John and Kay North and Jimmy | Generosity Story

John North: Well, we moved back to Kansas City in 2005 and found Westside.

Kay North: And out kids loved it, and I think that's the most important.

John North: Yeah, at that age, it was the kids, the kids' program.

Kay North: The kids would ask, "When are we going to go to church again? When are we getting to go to church again? I want to go to church. Why are we not going to church today?" I mean, they asked all the time. That's what I wanted, and that's what we got from Westside.

John North: It's so awesome how Westside partners with families and my situation specifically with Pastor John Huber. We just have these daily conversations. Sometimes they're five minutes. Sometimes they're a lot longer. And it's grown our relationship up to the point where Pastor Huber's come and picked up my son and taken him to lunch just to talk about some issues he was having at school.

Kay North: So, throughout my time at Westside, I've also been involved in medical mission trips. Through my best friend from medical school, her organization was able to build a orphanage, a school, a church, and a medical clinic, and now a birthing center in Malawi.

Jimmy Sandram: I came at orphanage because I lost my birth parents and then because of some other issues at my house. And then I went to the orphanage because my family couldn't afford everything that I need in school. I received Jesus Christ there because we are learning a lot of Bible stuff there. I ended up to be a worship team member at that orphanage.

Kay North: And finally in 2017 I was able to make my first trip over there. Loved every second of it. It was beyond hard, hard, hard to see, but loved every second of it.

Jimmy Sandram: I met with her when she was there because I was one of the kids that help people translating English into Chichewa because some of them they don't know know how to speak English. So, that's when I met with my mom.

Kay North: And then it was last summer just was kind of talking about the future of some of these kids and John asked, "Do you have any kids that would like to come over here?" He said, "Yep." John said, "Done." It was pretty much that simple.

John North: Six weeks, seven weeks after saying yes he's here and a month from going to school.

Kay North: Once he got here he just was ready to fit in and go somewhere. And so, through Pastor John, he helped us a lot. We asked him we were like "How do we do this? What do we do? Where do you think is a good spot for him?" And so he just plugged us right in. He helped us plug Jimmy right in.

John North: Well, during KidsGiG he was chosen to serve on the worship team.

Jimmy Sandram: It was so amazing, and I was feeling more excited singing in KidsGiG. They ask me if I can help teaching with kids there, and it was also amazing working with kids at Westside Family Church and teaching them.

Kay North: Even though we consider him ours like one of our kids, it's really kind of a scholarship. He was brought over so that someday he could give back. He knew that he was going to be going back this summer to the orphanage. But I don't know if he knew what he was going to do there, how it was going to work, what it was going to be like. But when we started the Believe series, it was almost right away, he would, "I want to teach this. I want to teach this. This isn't good. This is what I need to teach the kids back there."

Jimmy Sandram: I feel like God was speaking to me that I have to do Believe when I go to Malawi, and I was kind of like "So how can I be able to find the Believe book and every resource that I need to teach back in Malawi." And then I talked to Pastor John Huber, and then he give me the Believe shirts and then bags and also, he add more Believe books and give to me.

John North: Just overwhelmed us with what they gave us. And Jimmy was so excited because now he went through the Believe series himself. He's impassioned because he wants to go teach from the orphanage he came from, teach these kids the Believe series.

Jimmy Sandram: If I can take that to share with kids what I have learned here it's going to be perfect to them, and it's going to make them to change their life also to learn some other new things that can help them to grow in spiritual way. So I was feeling more excited to take the Believe books to go to Malawi and to teach them so that they can learn what I have learned here in Westside Family Church.

Orphanage kids: Thank you, Westside Family Church!