About the Geislers
Learn more about Wilson and Natalie and the one-term urgency that has defined their calling and ministry.
One-Term Urgency
If you only had 3 to 4 years to leave lasting Kingdom Impact, what would you do?
Natalie and I wrestled with this question when we first were getting ready to go overseas to South Asia. We were faced with the brutal facts about the location where we were going to live. At the time, we were headed to a place the size of the state of Indiana with a population of 92 million! There were 5,000 births and 2,000 deaths each and every day. With only an estimated 20,000 believers, the Christian percentage was under 0.03%. And to top it all off, with a growth rate of over 3,000 people a day, we realized that even if we shared the gospel 5 times a week for 52 weeks a year for 40 years, only 10,400 individuals would hear the gospel. This meant that the same number who would hear the gospel through our efforts over the course of 40 years (if we could even stay that long) would be born and added to the local population in a little over 3 days. As you can imagine, we initially felt defeated, but we knew the Lord desired that everyone there be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. So, we started praying and asking the Lord to show us how we could ultimately see this area saturated with the gospel and churches. He answered!
He pointed us to the example of Jesus Christ and His three-and-a-half-year ministry. Consider the images above. See how Jesus moved from the crowd to disciples and then to those who might “come and be with him.” He spent most of his three-and-a-half-year ministry time investing in the twelve. The Apostle Paul later imitated Christ by following Jesus’ model, which Paul explains succinctly in 2 Timothy 2:2. Remember that in Scripture, there were maybe 120 to 500 disciples remaining after Jesus ascended. In modern church circles, some might call that a failure. Thankfully, the wisdom of God is not the wisdom of man! The reality is that the Lord left 11 equipped leaders. He instilled vision, passion, and love for the lost into them. They then multiplied disciple-making and churches long after He was gone – in fact Jesus said it was good that He was going away so that the Holy Spirit would come and empower them to do greater things! What seemed like an impossible task – getting the gospel all the way to the ends of the earth – was possible through the power of multiplication of disciples and leaders. So, once the Lord showed us this truth, we were greatly encouraged. We knew from His Word that it was, in fact, possible to making lasting Kingdom impact in 3 to 4 years, even if we never saw it come fully to fruition during our time there. Greatly encouraged, we began developing training materials and working, as closely as possible, the same process modeled by Jesus. The result was tremendous fruit that remains and continues to grow and multiply to this day.
The Lord gave us a name for the idea of working toward maximum Kingdom impact during a single 3-to-4-year term – We called it One-Term Urgency. If Jesus operated with One-Term Urgency, we wanted to live our lives that way as well!
Our Testimony
We are Wilson and Natalie. We’ve been happily married for 39 years and have been on this journey of making disciples together for almost 30. We have two grown children and two grandchildren.
The Lord saved us both at age 30, almost 10 years into our marriage. First was Wilson, who was an atheist. Then as God began to transform his life, he had the privilege of leading Natalie to the Lord a few months later. Growing quickly in the Lord, they served on staff at a church in Texas, where God then called them to overseas missions. Selling their home, they and their two children went to South Asia for a number of years before being called to the Middle East. From there, the Lord called them to Virginia, where Wilson served as the Director of Global Research for the IMB for 7 years. Now, the Lord has called us to Texas, where Wilson is serving as the Director of Operations for Joshua Project. Obviously, there’s a lot missing from this brief story, but if we ever get the privilege of meeting you, feel free to ask us to give you the details!
Above all, we love the Lord and serving others, desiring that all be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. Thank you for your friendship, prayers, and financial partnership!
Wilson’s Ministry Bio
Wilson’s Ministry Bio
My experience in Christian ministry spans almost 30 years and has focused primarily on disciple-making, leadership development, church planting, and strengthening the long-term effectiveness of Great Commission efforts across both local church and global mission contexts. As I’ve looked back over my life, I’ve been amazed at how God has woven together experiences that one wouldn’t think, at the time, should be connected. I had the blessing of growing up in a home full of research. Before becoming a Christian, I was a practicing structural engineer, a software developer, and a software company owner. Then after the Lord saved Natalie and me, He called us into ministry and missions, where we spent many years making disciples, catalyzing church planting, and serving among unreached peoples in South Asia and the Middle East. Most recently, I served as Director of Global Research at the International Mission Board until the Lord asked us to return to Texas in 2026. I now serve as the Director of Operations for Joshua Project.
