Bringing in the new year!

This was the view from the plane ride back to California. mhmm.

And we traveled back the night of New Year's, so I spent it with these crazies. 

We celebrated in Eunice (my car).

My art is FINALLY hanging in the community! I have filled all of Higher Groundz in SLO.

We also were able to take our trip to Modesto! It was incredible. 

We saw our good friends (Marvis and Evelyn) and then the girls above (Sophia and Marie).

More stories to come on that!

So our school starts... Sunday!!!

We have been spending countless hours in prayer and preparation for these students, and to finally have them here is outrageous to think about. In a good way. We are just honored to be able to live life alongside them as they are about to experience the fullness of God for their lives.

I will be keeping y'all updated about the school, and just ask for continued prayer for this whole school!

We had to prime all the walls in the bathrooms of our new DTS house. It was a task, and our bodies didn't know how to react to all the smells. So we turned out a little weird.

As Jacque was cleaning, she found a flattened rat! FLATTENED. So Jael decided to conquer her fear of rats. She scraped it off and threw it AWAY! 

This is our drive to and from the DTS house. Praise Jesus.

Be a lover of His presence today.
Oh His love is so perfect and so good.
Love that we are far beyond deserving.

At times overwhelming.
Have you allowed Jesus to overwhelmingly love you?

I just want to be with You, Jesus. I need You more so much than anything, because all these things, are nothing without You.
Your presence is life to me.
Jesus, You are the glory!!!

Holly Jolly

  My roommate Jael came to Texas for our family Christmas!! She is part of the family, I say. She is another sister to me. I LOVE having her here to see and understand more of the Southern love that I always talk about. She really does think everything is bigger (and better).

It has been so very good to be home. Every time that I am here, I am reminded at how blessed I am to truly love being around my family, and sharing Jesus' love genuinely. We laugh so much that I am losing my voice. It's glorious. I thank Jesus for my family. Ahh I thank Him!

Christmas Eve Eve party in Deep Ellum. We sat at this table all night, and slapped the hands of other people that tried to eat the food...

Christmas light hoppin. Yes, that is Santa kneeling at Jesus' crib.

holiday cheer in my neighborhood 

Christmas drive through downtown 

Christmas  Eve service. Good grief, you think our family could have more girls?!

and dad is behind the camera...

just hanging my wooden shoe on the tree

wine from each place that we live

Christmas Eve dinner!

once again, dad is behind the camera 

Mom made us aprons!

Christmas chaos...

Our traditional picture in front of the tree holding/wearing our gifts

Highly appropriate for the picture below

Jael's famous Jack Daniel's cake. Looks like poo but tastes quite better :)

singing loud for all to hear

So these next pictures are from the project my friend Cammie and her brother Ben took on as their Christmas gift to Papa Thevenet...

Their family was part of founding Dallas, so this is one of pictures of the family from 1909.

pretty close, eh?

life size kites!

we helped build and set up the picture

my lovely friends :)

Papa Thevenet coming to see the surprise! 

I love this time of year! I praise Jesus, that He is here! That we get to celebrate His presence. 

My family asks every year, what do you want to give Jesus this year?

It's fun to think of all the ways we can challenge ourselves with that this year. He is so deserving.

More to come! Merry Christmas family!!

Short term mission trip to India!!

As many of you know my love for India has grown increasingly over the past year, I am so blessed and excited to be able to lead a short term trip this coming year through YWAM Pismo!!

I will be leading a short term mission trip to Kolkata, India at the end of April- first of May (roughly April 22- May 7.) 

This trip is open to anyone! So if you are at all interested, please let me know and I can get you more details. My hope is to have the team finalized by the end of February, so that we can start getting plane tickets!

We will be going to serve at Mother Theresa's, Missionaries of Charity. For about 16 days, we will lay aside all that is familiar and run into the heart of the hustle and bustle in Kolkata. 

What I love about this home is that there are all areas to serve. I desire to see people thrive in their giftings, and to be able to give and give and give of their hearts. We will be focusing mostly on the leper colonies as a team.

We will be mostly working with the leper colonies! To love and kiss the feet and hands of these beautiful people who are outcasted. You can read all about leprosy here. It is the blog that I did on Jesus' heart for these beautiful people and the lives that they live.

He has given me this overwhelming love for lepers. And ever since I was reading about the lepers in Leviticus and through other parts of Mark and the Bible, every time that I read that word I have not been able to look away. My heart aches for them to know the touch of Jesus. I desire to see these people loved and brought into the embrace of His presence. 

Kolkata has some of the largest leper colonies.

This time last year I was talking with my best friend Hailey about them, wondering if the colonies still existed because it is a curable disease. The more that I prayed for the people of Kolkata and that I sought out the opportunity to go back- Jesus has never failed my heart. My desire and my heart is to go back and to touch and love the untouchable, the outcasted. The ones that Jesus rejoices over with singing. My hope is to bring people from the community around me, to open eyes to see them fall in love with the presence of God. To fight for something that seems impossible. 

Here are some pictures from my last trip :)

I can't wait to serve alongside some of you! We pray that this would be a time of adventure! We also hope to be able to shoot a short documentary on the colonies here to raise awareness and show the love of Jesus all over! 

Listen to that tug :)

Please contact me if you are interested, 

Audrey Spurgin

audreyspurgin@gmail.com