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Medical Expenses for Tricia Merrill

On November 1st, Tricia Merrill was taken to the emergency room in Waynesburg, PA for extreme nausea and jaundice. The hospital performed tests, and eventually released her with recommendations for specialized testing when they arrived at their next stop in Florida. During the drive south, their RV started overheating near Lakeland, FL. Randy pulled into the parking lot of Parkway Baptist Church where our family has ministered over the years, and took Tricia into the ER in Lakeland (November 9th). She had not been able to keep down much food for two weeks and liquids for over a day at this point. Incredibly, God had worked out the details (as always!), and the Lakeland medical staff was able to quickly pinpoint the cause of her extreme nausea and jaundice. The hospital is equipped to do the specialized testing that the PA hospital had recommended. The doctors discovered a mass of tissue in Tricia’s duodenum, and performed an ERCP procedure inserting a stint to allow the bile to flow from her liver again. During this procedure, a biopsy was taken and confirmed that the mass was cancerous. Laproscopic surgery to remove the cancer was scheduled for Monday, November 20th. The surgery yesterday was successful, but became more invasive than planned once the surgeon began the procedure. She is currently recovering in the SICU and will be moved to a regular hospital room in a few days. You can follow the “Merrill Evangelistic Team” on Facebook for ongoing updates and prayer requests. 

Many of you have been asking how you can best help Tricia and the family during this time. We thank you for your care and greatly appreciate your prayers on Tricia’s behalf! In talking with Dad (Randy Merrill) over the past few days, I thought that one of the best ways to tangibly relieve some of his burden would be to give an opportunity for friends and churches to donate toward the medical expenses they are facing at this time. Randy and Tricia have in no way asked for this, but we as Merrill children and their spouses would like to place this need before you.

As you may know, Randy and Tricia Merrill have been in full-time itinerant ministry for over 26 years now. In order to keep their healthcare costs manageable, they have a very high deductible of $10,000 per calendar year with Medi-Share (a Christian alternative to typical insurance that they use in case of catastrophic medical needs). Since we are just at the calendar break ending 2018, they will need to pay their annual deductible of $10,000 back-to-back. We would like to set a fundraising goal of $25,000 to cover the deductible for both 2018 and 2019 as well as additional funds needed to cover anticipated medication and living expenses while Tricia is recovering. I know they have already received a bill from the first ER visit in Pennsylvania that is just over $9,000, and they are in the midst of an extended hospital stay with Tricia’s major surgery yesterday (11/20/18). In addition to all this, we received news that Tricia’s father, Jim Spoerr, unexpectedly passed away at 2 p.m. yesterday while Tricia was still in surgery. She has not been told this news yet, but she will have a lot to work through once she gets out of recovery in SICU. Thank you for uplifting her and our family in prayer. 

We have already seen God work out so many details in this situation and provide many ministry opportunities along the way. We are trusting Him to continue to give wisdom and healing according to His will. You can follow the “Merrill Evangelistic Team” on Facebook for ongoing updates. If you would prefer to write a check, please make payable to and send to their home church notating “Merrill Medical Expenses” on the memo line:

Faith Independent Baptist Church
4481 Rucker Blvd.
Enterprise, AL 36330

Thank you for your support during this challenging time!

Sincerely,
Niah Merrill on behalf of all the Merrill family
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    Organizer and beneficiary

    Mattaniah Merrill
    Organizer
    Rock Hill, SC
    Randy Merrill
    Beneficiary
    • Medical
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