None of these experiences were accidental.
Because of this journey, I’ve had the privilege of working right where strategy, systems design, research, and hands-on disciple-making meet. I love helping mission organizations turn big-picture vision into practical, repeatable systems that drive real, lasting impact. With a background in programming, data analytics, and process design, I enjoy building tools that help leaders make smart decisions on a global scale – from managing massive datasets on unreached people groups to setting up research pipelines for field workers and ministry partners. Over the years, I’ve led remote global research teams and helped guide high-level strategic planning, data management, and organizational change to keep thousands of missionaries aligned around our shared mission. I’ve also designed learning platforms, like RAD and Architekt (download these from our resource section), that bridge the gap between theory and practice, helping leaders actually apply what they learn about discipleship, leadership development, and church planting.
I greatly enjoy cross-cultural leadership, church-planting, mentoring national partners, and strengthening local leadership ecosystems in frontier contexts. I have regularly taught in church and ministry settings, spoken at leadership gatherings, and helped shape collaborative initiatives across networks of agencies and churches working among unreached peoples. I also enjoy project management, networking, and fundraising, especially if those activities support field strategy and organizational initiatives – enabling teams to move from vision to implementation with clarity and accountability. Across these roles, my consistent aim has been to integrate research insight, strategic structure, and pastoral formation so that ministries grow not only in activity but in effectiveness, sustainability, and multiplication.
For details about specific projects and work experience, please visit my LinkedIn page or download my resume using the links below.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Joshua Project is a non-profit organization founded in 1995 to formulate a universally accepted people group database so that the global church would have access to lists of the people groups most in need of the gospel (unreached peoples). Today, God has grown the Joshua Project into the most accessed and trusted source of people group information for Kingdom advance and Christian missions on the planet. Joshua Project’s core values of neutrality, service, generosity, integrity and others (visit their website at JoshuaProject.net for the complete list) undergird their vision and mission:
Joshua Project Vision: To see God glorified through an abundance of Christ followers within every people group.
Joshua Project Mission: Joshua Project highlights peoples and places with the least access or response to the gospel so the Body of Christ can prioritize its prayer and mission efforts.
- Getting the gospel to the remaining people groups requires accurate, accessible, and actionable information. Joshua Project is already the most trusted and used source of this type of information globally, and the Lord is putting all of the right leaders and people in place at Joshua Project to make sure the global church will have the information needed in their own languages and in the formats needed to spur disciple-making at the ends of the earth.
- Exponential population increase requires exponential church growth that is both deep and wide. Information, such as that coming from Joshua Project, combined with assessment and implementation equipping will be key to seeing the Great Commission completed.
- We must continue to stay alert, investing in His Kingdom, and doing what pleases God. (See Matthew 25:1-30; Luke 19:11-27; 2 Corinthians 5:9-10)
- It pleases Jesus Christ to invest in His Kingdom even if there is risk (Matthew 25:1-30; Luke 19:11-27).
- The state of the world, the population growth, and the multitudes of lostness don’t surprise God. In every generation, He has given His church everything needed to take the gospel to every person on the planet and to make disciples of every nation, tribe, people and language. Now is our window of opportunity.
- Jesus, our King, is returning soon, and we want to make His bride (the global church) ready.
Joshua Project, like 70% of all global ministries, such as Campus Crusade (CRU), Frontiers, Pioneers, YWAM and others, utilize Faith missionaries. “Faith Missionaries” aren’t provided a secure monthly payroll check from a church or organization but instead are required to raise 100% of their living and ministry expenses from friends, family, churches and others who partner with them. By giving and praying, financial partners become strategic ministry “senders,” enabling and launching that Christian worker into their calling to focus on impacting others for Christ. In addition, such partner and support raising methodology provides many others with opportunities to be a part of God’s work across the globe. It’s a good and biblical practice to work together with all of our resources to reach the nations with the gospel, disciple-making, and church planting. If you still have questions about giving or supporting those in ministry, we highly recommend downloading and reading this free short booklet by Dr. Steve Shadrach that discusses five questions every potential donor should ask:
Download 5 Questions Every Donor Should Ask.
