Acts 28:31
Thank you all for your prayers and support! Last month, the Lord provided immensely financially, as well as continuing to open up the doors for me in the moving process. I'm happy to announce I have a set in stone date to move to Calgary. It comes a little later than expected and desired for that matter due to the travel restrictions as a result of COVID-19. I've also begun the Student Visa Application for Immigration Canada along with some exciting news: I've been accepted into the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary. First thing's first, my passport: I sent off my passport a few days into the beginning of the quarantine here in NC. This is after the travel department begun quarantining themselves. This setback everyone's passport requests. June 4-10 saw 92,000 passport applications received, 1.76 million awaiting issuing, and 38,000 passports issued. The following week 120,000 applications were received, 1.72 million awaiting issue, and 154,000 have been issued. Currently, I'm still awaiting notification that my application is being processed. Once it is processed I'll have a better grasp on when I'll get it back. This leads to the next point. June 9, I was accepted into the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary! However, because of the passport situation, I chose to defer my enrollment (I'm able to do so for up to one-year from initial acceptance), until the spring while I wait on my passport to get back. However, I am able to begin distance learning which I will begin in the fall, and once my passport gets back, I will finish the student visa application. I'm praying for my passport to get back around August. Until then, I'll continue working for my school for the first half of the year. What I'm currently planning for is to move in December, the week after Christmas and begin Seminary, on campus, in the Spring semester. In all transparency, it's been a little tough having to deal with these delays. But I'm praying the Lord will guide me through them and to continue to serve him through them. The Lord has been gracious and providing my needs in through all of this not only financially, but just with the support that I have from my church family, and you all that are with me on this journey. Thank you again for your support. I look forward to updating you all again soon!
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Hey all, thank you for your prayers and support! This month I wanted to share with you all how everything is coming along in two parts. Part one: financial update, part two: logistics and packing, and future planning. To begin the Lord has been so gracious in the support raising part. I have just reached the first year mark in terms of financial support. This means, my first year of seminary is covered! I have a total of $17,067.17US which covers the first year of Seminary. The work isn’t done yet though, I need to continue support raising for the follow two years, this is solely for the seminary. After graduation, my aim is to be sent out as a church planter to begin what would be the second church plant out of Hope Church! With this I'm still looking for ministry partners, in prayer, and financial giving. I understand that COVID-19 has put a lot of churches in binding positions, some may have even closed their doors. However, our God is still in control and He is still a provider. To prepare for the moment that I can begin moving, I've begun packing. Essentially, I've packed my winter clothes (I'll need those very quickly haha), and I've packed a lot of my regular clothes leaving the essentials unpacked. My intentions are to be ready and all I'm waiting on is the paperwork, i.e. Seminary Acceptance Letter, Student Visa, and my renewed Passport. I'm praying for these things to come through, and I know they will in God's timing, but right now until that gets back I won't be able to move up there. So as you can see, while the Lord is providing and moving and I see it, there are still some dark spots that provide opportunities for me to trust that He will guide me to the very next step. I will trust his lead, and I will put the work in to see my stay in Canada past the first year. One last thing; as I'm writing this now, it is May 28th. My birthday was this past weekend (the 24th) and all through this month I have received birthday cards from dozens of people from a magazine article called "Missionary Mosaic" if was featured in. It was a great honor to be included in such an article and I've been blessed with the amount of support from those who wrote to me. I'll have pictured below the cards, but I want to just give a special thank you to those people who sent cards, some even gave generously, all of which is a immense blessing. Thank you all for the birthday wishes, encouragement, prayers, and financial gifts. I will post again next month with an update on the application processes, Lord willing, there will be some progress made and I'll be glad to share that with you all. Until then the major things that I would like to request prayer for are:
Hey all! Thank you for your continued prayers and support! Previously I updated you all on the outcome of February and March alongside an update on COVID-19 in Winston-Salem, my hometown, and Canada as well, specifically Calgary. I don't want to dwell too much on COVID this time mainly because I know two things and want to encourage you with them as well. First, is God is in control. We find in scripture that our Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever. This encouragement comes from Mark 4:35-41. Where the disciples followed him into the boat and the violent storm arose. While the disciples panicked, Jesus was sleeping and eventually the disciples woke him up for him to save them. I'm not sure they knew what Jesus was going to do going off of their response but they knew that Jesus was up to something. Then Jesus' words after were simple yet commanding, to the waves he said "Silence! Be still!" (v. 39 CSB). The text continues with "The wind ceased, and there was a great calm." The winds and waves obeyed the Lord with immediacy. Something the disciples couldn't control was brought to submission by the Savior. Though it seemed like the disciples were headed for certain death, and I'm sure we would think that too if we were directly in their Air Messiah's (shoes/sandals etc.) but Jesus showed them that he is more than what they expected, and thought he was. In the same way today, I believe that Jesus is going to show Himself in the midst of this situation that He is more than what we expect and thought He was. That's the beauty of who He is, that no matter what we think He is; He's more.
