David Heflin (00:01.874)
Well, hello. want to welcome you back to In The Seams. I'm excited to have a guest here with us today, LA Sprague. And she has a podcast. Actually, I was on that podcast. I think probably a couple of months ago that we recorded it. I don't know exactly when it was released, but I really enjoyed being on the podcast with her. And now it's our turn to get to have her as a guest. And part of the reason we're doing this is not just because it's quid pro quo, but because

I feel like I want our people to know about this podcast because there's just been so many inspiring interviews from a wide range of people with chronic illnesses that have been featured on your show. So, LA, just want to welcome you to In the Seams.

L. A. Sprague (00:46.444)
my gosh, thanks so much David. I'm so happy to be here. So honored. This is my first ever interview where I've been interviewed. So I'm thoroughly nervous. So thank you so much for having me. It's a true honor.

David Heflin (00:54.98)
that

We're glad to have you so you probably feel more comfortable when you're asking the questions, huh?

L. A. Sprague (01:01.806)
yeah, definitely.

David Heflin (01:05.734)
Well, that's okay. I already know just from our prior conversations, you have a, I mean, when I say a good story, I recognize that it's been a difficult story, but good in the sense of what God is working in your life and when he's bringing out of it. And I think people will benefit, first of all, who have similar diseases that would fall into the same category as POTS, and we'll get into that in a moment. But also I think anybody that has just struggled with

L. A. Sprague (01:14.712)
Hmm.

David Heflin (01:34.056)
you know, chronic illness to hear your story and also to know that they can have this resource of your podcast to listen to. And if you're going to find someone in that on your show that they can relate to, I think. so, yeah, excited about that. And let's just start off by sharing a little bit about your journey. Tell me a little bit about the dreams you had before you started experiencing symptoms that you later understood to be pots. And then how was that changed by pots?

L. A. Sprague (01:45.55)
Hmm.

L. A. Sprague (02:02.51)
Yeah, so like any kid, I think that you're asked the question, what do you want to be when you grow up? And of course, there's lots of different times in your life where it changes. At one point, I wanted to be a National Geographic bird photographer. But I think one that always stuck with me is to be a singer. And so I do have music out under the name LA Sprague.

Yeah, if you're listening and you like music, it's nothing super special yet, but I'm enjoying that. And I think the first time I came up with music was 2023. But the really big part of my heart was when I was 15, I read a book called Killing Christians by Tom Doyle, crazy title. It's a pretty intense book, but it's about persecuted Christians around the world.

I just really felt a calling to go to the Middle East as a missionary. So I went to Moody Bible Institute when I was 18 in 2018 and studied to teach English to speakers of other languages, as well as I even got to study abroad in Jordan for a semester and minored in Arabic and absolutely loved my time overseas. I felt so at home there and it felt so right. And a huge

change happened when I got pots and just had to find out, what can I actually do now? You know, I can hardly work a part-time job, let alone a full-time job. And so now I'm doing Christians with chronic illnesses. Every now and again, I help clean up at the camp that we're staying at, but that's what I'm doing now. And if

you know, a missionaries in the future, no idea if God holds that in the cards for us at all or not. But yeah, it's definitely been a lot of mourning and a lot of change. And I think the, you know, with grief, the first step is denial. And I go, I definitely in phases with that, you know? But I think probably.

David Heflin (04:22.909)
Right.

L. A. Sprague (04:26.208)
last year in 2025 at some point was when I finally accepted, like, maybe it wasn't so black and white. Maybe God wasn't calling me to be a missionary. And maybe that's okay.

David Heflin (04:40.06)
Well, thank you for sharing that. know it's a difficult journey to be on. One of the things we try to emphasize to not only people with chronic illness, but our loved ones, our friends, people who care and want to know what we're going through. Chronic illness, chronic pain isn't just the experience of symptoms and pain. It changes everything in our lives because things that we were able to do, we're not able to do anymore. Things we wanted to do, even if we still want to do them, we are not able to.