First and foremost, partnership is prayer. We ask you to pray that all of the remaining people groups have an opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel. We ask you to pray specifically for the Joshua Project, our role there, and for wisdom to lead well. We ask you to pray that many followers of Christ will go and many churches will send. And pray for other things as the Lord puts them on your heart.
Partnership is also connection through fellowship, community, and encouragement. Life can be lonely at times. Ministry can be lonely at times. And Leadership can be lonely at times. The Lord desires for us to support and care for one another. And the Lord asks us to love and encourage one another. As the Lord prompts, please reach out to us with a note, call, text, or email (and we will do the same back to you). We want to know you and be known by you.
Finally, because this is a support-based ministry, both we and the Joshua Project need financial partners who feel led by the Lord to help make this work possible. As the Lord prompts, please be faithful to give.
To explore partnership in more detail, click the partner with us button at the bottom of the frequently asked questions section.
It’s never a factor in our friendship. Partnership isn’t only financial. It’s prayer. It’s fellowship. It’s encouragement. We desire these things with and from you over financial support. Prayer is the most important thing. As followers of Christ, we have the unparalleled opportunity to pray and labor together to see the nations reached with the gospel. While doing that, we trust that you will hear from the Lord about whether to give financially in addition to prayer, encouragement, fellowship. And we trust the Lord that He will spur those He desires to give financially to support Wilson’s critical role at the Joshua Project. So please give as the Lord leads – we want nothing more than that. If you can’t give joyfully knowing that you’re being obedient to the Lord, then please don’t. Please know that our love and respect for you will never be dependent on how or even how much you support us. Legalistic or burdensome giving is not the Lord’s nor our desire for you!
Any investment has risks, including those in the Kingdom of God. Risks include not seeing a Kingdom return on your investment, a loss of time (both yours and those working on the Kingdom tasks), and the risk of investing in the wrong people and things. Often overlooked, however, is the risk of doing nothing and of thinking that not investing is the safest option. One needs to simply read Matthew 25:1-30 and Luke 19:11-27 to get an idea of Jesus’ thoughts on risk and investing in the Kingdom. That said, God does not ask every follower of Christ to invest in every Kingdom project that comes along. Ask the Lord if this is an investment He is asking you to take.
Possible Personal Return on Investment:
- The opportunity to experience God and for a closer walk with the Lord.
- The joy of giving generously.
- The opportunity to grow in the spiritual disciplines by trusting God with your finances.
- The joy of being a part of God’s global Kingdom work.
- The opportunity to invest and prepare for Jesus Christ’s rapidly approaching return.
- The joy of participating in the Romans 10:12-14 chain.
Possible Kingdom Return on Investment:
- The potential to see global lives impacted and disciple-making fruit multiply thirty, sixty, or a hundred times (See Mark 4:1-20).
- The opportunity to help provide the global body of Christ with actionable information that’s accurate and accessible.
- The privilege to see men, women, boys, and girls who have had almost no opportunity to hear the gospel in their language hear, understand, and believe.
- The opportunity to be a part of spurring, engaging, and impacting the very edges of lostness (Frontier People Groups) with the gospel, disciple-making, and churches.
- The opportunity to help mobilize and equip this generation globally to multiply disciple-making and churches.
Absolutely. Clicking the “Give a Custom Amount” button above or this link here will take you to the Geislers giving page, which is hosted by Joshua Project’s trusted financial partner, Axia International. On the giving portal page, simply click Special Gift, enter the amount, and press the “Donate Online” button.
If you prefer, you can also give Special or one-time gifts by check:
Please make your check payable to Axia International and include “Project #1239 – The Geislers” in the memo line. Mail your gift to:
Axia International
19500 State Highway 249, Suite 230
Houston, TX 77070