The life-changing stories of God’s people didn’t wrap up in biblical times. Christ and His Word are living and active, still at work in His followers each day. God continues to lead individuals, families, and communities on exciting faith-journeys. When walking according to Scripture, every step along the way deepens personal devotion to Christ through worship, community, service, faith and mission. There are more true stories than we could ever share here – everyone has a tale to tell. But here is a glimpse into the ongoing adventure of God’s faithfulness through the highs and lows of life in our family at Northside.

 

The Forsythe Family...

God had a plan...

Many of you know that we added to our family by the blessing of adoption this year. What you may not know is that our journey to adopting Emerson began several years ago. God put adoption on our hearts about 5 years ago. We didn’t know when or how, but Brandon and I knew our family would not be complete until we adopted one of the 163 million orphans around the world and called them our own. I always had great excuses for why we couldn’t adopt “right now." We already had small children. It was too expensive. I don’t have enough room in my house for another child. We don’t make enough money. The process is too long, and I just don’t have time for all of that paperwork. And, God, did I mention that it’s just too expensive?

In the summer of 2008, Brandon came home from a mission trip to Thailand, and we had yet another talk about starting the process of adopting. At that point, we had endured several heartbreaking miscarriages attempting to have a third baby. In July of 2008, we took that leap of faith and sent in our application for an international adoption. We had no money set aside for the $24,000 process and no clear picture of even what country we wanted to adopt from. We decided to just trust God to work out all of the details, knowing that He would give us exactly the family He wanted us to have.

• Two weeks later we learned that we were pregnant with our youngest daughter Harper. 
• Two months later Hurricane Ike sent a tree crashing through our house, rendering us homeless for the next five months. 
• We heard God saying “yes, but wait” in regards to our adoption, and a year later, in September 2009 we started the long and complex paper chase in earnest. 
• But what about the $24,000, God? How exactly are a youth minister and a part-time nurse with three small children going to come up with that money in just 12 months? I had big plans of how Brandon and I were going to pay for the adoption, big plans involving 60 hour work weeks for this mommy, big, prideful plans of how we were going to finance this “lifestyle choice” all by ourselves. At one point I actually referred to my daughter as a “lifestyle choice”. 
• I am thankful that I serve a big God. The God of Abraham and Moses, the God who does not lose sleep worrying about details such as how our adoption would be paid for. The God who has no qualms about humbling the prideful. 
• We paid for the adoption a little at a time, and God was faithful to provide exactly what we needed, exactly when we needed it, and left no doubt that He alone was providing for us. 
• When we had $3000 due, someone in our church family handed us a check for $2000. 
• When we had $9800 due, our accountant called us to let us know that we had yet again overpaid, and that our tax return would be $9825. 
• When we were still about $9000 short, just a couple of months before we were to travel, I opened the mailbox to find a check for $3800. 
• Then one of you gave us another check for $2000. 
• Then the airline tickets that were supposed to cost $5000 only cost us $1400. 

Then a small army of friends and family stepped up and cared for our other three children for two weeks while Brandon and I traveled to China this past September.

Though Emerson has only been a Forsythe since September 2010, we have no doubt that God knew she was our daughter all along.

Yes, we have much to be thankful for...

• I am thankful for my husband, who is always seeking God’s will in his life, and in our family’s life. 
• I am thankful that God never gave up on us, and bugged us about adopting until we finally did it. 
• I am thankful for our four children, Dane, Aidan, Emerson, and Harper. 
• I am thankful that while Brandon and I wept over children we had lost, that God was forming our daughter a world away in China. 
• I am thankful that God has given us exactly the family that we are supposed to have. 
• I am thankful for peace, and for God’s perfect timing. 
• I am thankful for the overwhelming generosity of family and friends. It makes me want to be a person who gives my money away. 
• I am thankful that God humbled my prideful heart, and reminded me that He is faithful to meet all of our needs. 
• And I am thankful for the 4 bedtime prayers, 8 hands to wash, 8 ears to clean, 40 fingernails to clip, and 80 teeth to brush.

 

My name is Crystal Gosselin...

God's Grace is Enough

My name is Crystal Gosselin and I have been blessed to have found my Northside Christian family at a time when I really needed God in my life. It was last year during the Thanksgiving testimonies that I visited NCC for the first time. For the first time in two years, I felt at peace. I met Pastor Dave in Sacred Grounds and as soon as he put his arms around me, I completely fell apart. He said "You need to be here". He was right. I had been away from God for so long, I forgot how wonderful His grace and mercy are. My daughter Kylee was born Thanksgiving Day 2008, 11 weeks premature and was a fighter from day one. We both were fighting for our lives in the hospital and I did the only thing I remembered how to do. Pray. I prayed that God would see her through and see me through this tough time. I told God that if He gave her to me for a little while, I would make sure to give her back to Him and help her to know God's love for her. She'll be 2 this month and I know that it is because of God's love for me that we are here today. Being at Northside and being able to reconnect with God and a Christian family has started the process of making me whole again. I still have a long road ahead, but I know that God's "grace is enough" and he has made me stronger than I ever thought I could be.

