This week I was looking through old photos of Joziah’s first year. He is three years old now and even though I am a little late I really want to do a photo album of that time in his life. As I was going through the photos I found so many wonderful memories. The moment I first laid eyes on my baby boy and seeing a picture of Travis seeing Joziah for the first time. I was reminded of that moment of finally having the baby that the doctors had been so worried about, healthy in our arms.
I also saw photos of Kiara and Joziah. Oh, how many photos of those two I have and man were they cute as little babies.
I even found a moment of when Joziah started sleeping with that monkey he still has to carry everywhere. It shows me how much he has loved that thing when I look at how nice and new the monkey looks in this picture. (I will say that the past two weeks he has traded that monkey for a hat he took from my dad which he says is TobyMac’s hat). 
As I was going through my different albums I came across this photo. This picture was taken the night before Travis and I ever attended First Baptist Church in Orillia. 🙂
This picture took me back to remember the time when Travis and I knew the church that we had been attending was no longer where we were supposed to be. We knew God was calling us somewhere else but we didn’t know where. It is weird because I right away wondered if we were supposed to go outside of our hometown but thought that was kinda crazy. I mean really why would we go outside of Barrie when there were lots of churches right here in the town we live in? We searched for a church for over a year. We attended different churches but none we attended felt like it was the one we were supposed to be at. We started attending one church but I wasn’t happy there. I used to love to go to church and yet now I was struggling every Sunday to get up and go. It was hard! I had complete peace of leaving our old church, but did not have a peace attending the church we were at.
My friend Amanda knew my struggle with attending this church and knew how unhappy I was going to church every Sunday. She told me I should check out her church and I was willing but Travis was concerned about the distance. Amanda and I started praying that Travis would change his mind and be open to checking out First Baptist Church. Eventually Travis said we could go one Sunday but we weren’t going to be attending there. So the night before we went there, my friend Amanda and her husband came over for dinner and games. We took this picture and then we stayed up till late in the night talking about God and a hard topic that often comes up. To our surprise when we got to church the pastor was talking about this same topic and answered so many of the questions we had been struggling with. We were in shock and we learnt so much. I knew right away that this church was the one I wanted to continue to try out but Travis was hesitant. Though he enjoyed the speaking and music he still struggled with the distance. So we kept going to the church we had been attending and then sometimes would go to Redeemer City, which is a campus of First Baptist Church. Amanda and I continued to talk and pray and then all of a sudden I just had this peace. I really felt like God was telling me something was going to happen in three months. I had no idea what that meant but I told Amanda my feelings. I didn’t know what it all meant. Maybe it meant that in three months I would just start enjoying the place we had been going or maybe we would all of a sudden find another church we both enjoyed or maybe it meant we would start going to RCC. I wasn’t sure what the three months meant but all of a sudden I had a peace and left it all in God’s hands. I decided not to ask Travis anymore if he would consider RCC and just sat back as he decided each week where we would go. Then all of a sudden, three months after I had that feeling that God was telling me “wait three months” we were driving out of the parking lot of RCC and Travis said “I think we need to make this our new home church.” 🙂 🙂 🙂 I was so shocked but so happy. I couldn’t believe Travis had just said that but I was so excited to think of RCC and our future there.
Week after week we learn something new from the Bible. We have enjoyed the teaching so much and are so thankful we are at a church that is not scared to preach about controversial issues. We do a family devotional tool with Joziah that was developed by the church and we are so proud of the way Joziah is learning the answers to the questions. He knows the answers to questions like:
- “Are there more Gods than one?”
- “In how many persons does this one God exist?”
- “Who are they?”
- “How many books are in the Bible?”
- “Why did God make you and all things?”
He still answers, “Adam and Steve” when Travis asks him who our first parents were but we know one day he will say, “Adam and Eve.” Travis and I have grown in our relationship with God and continue to want to learn more and more. We do the RMM which is a Bible reading plan that the church does together and I have a friend who is my accountability partner. Speaking of friends we have been so incredibly blessed by friendships at this church. God has placed some amazing people in our life that I just can’t imagine my life without. Every week I have one or more people text me, message me and ask me what they can pray for. Travis and I have loved being able to have deep conversations about the Bible and God with numerous of those friends and we are just so thankful for our church family and all the memories we have already made with them. Years ago we never would have imagined that God would lead us to Orillia to church but I am so happy that He opened the door and that He had plans for the Gosselin family at Redeemer City Campus.