Get to Know a Garden City Member: David & Sammy Pursell
Hi, we’re the Pursells: David, Sammy, Callahan, and Remy. We’ve called Garden City and the Bay Area home for the past five years now after transplanting from Los Angeles. We are a family that loves travel, music, and adventure as much as we love hanging out at home watching TV, reading, or playing board games. So if you know of a fun place to go or a new show we “must watch” we’d be thrilled to geek out with you about it.
Other fun facts about us:
For you Enneagram enthusiasts: David and Sammy are both Nines with a One wing, so while our household is usually peaceful and orderly, the decision making process is a long, slow haul.
We have two cats named Croissant and Empanada.
Remy only has one kidney.
David had an epic Dad-fail on Callahan’s first night home from the hospital as a newborn, be sure to ask him about it.
Sammy and David are both from Santa Barbara and have known each other since Jr. High. Our parents still live 5 minutes away from each other and our moms take regular walks together.
For the past two years we’ve been leading a life group in Santa Clara. It has brought us so many close friendships, deep discussions, and joyful memories. One of our favorite traditions is a monthly Fun Wednesday that gives us new ways to get to know each other as well as giving an easier opening to invite non-believing friends. We’ve had things like trivia nights, murder mysteries, an “Arts-and-Craft Beer” Night, pool parties, and barbecues. Most recently, we held a Fall Relay that involved bobbing for apples out of a cooler, a back-to-school trivia game, pumpkin stem ring toss, and (the best) trying to figure out who can draw the best ghost while blindfolded that brought about hilarious yet, surprisingly, artful results.
Life has been full of blessings since joining Garden City, but it hasn’t been without hardships and challenges. One situation that we’ve been praying, begging, and pleading with God over for the past three years is to heal Sammy’s stepfather, Joe, from pancreatic cancer. This prayer has been hard to lift towards God at times. Not only does pancreatic cancer have extremely slim survival rates, but nine years ago Sammy lost her dad to lung cancer, so it’s been difficult to have faith when it feels like the past is repeating itself. But God has been answering and strengthening our faith. The fact that we are still celebrating life on earth with Joe three years post-diagnosis shows that our God-sized prayer is receiving a God-sized answer.
Garden City has become more than just a place we go on Sundays. It’s our home. This family of believers has encouraged, loved, and prayed for us so much that we feel deeply rooted in the Bay Area and solidly planted in the firm foundation of Christ.
And seriously- tell us what show we “must watch” it’s been all night and we two Nines still haven’t decided!