Greetings from the Gregory’s! I know, I know, I know – it’s been nine months since I last blogged and should be banned from your email groups! However, I have personally talked with most of you throughout the course of this past year. Can you believe it? We have been in New York City for over a year now (since July 15) and we are still alive and doing well. We’ve had the privilege of working with a great team at MSNY and have made many new life-long friends. The kids did great in school and have matured quite nicely. Jaylen has learned the art of riding the public buses by himself and Camryn has mastered the art of flagging down taxi’s (now she just needs to learn how to finance the taxi rides)!

Our biggest challenged over the last year was – you guessed it – THE LONG COLD WINTER! We thought we were prepared with our new North Face coats and new winter boats, but I have found out that there are a few things you cannot prepare for! It was not the cold part but the length of the cold season. We are use to cold weather from November-ish to February but not OCTOBER TO MID-APRIL!!! I believe we had more than 10 accumulating snow days with one day of closed schools (the first in over ten years where NYC schools were shut down). In fact, it snowed the first day of spring. However, since May 1 we have been enjoying great days of spring and summer in one of the most gorgeous cities in the world.

I have so much to update you on but will only mention a few in this blog. One is an update on God’s provision. We recently moved from our two bedroom room (kids sharing a room) one bathroom apartment totaling a whopping 1,000 sqft to a three bedroom, 2.5 baths, duplex, with two entertaining areas and a private backyard. With much favor from God and the renter’s market due to the economy we were able to get an additional 1,000 sqft of living space for less than we were paying for the other apartment. Our new apartment is comparable to our house in NC! We are excited about God’s provision and thought we would share some pictures of our new apartment. Please enjoy the slide show to the right in order to view the pictures or visit - http://picasaweb.google.com/pastorgg/NewApartment#.

In addition to the new apartment, God has given us favor with our new neighbors and many families throughout the neighborhood. I will go into more details later but are about to start a fifth small group in Harlem and put on an end of summer fellowship for new and old faces in the Harlem community. I must tell you we are amazed at God’s favor and call on our move to NYC.

Thanks for standing with us. We appreciate the cards, calls, emails, text messages, financial gifts, and the many acts of kindness shown by our partners and friends in the ministry. We celebrate you for standing in the gap for the Gregory’s as we look forward to our second year in NYC.
Please pray for:

1. Our NC house to rent. Our last renters moved out Aug 1. Our property management company has yet to find us a quality renter so please pray for the right renter with great credit that will take care of our property.
2. The kids as they go back to school. Pray for their teachers, grades, friends, bus drivers, protection, etc.
3. More favor in our new neighborhood. Specifically for salvations, baptisms and rededications. We are believing for at least 12 new families to be added to what God is doing by the spring.
4. Tondra’s counselor licensing. I will blog more on this later, but she has another state test to prepare for and pass. Pray for her ability to juggle the family yet focus on finishing the race.

Well, I must leave some for later. I am going to try to start blogging once a week. Pray for that too. Cheers.

George