That brings me to the second point, that when we see Jesus as more than what we expect, we're left in awe, almost speechless. I tend to think that the first disciples of Christ are good examples of who we actually are while following the one we strive to be like. And they had a response that should be reminiscent of what we will have when we see God move. If the wind and waves obey that leaves the disciples saying "Who is this man that even the wind and sea obey him!" At the sight of Christ's power, the disciples are left in awe, and this is something that I believe that we should have too as believers. We should turn to the power of Christ behold and see that He is indeed the one who controls the wind and waves. With everything that can cause a lot of anger, uncertainty, and angst Christ causes the storm to cease. I hope you're encouraged by this and I will update you all with some of my next steps soon! Hey all, thank you for your prayers and support! I'm updating you from February and March. I previously updated you all in January about the New Years trip, and hit the ground running with school work. By this point now I've picked up my last two classes for this year. I've paid for the graduation fees, finishing paying off my tuition this month and will be graduating from Piedmont International University with a Bachelors of Arts in Bible with a minor in North American Church Planting. A lot of this update does have to do with the developments of COVID-19, because of how much it has affected the world, and the government's response to it. I personally am not fearful or worried about the times we live in regarding this, but simply want to communicate the responses that are made and how this will actually impact my own plans for moving to Calgary this summer, in short it may push it back about a month. Below I will have an update for my support raising progress. The past few months have been more focus on school and work, but I have had some contact with a few churches. January I told you all about a meeting with a possible partner church. Good news! I have a meeting with the sunday school class that is considering supporting me on Sunday. Bad news, is since the recent COVID-19 issues, I might not be able to meet with them. As of now, I am still continuing to make phone calls and connect with other churches and families that would be possible ministry partners. In North Carolina alone there are 40 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 2 cases confirmed in Forsyth County where I live. Wake County, which is little under a 2 hour drive from me has 15 confirmed cases and Mecklenburg county has 7 confirmed cases. With the developments of this pandemic, it brings about some significant changes in my plan, but I know that regardless, this is all in God's plans. As of right now to update you about Canada's response to the Coronavirus, there are 569 confirmed cases in all of Canada, with 97 of those cases in Alberta. Calgary specifically has a confirmed 72% of those cases. My own personal response to this pandemic, isn't one of fear, but rather understanding the context of the situation and the responses that are being made by the governing authorities both domestic and foreign. With that, I've done a bit of research on the response that Alberta and Canada as a whole and how that impacts my target move date. Canada is considering shutting its borders for up to 5 months to all countries with the states being the only exception. Even given these circumstances, the time of intended travel would be pushed back about a month and a half. My goal was to move to Calgary by the third week in July, which gives me time to get settled and acclimated to moving to Calgary before Seminary starts. My contingency plan would be to beginning moving in early August and settle in Calgary by mid-August beginning seminary in late August. Sources:Happy New Year everyone, thank you for your prayers and support, I hope you had a great New Years and that it’s starting off with many blessings! Last month, I updated you all of what was my trip in Calgary this pasted December. The weather was cold, but the laughs were warm and full. It was a great week up there and wonderful experience. Part of what I why I was up there was to experience some Calgary winter, but it also became a