Originally from the Northwest, Anastasia grew up in a military family and was blessed to travel overseas to Okinawa and the Philippines as a child. She subsequently came to Alabama to visit her dad and fell in love with the south. In June of 2002 she moved here and hasn't left. She met and fell in love with her husband in 2003 and through him found a personal relationship with Jesus Christ before eventually being baptized in February 2005 at a small church in Chickasaw, Alabama. Anastasia is proud to say that she has been seeking the Lord ever since!

In 2011, she felt a call from the Lord to plant a garden, a ministry which would soon turn into a vision much larger than she could have ever imagined. Anastasia started an outreach called Tender Gardener committed to helping those who want to grow their own food but may not physically be able to do so, as well as those who simply don't have the time, knowledge, or money. The organization is dedicated to helping these individuals plan, plant, tend, and harvest their gardens. 

Anastasia is also the Project Director for Agape Life Gardens, a local nonprofit organization all about feeding people spiritually and physically just like Jesus did. She enjoys gardening and showing others how they can grow their own food. Through her program Gardening God's Way, Anastasia teaches biblical principles and fulfills her own personal ministry calling to love Christ and His people through the efforts of teaching and gardening. 

At Northside, Anastasia serves faithfully as our Administrative Assistant (a.k.a. Cricket Herder), handling secretarial duties, answering calls and e-mails, managing multiple projects, overseeing internal staff communication, keeping our pastors in check, and going above and beyond the call of duty on multiple occasions. We are blessed to have her as part of our regular staff. 

Jessica is the Children's Director here at Northside, teaching young children in the Light Bearers ministry all about Jesus and how to follow Him.

After having what she remembers as a personal "mountaintop experience" with God in 2012, Jessica turned her life around and has been following and serving Him ever since. In 2015, she began ministering at the Wings of Life, a local residential faith-based recovery program for men and women in Mobile. Just five short years later in 2020 she would meet her future husband Robbie during a prayer meeting with Agape Life Gardens. 

Jessica is passionate about ministry, serving the local church, and spending time with her family. Some of her favorite activities include snuggling up with her Bible and a good cup of coffee in the morning or watching her favorite TV action drama series in the evenings. Perhaps the most meaningful and rich part of Jessica's life, however, has come in the form of spending quality time with the amazing and precious children in the Light Bearers ministry at Northside, a gift for which she is grateful beyond words. Reflecting on her hours spent with the kids, Jessica says, "Sometimes they end up teaching me more than I ever teach them." 

Hailing from the tiny town of Woolmarket in south rural Mississippi, Ethan Buckalew brings nothing but Jesus, joy, and a heart for children and teens everywhere he goes. Stroll into Northside on any given day, strike up a conversation with him, and you won't mistake his trademark smile, authentic laugh, and one-of-a-kind personality. Seriously, we dare you. 

Ethan attended D'lberville High School as a teen, graduating in 2019, and would go on to pursue diesel college academics in Nashville. But, shortly into his schooling, he realized that the college life wasn't for him, particularly since the Lord was already stirring the beginnings of a deep-seated call to children's and youth ministry in his heart and life. His earliest passions for youth leadership at Northside go back to 2015, despite his on again/off again relationship Jesus. In his own words: "Eventually my hardheadedness caught up with me and, although I made a lot of mistakes along the way, I knew that I needed help and desperately needed to have a real relationship with Christ." 

Through a series of situations and circumstances that only God Himself could ordain in His divine sovereignty, Ethan would soon come into contact with Agape Life Gardens founder/director Ryan Lantaff, who also eventually became one of his closest and most trusted friends. Ethan gladly took Ryan up on his offer to live in one of the Agape discipleship transition homes and has been striving toward ministry and a personal pursuit of Jesus ever since. 

At Northside, Ethan serves as our Youth Leader, teaching and discipling our students on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. He also serves as a vocalist in the Celebrate Recovery worship team on Thursday evenings, and could not be prouder to see his father Zach playing drums for the CR band. 

A native of Mobile, MGM high school graduate, and 29-year automotive parts retail management veteran, Darlene grew up in church as a little girl and knew about Jesus, but did not have a true relationship with Him until 2000. She has been faithfully working full-time for the same company for as long as she can remember. You might think that's impressive in and of itself. But when she's not going full speed with her job, you can find her spending time with her family or serving passionately at Northside as Missions & Outreach Coordinator. Darlene has taken a total of four international missions trips with Northside, all to the Dominican Republic. 

She also wears a few other hats around here, not the least of which include worship team vocalist and volunteer cleaning crew member. Darlene also doubles (er, triples?) as finance committee member at Northside and serves as a board member for Agape Life Gardens, the local nonprofit ministry run by Ryan Lantaff. We're not sure how she does it all without a cape, but somehow she manages. 

She is married to Mark Givens and together they have two children — Dallas and Rachel — as well as two dogs: Cowboy and Henry. An avid music lover, Darlene has always had a zeal for singing and would even dabble in piano with an innate desire to one day learn to play keyboard. It was this love for music that would eventually lead her to our praise team. 

In her spare time, which is a rarity, Darlene enjoys relaxing at home and "absolutely loves" cutting her grass. We can't quite explain the latter phenomenon, particularly in Mobile's torrential heat, but our sources have verified it as true. If she comes across bugs, insects, or snakes in the process, she'll handle them like a pro. Lizards, however, are a different story. Also, she's never seen a Star Wars movie and knows nothing at all about them, other than the fact that, "there's a princess with funny hair buns on the sides of her head." Normally, we would give her flak for this. However, she does know the firing order of a Chevy 350 and we believe that will suffice.  

A native of "The Bayou," Kendall hails from Louisiana and has been with Northside as an elder, teacher and shepherd for a number of years. With theology degrees from Springhill College and Oklahoma Wesleyan Christian University (formerly Bartlesville Wesleyan College), Kendall is well-versed in an array of biblical subjects ranging from New Testament church history to New Testament contextual theology. His insight, knowledge and wisdom has become an indispensable part of Northside's ministry. He is married to Sarah Rogers and together they have two children. 

Brother Al is a longtime teacher of the Merry Makers seniors ministry class on Sunday mornings and also works as an administrative financial accountant with the Mobile County Public School system.