Acts 28:31
Thanks for reading the last post! Or if this is your first time joining, be sure to check out the previous posts and the “Who I Am,” and “Get in Touch” tabs for more information. Last post I shared about becoming a NAMB applicant as a church planting team member and my final undergrad year beginning. I’ve had some confirming conversations about Calgary and this process of moving there. One of which was with a church planting catalyst for Calgary, Jonathon Thiessen. The other is confirming with my sending church about a bank account with the church through a bank that have posts on both borders. This Sunday is a big deal for me, I’m presenting to my sending church what the Lord produced in me while I was in Calgary and officially announce my plan to move there and support raise for the next year. If you’re reading this before this Sunday, please pray for me and pray for the church as we go through this process. This is a big step for in this process because I will now be able to openly share more about this support raising process. Over the next three years, I will need about $80,000 with over half specifically designated for seminary and housing the other $35,000 covers living general expenses, the break down by month and year will be in the third post. To help with this cost, I’m going to be selling shirts, this was posted I think in the fourth post, but recently I met someone who had recently started coming to our community group and she owns an embroidery business and offered to help me raise support by offering more options, like shirts, hats, even drawstring bags! Needless to say I’m looking forward to offering these items. The process will be an order gathering process and I’m looking for two specific things as far as what’s offered. For the T Shirts that I’ve shared I’m the previous post, I’m looking to sell at least 50, with about a 3 week turnaround at the most. For the other items i would look to gather a total order of $200 and then order, with a month turn around. Thank you for your continued support, next week I want to talk a little bit more about specifically, what the Lord is teaching me during this process. It’s a few things about dependency, trust, and the call to making disciples. I also plan to share a video of my presentation to my sending church. If this is your first post, I made a few references to some posts i previously made. There is the context for what I’m doing now. Also be sure to skim through the other posts to get caught up. Lastly, be sure to share this page with those who may want to her about this process, and check out the other two tabs that will help you know more about who I am, and how you too can partner with me to get to Calgary. I’d like to leave you with two verses from one of my favorite books. “I give thanks to my God and for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I am sure of this, the he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:3-6
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Thank you for joining me this week! I hope you are well! If this is your first post, please take the time to look around the page, its quite simple but the "Who I Am" shares more about me personally, like my testimony and how the Lord called me to Calgary, and the "Get in Touch" tab shows how you can partner with me to help me reach the goal of moving to Calgary.
This week I wanted to share with you about something great. I'm waiting on it, and you can be praying for me in this situation. I've applied to be a Church Planting Team Member with the North American Mission Board (NAMB). This is a major part of what I've been looking to do in order to move to Calgary. This doesn't make me fully supported, honestly, I'm not sure how much or if they will support me at all. But I do know, this will help me with support raising because they will set me up with a lot of resources and trainings on what and how to steward the resources that God has given me. Also, it will prepare me for becoming a Lead Church Planter. This is a small (but major!) step toward the ultimate goal here. Hey all! If you have read the previous posts, thank you for your support! If this is the first post that you are reading welcome! I hope to be able to get in contact with you about this soon! Be sure to read the previous posts as they will provide context to this post. Also, be sure to read the "Who I Am" and "Get in Touch" tabs for more information! This week I have some great news! I just got back from Calgary yesterday, after a good five weeks of working with Hope Church. It was third time up there, the other two times you can read about in the "Who I Am" tab. These past five weeks were transformative to say the least. From my time up there, I know that the Lord is calling me up there and had been working on presentations, this blog, and more! I applied to the Seminary up there, as well as, to be a Church Planting Team Member with Hope Church up there. My last day I got a call back from the Team Lead for Missionary Services for the North American Mission Board (NAMB), and am in the process of becoming a Missionary with NAMB and that right there is exciting! But it's only the beginning. I request your prayers as I begin this journey of support raising. My plan is, after people begin to partner with me, I will start a partner's tab to honour them with their giving and commitment to the Gospel ministry in Calgary and in what the Lord is doing in my life in conjunction with the Gospel ministry in me and in Calgary. Now to the meat and potatoes of this post. While I was up there, I designed a t-shirt; I plan on selling this t-shirt at $20 a shirt to help cover the costs of moving and just general support raising too. My goal is to sell at least 50 shirts and a maximum of 75. I drew up the design for it and the folks at Fund the Nations did an excellent job for the final project! I couldn't be happier! If you're interested in buying this shirt please let me know, I have to place an order for the shirts and send it in to them. I plan on turning the final number in at the end of the year or if I reach the a solid number for the shirt orders. Below I have the shirt pictured take a look, and if you're interested in buying one I'll include my email address and social media handles at the bottom of this post OR you can go to the "Get in Touch" tab and click the envelope at the bottom of the page and that connects you to my email, or if you'd like to you can reach out to me by way of any of the social media tabs beside the email tab. While I was in Calgary, the Pastor (Dustin Conner) of the church (Hope Church) I will be working with made a profile tab for me to preview my intentions of moving to Calgary and be available for people to view. The link at the bottom of that page will bring you back here, but as everything gets setup and I begin more fundraising, I will have more things to put on here. In the mean time, I have the links to the the Hope Church page, my page link on here and Fund the Nations, if you all want any dope shirts or are looking to raise support for a missions trip definitely give this group a look, they offer great enthusiastic service and their design team is very good! Anyways that's it for now I hope you take a look at these things and pray about supporting financially or if only offering prayer then, trust me that's just a valuable, because with more people praying its a solid confirmation that God is at work here and I know that the financial answer will come. Thank you all, and in the words of Paul from Philippians 1 "I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Grace and peace from God our Father in Christ Jesus! Until next week! Thank you for checking out my previous posts, if you're new welcome! Be sure to check out my previous posts about the City of Calgary, and click the "Who I Am" tab to get more info about me, my testimony and what the Lord is doing in my life specifically and why Calgary. My prayer is that as you read this post you will consider clicking the "Get in Touch" Tab and partner with me to spread the Gospel to this corner of the world. In the previous posts, I gave some specifics about Calgary's location, demographics, economy, and spiritual state. This post will be about my budget. Below is the budget that I have set for myself to raise. I would like to reach a monthly budget of $2000 US dollars a month of the span of three years. The costs of everything is divided up by expenses and income. The total income a month will be about $2,410 in US between support raising and working bi-vocationally. My plan is to apply for a student visa, which allows for me to work a job 20 hours a week during the school yer and 40 hours a week during the summer. I will attend the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary to earn a Masters of Divinity with a concentration on Church Planting. To get a student visa, I would need present at the time of applying, the enough funds for a full year's tuition plus $10,000 to cover living expenses. Total cost for everything at the seminary would be about $10,500 (tuition, books, fees, housing, etc.). Total cost of living expenses (which include: food, gas, car maintenance and payment, clothes especially for winter, and cell phone bill) comes out to: $5,500. Last but not least I have included giving in as part of my budget also, which is 10% of the total I plan to raise. My total aim at maximum $30,000 allowing for the total funds needed to be cared for as well as a personal savings that give buffer for anything unexpected. All totals in the both spreadsheets are in US dollars. There is a current exchange rate of 1:1.33. Meaning every $1 US is worth $1.33 CA. |
AuthorMy name is Nokomis Gregory. I'm a native of Winston-Salem, NC. After graduating from Piedmont International University I moved Calgary, Alberta as a church planting team member, with the hopes of planting a church in Calgary. Archives
September 2023
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