refresher for me. This last trip was an opportunity to be refreshed and reinvigorated with the passion of moving to Calgary. As many of you still know I’m still working a full time job and in school while support raising and that’s been a tough go, but this break, albeit short, was definitely needed. As I'm transitioning back into the swing of things with school, the need to be focused arises more and more. It's getting to crunch time here, in just 5 months, I'll be posting about the drive from NC to Calgary! I've also kicked off my last semester of undergrad, and so far so good, I have a strong "B" in the class (I'm not doing well on the tests so far haha), and looking to finish this class with that "B" at the least. It's a psychology class and I've always enjoyed the subject, as I find myself caring about the human psyche and how we think, form opinions, and interpret information. So I'm hoping this carries over into a bit of a more counseling type of role for me going into my graduate studies. I'll keep you posted with my grades here because if I don't pass, I don't move so I consider this accountability haha. Also, below I wanted to share with you all, the photos from the trip I took this past New Years. What will be included in it will be my update for this month, are the photos from this month and the update of where I am in support raising for this month. Since the beginning of January, I've been making phone calls nonstop almost to pastors about beginning ministry partnerships with them or anyone in their congregation. All of the Pastors that I've been able to get in contact with have been encouraging, and most interested in partnering with me at some capacity. I'm sharing with them about Calgary and inviting them to come on a vision tour to see the city their vested in to seeing transformed by the truth of the Gospel. I hope to let you all know about some encouraging news here soon about their partnership whither in prayer, visiting, or financial partnership. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I’m updating you right now from Calgary! I came up here for a quick visit to get a view of the winter time! As you can guess it is cold up here. At this point I’ve only been up here for two days. I arrived on Friday the 27th at 10pm, and today is Sunday the 29th. Between these two days, I’ve experienced three major differences between my future home and current home. I’ll share those in a minute. I want to share right now however, some of the relationships that I’ve gained from the last trip in the summer. First, there’s Craig and Kathy. Their the host family I’ve been staying with, they’re like an extra set of parents for me. They support me in moving up here, and have been great at helping me adjusted to life up here and they’ve been great with the love they show. Opening up their doors to a guy they’d never met for a month (in the summer) and this time now and serving with a warm smile on their face every day just shows the love of God poured out for others to experience. Kathy has one of the biggest hearts for people that I’ve ever experienced, her ability to lift up and encourage people is just so natural. And Craig is a fountain of wisdom from life experience, a love for God, and knowledge of Scripture. As I watch them living life together, they model a type of relationship I want to have with a wife at that age. They also have a cat named Otis, and I mention him because he changed my mind about not liking cats. I used to not like them at all (see Propaganda’s “I Hate Cats”) but after meeting Otis this summer, I love the guy he’s one cool cat (da dum tsss). Then there’s Beth and Calum. I’ve known Beth for a few years because she is from North Carolina as well. We ran in some of the same circles and just two years ago she moved up here around this time of year to begin seminary. There she met her husband, Calum. Calum, is from British Columbia, west of Alberta (over Washington State). He moved to Cochrane to begin seminary around the same time and before you know it they were married. Calum is my go to guy up here. He and I share a lot of similarities, like our love of coffee and coffee roasting, our appreciation for sports specifically NHL (which he’s still teaching me players, etc.) and the NBA. But beyond that, he is really good at carpentry, he