We're Moving

Dear family and friends,

After two and a half years of inquiry and much prayer, we have exciting news to share with you. Our passion to continue mission ministry has now led us to the unchurched villages of Alaska, bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to them. Bob has accepted the AFLC Home Missions call to be a missionary pastor and Christian radio station manager for the AFLC Alaska mission outreach in the Bristol Bay area. He anticipates leaving for Alaska in late-June with Margaret following in July, after our oldest daughter, Mary, delivers her fourth child. It is a time of change, leaving the beautiful Monterey Bay area where Bob has been serving, for the coastal town of Naknek (NACK-neck), where fellow pedestrians include bears and foxes, and all the food must be flown or barged in. Yup'ik Eskimos, Alutiiq and Athabascans will become our neighbors.

Rural Alaska is unlike any other part of the United States. Its unique wildlife, rugged terrain, unusual moonlit days in the winter and sunlit nights in the summer, all display God's power and creativity. The mountains, volcanoes, tundra, and glaciers put us in awe of our Creator! But amidst all this beauty is a people in need of the Word of Jesus Christ. So many remote villages, isolated from communication and transportation (except by air), are without any Gospel witness. AFLC Home Missions is blessed to be one ambassador for Jesus Christ into these communities through its three ministries: North and South Naknek chapels, KAKN-FM Christian radio broadcasting, and mission aviation ministry into surrounding, remote villages. We, along with classmate missionary pastor-pilot Jeremy Crowell and his wife, Lacey, will join Pastor Jeff Swanson and his family.

Where in the world is Naknek?

Naknek is located on the north bank of the Naknek River near its mouth on Bristol Bay. Naknek is approximately 300 miles southwest of Anchorage and is only accessible by boat or air. The local economy is almost entirely based on salmon fishing, and has one of the largest commercial salmon fishing areas in the world and draws thousands of seasonal workers each summer, and then drops to several hundred in the winter.

With only 15 miles of paved road, the use of airplanes is very important to the lives of the people who live there, and for the ministry. The airplane provides quick and often the only access to many villages in southwest Alaska. Over 150 villages are reachable by plane from Naknek. Some of these small villages have had no mission presence; others have chapel buildings that sit empty, because there is no missionary/pastor who can get to them.

We praise God for the work He is doing through village ministry, aviation ministry, radio station outreach, and the everyday relationships built around the Naknek community.

Our e-mail is: bobmarglee at gmail.com

Our new address beginning July 1: PO Box 214, Naknek AK 99633-0214.