turned from our sins placed on His Son He knew the outcome as did His Son, the Joy!

Fast forward another 2000 odd years he is still not taken by surprise, even when 6 months ago I seen my future wife on Facebook and we started to chat and chat and chat, He knew what He was doing with us, he knew that 6 months down the line we would be getting married on a wee farm in the middle of Florida on a beautiful warm sunny day. We may have been franticly trying to get everything sorted for the big day, praying it wouldn't rain or be too hot, but as  with our God we needn't have worried as He had it all sorted. 

It’s with this confidence; I pray we go into our married life together, knowing that He is before us making our way straight. As we stumble and fumble through married life we like Christ have an amazing Joy set before us but of course we don’t often see it so easily, it gets fogged by our selfish ambition and desires! I pray that the 2 of us would see Christ rather that our own desires.

Thank you my Father for bringing me to here in a place I never thought I would be, I pray I can trust you for the rest of our lives together.

What’s new in Florida?

Almost 2 month has gone by, Christmas and the New Year have left us behind for another year, MOST people have taken their decorations down and in less than 10 days the Lord is allowing me to be married to one of his daughters, a very special one I might add.  Dar Gail is truly a special gift of Grace Form God, as are her family the Lord is blessing me with 2 amazing families to support us as we move into our new life together.

This New Year I have decided to change my study pattern a wee bit and attempt to read the bible in a year, I usually give up after the first few months but I would really like to finish this. As I have been reading (I have been reading Genesis, Exodus and Acts) I have observed that these books very much books of beginnings.  Genesis being the beginning of the world and universe, Abraham and Gods chosen people, Exodus is a new beginning in Gods Promised Land and Acts is the beginning of the Church as we know.

 For us we are having a new beginning too with our up and coming marriage, to say we are nervous about this would be wrong, we are confident that this beginning is what the Lord has for us. Although we don’t go with our eyes closed and like the children of Israel and the new church there may be some teething problems but I pray that we continue to keep God and his grace in focus rather than focusing on what would be a negative problem.  Rather than being like Israel who when a problem came up they looked back to Egypt and there old way of life. As I said we hope to look to our future with Christ and put on heaven coloured glasses.  

As I am writing this I think about all the marriages that go on every day, in many parts of the world people get married but don’t even realise what bond they are making, some may never know as they don’t have the word of God in there language so they cant know that marriage was something inishated by God in the beginning, that it was God who gave adam, eve. Marriage and all involved in that has been given to us by God and we as believers have the privilege of knowing this but what about those who don’t, they have no reason to stay together apart from an earthly bond. With God word it speaks of Gods ideal for married life, which is not really the worlds thinking . Pray for new churches and those who don’t have Gods word that soon they will receive it and therefore have a better understanding of Gods plan for marriage.

Praise Him for his Gift of Grace to me of my future wife Dar Gail.

Please pray for us as we go forward with our new life together.

As we work all the final details out with our wedding

How we will work out our visas for each other’s country

Praise God that He has provided work for me, lots of opportunity to volunteer in various places.

Praise that God has provided a wonderful new family for me to be part of.