L. A. Sprague (05:01.134)
Yeah.

David Heflin (05:09.396)
get to that point, you know? And so it changes your dreams, it changes so many different things. And yet there is this phase you go through, like you said, of denial. There is a time where you do come to a point of acceptance. Hopefully you want to be able to move forward with the life that you have. And so I appreciate you sharing that because for people who are listening that aren't suffering with chronic illness or chronic pain themselves, I want them to understand how

L. A. Sprague (05:24.15)
Mmm, yeah.

David Heflin (05:37.924)
all encompassing that this experience is. It's not that we're just wanting to talk about all the time our woes and we certainly need to be able to at times, but it's just to understand that every area of life is impacted by this. so including dreams to be missionaries, it's interesting. Actually, we had somebody else on our show who has a similar story named her name is Bethany and she has pots and she also was going to be a Bible.

She was going to be a missionary Bible translators in a foreign country. And she and her husband were training to do that when she began to be too sick to be able to do it. So we've had a similar story. That's been probably a good two, three years since we had Bethany on. Can you tell us then, just for anybody who doesn't know or new listeners, what is POTS and how does it limit you?

L. A. Sprague (06:30.402)
Yeah, so I'm no doctor, but I can tell you at least what I'm aware of. So POTS is postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. And essentially what it does or theorized, I suppose, is that your blood pools at the bottom of your body, which means that you're not getting essential oxygen to your limbs and especially to your head, your brain. So it's often, I think,

oversimplified and misunderstood as, well, when you stand up, you stand up too fast. You don't get the oxygen and the blood that you need back to your brain. So you pass out. That is a symptom for lots of people with POTS, especially really extreme cases of POTS. But if you think about it, anybody can stand up and get dizzy, right? Like I'm sure that you've had an experience before we stand up and, you know, the room is spinning, right? And so just to state it like that sounds oversimplified.

But the reality is that not having oxygen to your brain, a regular good amount of oxygen to your brain on a regular, I don't know, I don't wanna say schedule. You know what I'm saying? Not having that regular flow has lots of symptoms. And I'm even gonna pull up, I made a list of symptoms because when I was going to different doctors, it was so hard to like wrap my head around everything.

David Heflin (07:43.4)
Mm-hmm.

L. A. Sprague (07:58.051)
that I was experiencing. So I made this list and it's not, you know, all extensive, but it includes dizziness, lightheadedness, quickened heart rate, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, brain fog, loss of balance, heavy eyelids, numb limbs, cramped limbs, weakness, extreme fatigue, light sensitivity, collapsing, nausea, near passing out, random flushing, fevers, things like that. So

It sounds like, you know, when you hear it from the offset, okay, just don't stand up too fast, you know, when in reality, be in being in any upright position for me personally, causes the blood to stay towards the bottom of my legs. so even last week, I had a friend over, we were playing Rummy Cube, which is this really fun game. And I was sitting on the floor, you know, my legs are on the floor, which helps a lot having my legs, you know, laying down.

David Heflin (08:31.144)
Mm-hmm.

L. A. Sprague (08:52.206)
But even being in that upright position, just my torso being upright for, you know, half an hour, I had to go lay down in bed for five minutes. And I would say that a lot of change has happened as well cognitively. I don't think I'm as sharp as I used to be. I have a lot more air hunger, which is this feeling of breathlessness and needing to take lots of deep breaths and lots of brain fog, which is

you know, it's just lots of your thoughts aren't as clear as they used to be. So POTS has a lot of symptoms and it really affects my life and I think many people have POTS's life. Some people, POTS is wonderful in the sense that many people can get it to go into remission. It's not curable, but some people can get it into remission, which is...

David Heflin (09:42.523)
Okay.

L. A. Sprague (09:46.133)
awesome. It takes an incredible amount of discipline and medication and dieting and exercise and all those things to get to that point. And so bravo to anyone who listening who maybe has gotten it into remission. That's awesome. But yeah, on a practical level, that looks like, you know, I can't drive for long distances. It looks like I

can't work a full-time job, I have to have very flexible jobs where I can lay down when I need to, stand up and go for a walk when I need to. So it's very complex. It's very complex and you really have to learn how to, yeah, flex with life and learn to kind of accommodate for your own needs.

David Heflin (10:19.613)
Mm-hmm.

