Greetings from Spring Creek Ministries!
This update is a little lengthy, but we hope you will read to the end. We experience many uplifting and encouraging things as we serve others. We want to share them with you!
The spring and summer days have, so far, brought mild weather to the Permian Basin and West Texas. Many of our older Spring Creek friends have appreciated the warmth and for the most part, it is easier to get out for appointments and generally enjoy sunshine without intense heat!
The family of the late little Marco Lomeli is rejoicing as they welcome a new baby into their family! We pray for God’s blessings as they start this chapter of their family’s life.
In May, we said goodbye to Robert Lynn Payne. Lonnie began working with him several years ago when Lynn began seriously suffering from a rare pulmonary disease. Lynn was hospitalized in April for several weeks until he got to go back to his house. He was able to be with his family and his four year old granddaughter played on his bed with him the day before he passed away on May 26th.
Two families marked one year of a dear one’s passing. On June 5th, the family of Wayne Duzan and on June 12th, the family of James Medlin. These families have been very close to the Hamil clan for fifty years or more. Our love and prayers go to them at this time.
Others of whom we are aware in need of prayers are:
Anita Elms, who suffers from Sciatic Nerve issues also needs a shoulder surgery.
Gary Barnes had neck surgery and we pray the healing process speeds up!
Tommy Hamil is recovering from rotator cuff surgery.
Mary Jo Garner is 97 years old and was blown over by a strong wind one day. She was bruised up and sore, but called us the other day to see how we were! She is such a blessing to know!
Lonnie has been traveling and meeting with people to get support for Spring Creek Ministries. We have been very blessed to have great support, but on occasion, financial situations and interests change for our donors and monetary backing fluctuates.
On June 22nd, Lonnie was invited to preach at 6th & Jackson Church of Christ. Two of our sons, Ross and Jacob, filmed an interview of our experiences when Lonnie had his stroke in the summer of 2012. Through this video, we were able to show how wonderful it is to be a part of the family of God! You may watch the film below:
Thank you for supporting and sharing in this ministry. Your prayers and concern make a huge difference!
Love to you all,
Donna Hamil
Here is an introduction to a young woman who needs every prayer warrior available!
I ran into a past friend a couple of days ago. Her name is Lauren Martin. I found out that she has been dealing with a very rare condition for the last couple of years and I would like to add her to our Facebook prayer list. She was kind enough to share the details of her challenges and I thought it best to just copy and paste them here so all of you will have a better understanding. Feel free to add messages to this link as a way of encouraging her.
Lauren’s Story:
About 3 years ago, I went to the ER with severe leg pain. It felt really heavy and was severely discolored. They figured out that I had a blood clot that was about a foot long in my iliac vein, which is the biggest vein in your body and connects directly to the heart. They said it should have killed me. So they did a surgery here in Lubbock where they basically went in and removed the clot and stented the vein open. About a month later I went in with the same symptoms and found out that my stent had migrated (which apparently has never happened before) and my vein had re-clotted with a clot even bigger than the previous clot. So they decided to try the same surgery again and stented it again and this time they put in a ivc filter to catch any clots that may break loose. So they did the surgery again and then sent me home. Within 6 days I had re-clotted AGAIN and it was even worse. So they started looking into it and finally figured out that I have something called “May-Thurners” syndrome. And this is why I kept re-clotting. So they then sent me to a May-Thurner’s specialist at the Cleveland clinic and I had surgery AGAIN and he basically stented open my entire iliac vein. This surgery was successful at keeping my vein open and flowing. However, since my very first surgery I had had this HORRIBLE shooting pain in my thigh and leg and none of the doctors could figure out what was causing it. Even the doctor at the Cleveland clinic didn’t know what the problem was, he just wanted to open my vein to get the blood flowing again. So after 2 years of being in pain we finally decided to go to the Mayo clinic in Minnesota and see if they might be able to figure it out. Sure enough they did. They have no idea how this happened but that very first stent that I had placed (the one that migrated) made it’s way into my INTERIOR iliac vein and slipped all the way down into this little crevice between my L5 nerve and my pelvic bone. So basically the stent is literally crushing my L5 nerve root. That is why I’m in miserable amounts of pain. So the doctors at the mayo clinic were very intrigued with my case because they’d never seen anything like it. The stent migration also caused my entire interior iliac vein to clot and since it was clotted so long without anyone knowing, the clot basically turned to concrete and that vein is now considered a “dead vein.” So after several months of studying and meeting with other surgeons, my surgeon called me and said they think they’ve come up with an experimental surgery to go down in there and basically remove the entire dead vein. They have never had someone have a pinched nerve that was being pinched by something INSIDE a vein before so they weren’t sure how to get it out. So anyway at first they were not willing to try this surgery because of it’s insanely high risks it has a much greater fatality rate and risk of something going wrong than most surgeries so they didn’t want to do it if at all possible. So I tried so many other things to make the pain bearable with each thing being unsuccessful. So we’ve talked it through with them and they think it’s time to go ahead and give it a try. So we are going up there on July 15th and the surgery will be the 18th.
I met Lauren at Encounter several years ago. She is one of the sweetest young ladies you will ever meet! Please be praying that God will heal her and that she will be able to continue to bless others!
Lonnie