practically built most of Hope Church’s storage units for setup and tear down every Sunday. I can tell that my time here will be spent a lot with him, learning as much as I can from him. Finally, there’s the Conner’s, many of you would already know the Conner’s as they are the people that introduced me to Calgary to begin with. There’s Dustin he’s been a professor of mine at Piedmont since 2015, but before I ever took a class by him, I met him as a faculty member who started the North American Church Planting Minor (NACP) at Piedmont. That was the whole reason why I started at Piedmont in the first place, so of course I switched, but I walked into wasn’t just a teacher student relationship it was a genuine life-on-life friendship that has built me up, challenged me, and shown me so much more than just church planting. I learn so much from Dustin, through his example, and life as much as I’ve learned from him in the classes I had with him. There’s Jill, Dustin’s wife, what’s super cool about Jill is that I know I have a genuine friendship with her as well, not just as Dustin’s wife. When I first met Jill she shared so many stories about their childhood (they grew up together), that when I see them now, I feel like I’ve known them my whole life. They have two children, Kirk he’s 5 years old, just a few months younger than my baby brothers but has just as much energy as they do. I’ve watched Kirk grow up from the social baby to the energetic toddler he is now. When I see him I automatically miss my baby brothers. Then there’s the baby, Jane who’s 1, is adventurous, she’s learning to walk and just loves to climb on everything, learning the world around her. I look forward to learning more about these people as I serve our God alongside them. I also look forward to the relationships that I will build with new people in the church. I’ve met people from Columbia, India, Nigeria, South Africa, South Korea, and many other places. Every Sunday here is a picture of Revelation 7:9-10 “After this, I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.” Financial Update: To close out this year, I’m just short of $10,000 and the Lord has been good to provide up to this point. When I get back home, I will be hitting the ground running with reaching out to a list of contacts that I have. Through this I’m hoping that more people will partner with me to reach Calgary. When I move up here I will be looking for work either as a teaching assistant, or barista as I’m going through the seminary to help provide for some of the needs that I have. With a student visa, during the school year, I’m able to work 20 hours a week and during the summer 40 hours. Granted, part of this job is what I’m support raising for, I’m in short raising my wages that I work with for Hope Church, and then the rest of those hours that constitute the 20 during the school year, and 40 during the summer will come from said vocations.
I will be featured in a WMU’s Missions Mosaic Magazine, through which NAMB passed along my information to a freelance writer that I’m going to fill out some questions and provide some pictures. Hopefully that will bring some more people to be a prayer partner with me and you all to help bring the Gospel to Calgary. When it comes out I will show you all the article myself. I’ve never had anything like this happen for me so its kind of new, but cool too. This concludes this update, it was a bit longer than normal as I try to keep them at about 3 paragraphs long, but I had a lot on my heart this month, and wanted to make sure that I touched on most of them. Thank you for your continued prayer and support with me in reaching the city of Calgary with the Gospel. I pray that you are encouraged and that the work our God has started in you is brought to completion at the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. May the grace of our Lord, and His peace, be with you. Hey all! I want to say happy thanksgiving from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for your support! I hope to give you a brief update here. Last month, I reached 22% support. The Lord has been good in providing for me up to this point. This month, I don't have the official numbers for support just yet, but I plan on updating you all later this week, I'm still calculating the percentage right now.