David Heflin (10:35.728)
And it sounds pretty comprehensive in how it just impacts nearly everything you want to do. I am curious from the time it started to where you are now, has it gotten any better? Has learning how to manage it gained some function back for you? Is it pretty much the same as when it started?

L. A. Sprague (10:55.904)
Yeah, so that's a great question. If I'm completely honest with you, for me, I think it's kind of gone in waves. So at first it was very difficult, especially when I wasn't medicated. It was very painful. And I, but I was very motivated at the beginning, you know, I'm going to get this figured out. I'm going to do what I can to get this into remission. On top of POTS, I also have major depressive disorder, which

puts a lot of interesting spins on things as well. And so I go kind of in seasons. So one season I might be able to do a lot more. I'm a lot healthier physically and mentally. And maybe I don't have a symptom for a month. But then there's other seasons where I'm collapsing several times a week. So it's a really complicated answer to that question because...

David Heflin (11:50.354)
No, it's okay.

L. A. Sprague (11:50.765)
I would say overall it is better because I'm medicated. And so I'm so thankful for that. Being on medication has been so helpful. But yeah, I think it definitely goes in phases with my mental health as well.

David Heflin (12:08.626)
Sure, that makes sense. makes sense. think many of us experience in our particular diseases or even mental health struggles, like you said, the kind of ebb and flow. I know for me, it's the physical and the mental are closely related. So if I am in a time where I'm experiencing more pain and more fatigue, I'm more likely to be depressed as well. It seems like

almost like, that would be obvious, but I don't know that it works that way for everyone. That's just the way it works for me, you know, but I appreciate your openness about that. I know that you're married to Paul. so anytime someone is going through this as a married person, you know, their spouse is going through it too in their own way from a different perspective. So I'm just curious how you two have worked through this together.

L. A. Sprague (12:42.85)
Yeah. Yes, I am.

David Heflin (13:01.48)
and how you've learned to rely on God through this.

L. A. Sprague (13:05.902)
Yeah. Fortunately, I met Paul after I had developed the onset symptoms of POTS. So I had started experiencing symptoms late 2021, early 2022, and met Paul summer of 2022. So right before. And so while we've known each other and while we've been married, he kind of knew what he was getting into.

And so that kind of, think, takes away a lot of complications that people who are already established in the relationships experience when a chronic illness creeps into the relationship. So I am thankful for that. And for any those out there listening who have experienced chronic illness moving into their lives and into their marriage without consent, bravo to you for pursuing your marriage and for braving through that.

because I can't even imagine. Yeah, as for me and Paul kind of how we rely on one another, it's kind of hard to pinpoint because again, I've had these symptoms since we've known each other. But earlier I asked him about this, this question of Paul, how do you see us kind of relying on each other and relying on God through this? And

we both on our own kind of thought of the word trust, that it takes a lot of trust for us to believe in one another. And so for example, he's the full-time worker in the household, know, he's the one getting most of the income. He's the one taking care of me when I'm sick, which is often. And so he's got a lot on his shoulders and he

just really trust whenever I tell him I can't do something or even whenever I'm trying to push myself to do something and he knows I shouldn't, like, he really trusts me and believes in my character. And I think the huge part of being married to someone who's chronically ill is really trusting them when they say, like, hey, I don't know that I can do that. And he does.

L. A. Sprague (15:29.516)
He does that really well, maybe too well. Like he's phenomenal. And on the other hand, I think we just have to have a lot of understanding, you know, when we were on vacation, visiting his family a few weeks ago and I had to go downstairs and lay down in the dark for a while. Cause even any like movement would make me dizzy. And we're visiting his family. only gets to see, you know, a few times a year. Well,

David Heflin (15:32.913)
You

L. A. Sprague (15:58.669)
I'm grateful because he took care of me. gave me the drinks I needed and the food I needed, but I was able to kind of just let him do his own thing, go visit and spend time with his dad. And I think that's kind of compromise. You know what I'm saying? Like there are times he does stay home from his nights with his friends when I'm feeling sick, but there are other nights that I need to realize, and I do, that

He's a person too, you know, he's human as well and he can't always be there. And so in those moments, like in that circumstance where I was alone in that dark room, there was a lot of, you know, fixation on, this hurts, like there's so much pain. And the Holy Spirit led me to just be grateful for what I had. And so I was grateful for my husband who took care of me and got me what I needed when he could. I was grateful for the comfortable room I was in and the

cool air and the fan that helped relieve symptoms. I was grateful for the comfortable bed. so I think that I've learned through doing my podcast actually, one thing that people say a lot is to be grateful. And so I'm thankful that the Lord helped me in that moment of pain to just focus on the goodness that was around me.