 

My name is Orval Peterson...

Following the Right Path

My name is Orval Peterson and I thank God for my parents who sent me on the right path of accepting Jesus at age 13. He has kept me on the right path ever since. At the age of 82 I thank the Lord for a life of purpose and a life of dedication he has shown me all these years. Thank you Lord for going to the cross for our sins. Thank you for Northside Christian Church – I’ve been a member for over 35 years.

 

My name is Pastor Brown, Kenya...

Grateful Gift

I am so grateful for the marvelous gift from Northside. We accept the water gift with our whole heart. The water project in this community shall benefit at least 100,000 people in this community as long as they stay around until Jesus comes or they move to other areas. What a Christmas gift for us. It is amazing what the Lord has done. I have communicated with the drilling company, and they have agreed to start the drilling work on the 6th December 2010, immediately after the school closes for the holidays because we can’t have the drilling done when the children are learning. The machinery shall be assembled early next week. A big thank you to the Northside community!

My name is John Stebbins...

God as My Healer

I have a lot to be thankful for over the past several years as it was February 14, 2007 that I suffered a brain & spinal injury which resulted in a double hematoma of the brain and multiple dura tears.  (The dura  is the thin casing that surrounds the spinal cord and holds the spinal fluid). Seeking resolution to these issues has resulted in roughly 30 spinal taps, two brain surgeries and two spinal surgeries with the most recent spinal surgery being just 10 days ago. 

I am so thankful that God, my family and our Northside church family has been there through this great trial. There have been so many days I have wanted to give up.  The relentless pain has taken a great toll.  My particular injury is one the medical field rarely sees and there are no cut and dry, black and white text book procedures for this. I thank God for our newly formed small group who has ministered to our family this past month and for you, Pastor Dave, also the elders of Northside who prayed and anointed me prior to the surgery, and for the prayer quilt that was given to me from the church as I was prepared for surgery.

I continue to trust God for complete healing, knowing He is the GREAT physician. He knows all and guides even in the deepest, darkest hour and I have experienced many of these dark hours. Christ never said that it would be easy but He did say he would be there with us through each trial. I have not always felt Him or seen His hand but I’ve clung to Him.  I have a ways to go for complete healing, however, I can say that the relentless spinal headaches and pain have greatly subsided. I am hopeful that this may be the best year yet. One scripture that has become very personal to me is 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed, we get back UP.” 

I pray someone will find hope through this verse.

I look forward to complete healing and restored strength to be able to serve God in a more active physical way rather than through the testimony of mere survival.  My challenge to each of you is to seize each moment no matter what trial you face.  We are still called to live Christ even in times when we seem to be at the very bottom and have nowhere to turn but UP, and UP is to HIM.  He can use you in any situation to bring glory to Himself. May HE be glorified.

We are Justin and Allison...

God Never Fails Us

Allison and I are both thankful that we are able to share our testimony that started off as    one of the biggest tests of our lives. 

Allison and I have struggled to have children naturally.  We have been trying to start our family for over 3 years now.  We have been through 5 failed fertility cycles (the last of which resulted in a very early miscarriage).  After all of these failures, we knew we had pushed things to the edge and probably beyond a bit.  Given this, through a very deep depression on both our parts and deep conversations with God, our family, and our doctors, we slowly got a grip on the realization that pregnancy was not going to happen for us…after all, we had a whole panel of doctors and experts telling us through a 5 page report with charts and graphs why we had a less than 5% chance of conceiving naturally. After months of mourning, we really got to a good place with this and started to pursue adoption once we felt ourselves becoming “healthy” again.

We started to pursue adoption and back in late July, we were in Ft. Worth visiting a private adoption agency and we were happy and convinced that adoption was our path.  Well, we still definitely are convinced of this but it is going to have to wait a bit as we found out 1 week after returning from the adoption agency in Ft. Worth that Allison was very pregnant.  Even though Dr.’s gave us less than 5% chance of conceiving naturally, God had the final say so.  Seeing our daughters heartbeat was one of the most miraculous moments of our lives.   There is no doubt in our minds, we saw God in that heartbeat and continue to see and feel Him every day in this journey!

We both feel that our testimony has and continues to come out of this journey to be parents. We want people to know that we have definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, 100%, been touched by the hand of God.  Even though we lacked faith at times and quite frankly, at times were angry with Him, throughout this journey, He never failed us.  When we felt our furthest from Him, He could not have been closer to us and was working the biggest miracle of our lives. He could not have made it more clear to us through this process that He has been there every step of the way, even to the brink of complete shut down.  We are just an average Joe and Jane and He can do this for anyone!  We are so thankful that He has blessed us with such a beautiful gift!