A week of prayer

Below are two teenagers from our church who are trying to overcome some very difficult trials. One’s facing brain surgery, the other a disease with long term complications. So we’re asking you to pray...pray for them, for their families, their doctors, their futures, their healing.

Thursday, January 28-Thursday February 4th we’re asking for 30 minutes a day from YOU for prayer. You can pray on your way to work, at home with your family, in the middle of night, or whenever suits you best...but we’re asking you to pray!

To sign up for time slots to pray go to:

www.wellspringchristian.org/prayer-event/

Amanda Hawkes

12 years ago, Amanda was diagnosed with epilepsy. Her seizures have been well controlled at times-up to two years at a stretch. However, medications no longer provide any control. Currently, she's averaging one a week. Many of these have been happening at school. Just a few weeks ago, she had an 11-minute seizure outside the gym. We never know when the school will call to tell us to get there right away, and she never knows when she will wake up in the back of an ambulance, or worse, in a hospital bed. Part of her brain is seizing 100% of the time. Because so much of her brainpower is taken up with coping with this, she has trouble keeping up with schoolwork, and has had trouble keeping up with the high-intensity issues related to trying to have high school friendships. Simply, she's pretty much exhausted. Each time she seizes, her brain takes longer to "reboot," and now, there's less and less time between seizures. We feel like we are in a race against the calendar,  waiting for January 28th, the date of her surgery. She is looking past the surgery towards wellness. We are continually aware that God loves our children even more than we do, though it's incredibly hard to imagine. Thank you so much for joining us on this journey. Please remember Amanda in your prayers.

Bob, Megan, Heather & Amanda

PS: Amanda also has a "Caring Bridge" website set up, where we'll be updating her progress.  You can get there by going to www.caringbridge.org and entering  amandahawkes (no spaces) in the section marked "visit a website".

Jordan Scott

Recently Jordan (12) was diagnosed with Perthes disease. What this means is that his bones in his right hip socket are compressing together too much. When they compress too tightly the blood does not flow correctly and this causes the bone to die. He already has a small portion of the bone that is dead. They want to try and save the bone because he is too young for a hip replacement. Perthes  disease is usually seen in kids 7 years old and  under and at that age it is treatable with casts or leg braces. It is rare in children 12 years of age and it’s risky because the bone could grow to be deformed and because at this age growth spurts are more rapid. Jordan is only the 5th case they’ve seen at Vanderbilt for a child his age. They want to drill into the bone and fill it with silicone to help cushion and support so no more of the bone caves in. This has been very painful for him with certain movements. If this surgery doesn’t work they will do something else. He is on crutches and could continue to be for a year or longer. He can’t put weight on that area until the growth plate closes. He was also told that he can’t play basketball or soccer ever again. He is so crushed. It’s all been so hard but he’s thankful because it could be worse. Please continue to keep him and our family in your prayers.

Jordan's Surgery is now Tuesday Feb 9th.

Kenny, Dot, Jordan & Carly