David Heflin (17:18.962)
Thank you for sharing that deeply personal story. And I think especially in how the Holy Spirit interacted with you at a low moment to be able to help you. It doesn't make it go away, right? But help you transcend your circumstances to be thankful. It's not easy, even though Scripture talks about thankfulness, even in times of trial. Maybe that's when we especially need it in times of trial.

L. A. Sprague (17:43.79)
Yeah, I think it is.

David Heflin (17:46.63)
But sounds like Paul's a a good husband. and I certainly want to stress that, you know, for people who are near to others with chronic illness, I actually, I absolutely think that's the most fundamental thing, what you touched on trust and that you said something I even liked a little different. liked it. You know, you talked about trusted my character, like he knows who you are. So therefore when you speak and say, you know, I can't do this right now that carries weight. It doesn't think you're, you're, you're just.

L. A. Sprague (17:49.961)
Yeah.

David Heflin (18:16.114)
trying to get out of something. And we've established that together, I think with my wife too. We've been married a bit longer, 24 years. And she didn't know what she was getting into in our case. She knew she was signed up for better or for worse, but she's been very helpful to me along the journey.

L. A. Sprague (18:17.335)
Right, yep.

L. A. Sprague (18:25.289)
Hahaha!

L. A. Sprague (18:29.507)
Right.

David Heflin (18:41.072)
And I think that's one of the things I've learned to communicate. Actually, the problem was more my issue at first, because I didn't always communicate to her. couldn't do something. And so she couldn't figure out what was wrong with me in a lot of cases. And I finally got to where I could say that and she could believe me. And that really helped us to move forward. And so it sounds like you really have that already with Paul. that's, that's good. And he's a novelist. I heard that on your podcast.

L. A. Sprague (19:01.671)
Mmm... Yeah.

L. A. Sprague (19:07.31)
Yes, he is

David Heflin (19:07.864)
And so I wanted to give you an opportunity to tell you about his book, and we'll certainly put the link to that in our show notes.

L. A. Sprague (19:16.384)
Yeah, thanks. So he wrote a novel and actually has a whole series written, but he's in the process of editing and all that called The Supernatural Case of an Accidental Time Traveler by Paul Trumbo.

right now he only has one book out. It's available on Amazon. So yeah, as you said, you'll put it in the show links. And if you go to any of my podcast show links, it's on there as well. It's fun. It's a very fun story. is for adult audiences. And I find it thoroughly enjoyable. I'm not even that much of a reader and I read through that thing in a moment. So I highly recommend, could be biased though, you know, husband and all.

David Heflin (19:58.962)
That's okay. I expect you to be a little biased. That's right. So, well, we'll put that so people can check that out too. I wanted to read a scripture here that Andres, our producer put up for us just because it fits with the theme that we were just talking about from Ephesians 520, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's Ephesians 520, you know, powerful reminder. There's another one where

L. A. Sprague (20:02.301)
Hehehehehe

L. A. Sprague (20:12.078)
No.

David Heflin (20:26.78)
He says a little different. I can't remember if it was Thessalonians, but it was to be thankful in all circumstances, something along those lines. so sometimes the circumstances themselves, we may not be thankful for, but even in those, we learn to be thankful. And that's not always easy. It may be easier sometimes than others, but well, I want to talk to you about your podcast because that's kind of what brought us together. And I, as I said, I got to be on your podcast. I had a great time and I was glad to get to be a part of that.

But tell me what inspired you to start it and a little bit about its purpose.

