Acts 28:31
"Hallelujah! My soul, praise the Lord. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing to my God as long as I live." - Psalm 146:1 CSB Hey everyone, I want to continue to thank you for your prayers and support. As I type this, I’m entering into my final year of Seminary. By God’s grace, and after 2 1/2 years, we've gotten to this point. As I'm typing this it feels exciting to be this close to graduating. Even though, I'm close the job's not finished. In this post I would like to just share what our future plans are after we finish this school year, some goals that we have for our next steps, and some prayer requests for reaching those next steps. For my final year, my courses are more practical. Each one challenges me in a unique way that works specific weaknesses not only in ministry, but in my own spiritual life and equipping me with the tools I need to thrive in ministry, especially a daunting task such as church planting. I can't talk about this semester without mentioning my amazing wife. Sara has been my rock during this semester, even more than the previous ones. This semester has been very active with my classes. For my final semester, there are two classes that I'm looking to take as transfer credits from other schools as the Seminary does not offer them for the time that I need them in order to graduate. I've applied to both schools and I'm just waiting to hear back from them. By God's grace I'll be able to complete these courses and graduate in May. If so, Sara and I are making plans to move into Calgary and apply for my permanent residency. Moving into CalgaryFirst move after graduation would be to move into Calgary. Just as everywhere else, we're experiencing a recession after Covid, and the cost of living has gone up. Calgary has also increased rapidly increased in its cost of living here recently. I have below a link to the current estimation for cost of living. We've gained a community here in Cochrane, however, we know the Lord has called us to Calgary to continue our pathway, and Lord willing launching a church plant after going through two rigorous assessments by our local church planting network Aspen Network and also through NAMB (conditional on passing the Aspen Assessment). After this year, Sara and I are planning to move into Calgary. We're prayerful about some potential opportunities. One of those is through an organization called Apartment Life. Apartment Life is an organization based in the states that partners with living community complexes to provide a living space for a person (or couple), that serves as a community organizer. In short, we would live in an apartment complex with the established and explicit purpose of putting together community events for the residents. While the opportunity is not explicitly Christian it does open up the doors for Gospel conversation and community. Internship with Hope HillsWhen I first moved to Calgary, I entered into an internship with Hope Hills to help develop ministry experience and practical pastoral opportunities to help shape me as a pastor. I've been in this internship while taking courses at the seminary. During the semester my responsibilities were a bit more limited to the week-by-week needs, while during the summer, I've taken on more responsibility. However, after graduating, I will dive head first into the internship more as a church planter, gaining practical experience. Graduating from the seminary is merely the beginning. For one of my classes, Capstone Ministry I, alongside Dustin and another member of the church named Jonny, will revitalize our discipleship pathway for the church. We will start with introducing this pathway to our young adult small group and then to the church. This internship is to prepare me for planting a church out of Hope Hills, equipping me with the knowledge of success and failures of Hope Hills. Prayer Requests
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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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