This month, I opened up preaching at a local church here in Winston. I was able to share a lot about Calgary, what God is doing there and invite some people in the crowd to partner with me in reaching the city with the gospel. The church has agreed to join me as prayer partners, of which I'm grateful. There were some meaningful connections made as some people helped me make other connection with possible partners. To close out the month, this past Sunday, I preached at another local church not that far from the school I work at. The service went great and the people there were were encouraging and very helpful. They received me well and I appreciated the opportunity. They will meet and consider supporting me as a missionary financially. Lastly, I'm currently preparing for my winter trip to Calgary coming up here this time next month. I will update you all from Calgary, and provide pictures! Some of the team from Hope Church is down here for U.S. Thanksgiving and I got to hear an update from them! The Lord is truly working in Hope Church, where they've started a youth group, and about 60 people now call Hope Church their church home! Praise God for His work there! The anticipation is rising to join them! All in all I will update you all soon about next month! I can't wait to update you all with what the Lord does in December! Hey all, thank you for your prayers and support to this end, the second month of support raising has gone by quickly as well as productively. I posted a few weeks ago about being officially endorsed by NAMB, and finishing up some finishing touches with the training they give. Today I want to give an update on this process and what that means for the future support raising endeavors! To kick things off, with the NAMB update, I’ve finished all the training and the give button has finally been updated to my page. This completes the process to be fully endorsed by NAMB. I'm going to switch from pointing all possible support partners there. At the bottom of this post will be a link to my NAMB page. With this page, I'm able to keep track of all partners and meaningfully and personally communicate with all of you, keeping track of prayer needs, moments of rejoicing and celebration, and update you all on progress made, relationships built, testimonies, and the following steps made and completed on the way to planting a church in Calgary! Praise God for his providence! The Lord has been gracious to provide even more this month, than what was given previously! I want to thank all of the support that I've been given to this point, it is much appreciated. Last week, the Lord provided 11% support for the first year, and this month I report that I'm at 22% support! I can't wait to see what happens in the coming months and report it to you all! Lastly, I have finished my prayer cards and will begin sharing them through mail and giving them out by hand as I see partners with a short thank you letter for the support and partnership Hey all, thank you for your prayers and support to this point. Last week, I wrapped up and reported last month's progress in support raising! A lot of hard work but i reached 11% so far out of the first year's goal. I'm still hard at work with the rest of it, I've had a few more conversations with potential partners, prayer and otherwise. I'm currently preparing for a 15 minute highlight presentation at a local church the first weekend in November. My Pastor and I will be getting together to work on a letter to send to the local churches we know and to possibly setup more meetings and presentations. Along those lines too, I am coming up with a prayer card for both potential and established partners, it's pretty much finished, but I'm only stuck between two pictures to use for the card. After the cards have been made I will begin sending the to the partners that are far off those who are near, they will be hand delivered! The card is simple and straight to the point of who, what and why I am moving to Calgary, and how to partner with me in reaching the goal, and what to pray for specifically. The final update that I wanted to share is that over the course of this month I'm excited to announce that I have been officially endorsed by NAMB as a missionary to Calgary as a Church Planting Team Member for Hope church! I'll post a link to the page at the bottom of this post go check it out! Only thing is that I don't have a give page setup for it just yet. I'm close to it though as I've sent in the payment information and it should be updated shortly. Once it's updated, I will direct all giving to them, so with the partners that are already giving and any new financial partners, they can go there and give directly to NAMB on my behalf and they will direct the funds accordingly. I look forward to updating you all on the progress made with support raising in a few weeks to end out October. Thank you for joining me in this journey to this point, and I look forward to the future of this partnership in the Gospel! This time next year I look forward to updating you all about my first year in Calgary while celebrating Thanksgiving a month early! Hey, everyone, thank you for your support and prayers in this journey. I wanted to share an update about how far we've gotten this far! So this wraps up the first month of support raising roughly, and it's been a busy month! Thank you for all of your support in helping me get this far! Praise the Lord for the work He has started and is completing in you. So after this first month, the Lord has provided through you all, $3,737.37! Praise God for His providence! This is about 11% of the total $30,000 we're on this journey to raise! Praise God for his providence and for the people who’ve come alongside in support!
Coming into this next month, I plan to keep up this level of support raising, setting up more meetings with people, and sharing what God is doing in Calgary. I’ve gotten to a point where I’ve probably reached all the closest people and they offered multiple forms of support for me moving and many offered to buy shirts. And I’ve gained valuable ministry partners who are supporting monthly. So with that, I plan on reaching out to more people that I know, but may not have as deep a relationship with and looking to develop those relationships and whatever support that can be offered will be readily accepted. Below is the amount that I have raised so far, I will update this at the end of each month to show the progress made! I will continue to post once every other week giving updates about where I'm at in this process, and what you all can be in prayer for! |
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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