L. A. Sprague (21:02.476)
Yeah, what inspired me to start Christians with chronic illnesses? It was November of 2024. And I just had a really hard time finding a space that was specifically for chronically ill believers. Like there's a lot of space for Christians, obviously, and there is growing space for

chronically ill people. It's still not well established, I would say, but it's definitely growing. But let alone like a space that is for both. And I'm so grateful that since starting the podcast, I found people like you, David, and Your Ministry is Broken and Mended, and other podcasts that have the same mission. But I really just wanted a place that could hold both of

the huge aspects of my life, my faith in Jesus and also my chronic illness. And so because I was having a hard time finding that even with a simple Google search, I was like, all right, like we got to start some resources, you know, for our community. And also me personally, I was having a hard time finding some purpose because I didn't have a job. You know, like I said, every now and again, I'll help clean at camp, but that's like maybe six hours a week.

And I, you know, it's hard to commit somewhere because flexibility and accommodation are very hard to meet. And I obviously wanted to be a missionary, you know, I've always loved being with people, communicating with people. And so it was really hard just sitting at home, like, what am I doing, you know, like feeling like such a failure and like wasting the gifts in the life that God has given me. And I've also had an interest in

creativity. I have my music and in the past I've done, made silly family videos with my family and having a podcast was always kind of a fun idea and or like writing a book or something. And so basically after confiding with some family and friends, they all thought that it was a good idea. so I've been super blessed. I've made so many good connections with other Christians with chronic illnesses.

L. A. Sprague (23:22.048)
around the US and hopefully around the world someday. So yeah, the dream was really to bless the people that are out there who need connection, who are chronically ill and believers and need some encouragement and also to give me some purpose as well.

David Heflin (23:42.866)
That's awesome. when did your show, I know it was not that long ago, when did it become live for people to be able to listen to?

L. A. Sprague (23:50.543)
Yeah, we published about a year after the idea. we, our first episode was, I think, November 31st of 2025. So just a few months ago.

David Heflin (24:02.93)
Yeah, that's awesome. And you certainly have been producing a lot. looks like maybe once a week or so.

L. A. Sprague (24:10.476)
Yeah, yeah. So right now our format is once a week or sorry. Yes, we have one episode every single Monday and every other Monday acts differently. So two Mondays of the month is a full length episode where I interview someone who is a Christian with chronic illnesses or a Christian. Yeah. And or a caretaker of pastor of etc. The other two episodes of the month.

and they're interchanged as we call the halftime show where essentially it's just me. And that ranges from, you know, talking about different topics that I've researched, reacting to cringy health advice, or just me talking about my personal experience. So my favorite is definitely the full length episodes, but the halftime show is out there too. So.

David Heflin (24:56.177)
Right.

David Heflin (25:04.776)
Yeah. Well, that's good. That's very good. Hey, I noticed this word come up a few times in spirit. And the funny thing, actually, when I was signing the contract or whatever to be on your show, I noticed the word. And my first reaction was that you didn't know how to spell inspire. I thought, oh, OK, I did not know what I did not know this word, you know, and that I realized, oh, she's using this over and over again.

L. A. Sprague (25:26.606)
Hmm.

David Heflin (25:31.496)
And then I heard you say something about it. think in your welcome episode your opening episode on your podcast Tell me I'm intrigued by the word and so tell me a little bit about that word and why it's a meaningful word for you

L. A. Sprague (25:38.094)
You

L. A. Sprague (25:44.083)
Yeah, so I wish so badly I had a deep reason for you. I'm gonna be honest I wanted I knew that I wanted it to encourage and inspire people But I didn't want to use the cliche word encourage or inspire so I literally went to Google I looked up synonyms for like encourage and in spirit was there so I looked up in spirit Read some of its synonyms and I was like, that's it. That's perfect. I'm serious. It's just I wrote, you know

Shout out to Mrs. Barbara in my high school English class because every week, you know, she had us learning new dictionary words and that made us want to, you know, use unique vocabulary and be special. So anyway, a little bit of a pick me girl move, I guess. I wish there was more depth to it than that.

David Heflin (26:33.307)
Well, at the very least, you taught me a new word and I can find occasion to use it now. So I appreciated that.

L. A. Sprague (26:36.014)
You

Yeah, and I suppose I could talk a little bit more about our mission statement. Would that be okay? Yeah, so our full mission statement for Christians with chronic illnesses is that we want to magnify the voices of chronically ill brothers and sisters to inspire their health journeys and their faith. So essentially, one thing that I've been bothered by in at least my upbringing in my wing of the church

David Heflin (26:47.367)
Yeah, go ahead.

L. A. Sprague (27:07.566)
was there was a lot of suppressing of honest emotion and struggle. And that really bothered me because then when you grow up and you go through real struggle, you have to learn how to deal with that. And I don't think ignoring it and trying to plaster the name of Jesus over it is a healthy way or even a godlier biblical way of dealing with suffering.

So I wanted to provide a platform where Christians, people who believe in Jesus could come and be honest and raw about the hellish struggles that they go through as someone with a chronic illness. They don't have to cover up anything. They don't have to polish it. They don't have to give disclaimers. They can just be honest about it. And I wanted that because I think that the people I'm interviewing

I want it to feel like once they've left the interview, I want them to feel like they were just, I'm not a therapist, nor am I trying to be, but I want them to feel like they just left a really good therapy session. I want them to feel like they just left a really good small group session, very encouraged and heard and understood. And so I want that not to only in spirit their health journey where they want to continue to get better, they're reminded of the good that is in their body.

But I want them also to be in spirited in their faith, where they are reminded of God's love for them, where Jesus meets them in their pain. Yeah, I want people to know that the Holy Spirit meets them in their darkest moments and does not expect them to cover that up. So.

David Heflin (28:54.504)
That's an awesome way to put it. And I think you're right about the need and the gap for such a show. And I'll just read that mission statement again. Magnifying the voices of chronically ill brothers and sisters to in spirit their health journeys and their faith. And so that's really awesome. And I'm so glad you're doing it. I noticed too, as I mentioned, the frequency is impressive that you're getting out so many episodes, but also

that you're covering such a wide range of chronic illnesses. And I think that's great because that way, and I think that anybody struggling with chronic illness can relate to somebody else's story, even if it's not the same. But also if you're looking for your specific struggle or illness, you probably will find it on the show, if not now, eventually. Yeah, so that's really good. And who knows, maybe someone will be inspired, to use the other word, to...

L. A. Sprague (29:42.537)
Aw, I hope so.

David Heflin (29:51.932)
to want to share their story with you on your show at some point that's listening to us today. But I want to ask, how are people being impacted that listen to your show? You mentioned already this idea of kind of the people who participate in it. And I can testify to that. Yes, you feel like it feels therapeutic to share your story. And I think that's a good thing because so many times, like you said, it's not encouraged or it's suppressed or it's discouraged.

L. A. Sprague (29:57.026)
Mm-hmm.

David Heflin (30:19.176)
And so to get to do that and a, uh, with a empathetic ear, that's a big deal. And that's one of the things we do with our broken them into support groups too. We want people to have an opportunity to share, you know, to share their stories. And so I just want to kind of know what feedback are you hearing at this point from your listeners?

L. A. Sprague (30:36.354)
Yeah, so glory to God for all of this because I'm always so like ecstatic and shocked when people respond. So I'm very grateful for interaction and comments and emails and all of that. So thank you for those who have listened to Christians with chronic illnesses and yeah, communicated in some way. I'm very grateful for all of you. So a reoccurring thing that I think is actually kind of ironic is people find joy in it.

and find laughter in it. And I think that's really interesting because it's like, it's a show that deals with hard topics. You know, we talk about mental disorders as well as physical disorders. And so they're really sometimes dark stories. And so it's really cool to me to kind of, I guess, witness how the Holy Spirit is bringing joy out of that and that people listening

David Heflin (31:08.296)
That's good.

L. A. Sprague (31:35.053)
feel some sort of joy or encouragement even listening and laughter even. So I found that very interesting as a response. And, you know, just a few other people have mentioned feeling validated and understood and things of the sort, which again, I give glory to God for because those are exactly what our hopes and goals are. And it's beyond an honor that that's actually happening even for

one person out there. So that's a true privilege. you know, I had one person say to me, I think it was probably the second person I interviewed, her name was Dory. And I believe it her who said, it's really rare to have someone just sit and listen and ask about your chronic illness. Like who wants, you know, like the, I'm not saying no one does, but the thought behind what she was saying is like, who wants to sit there?

for an hour, an hour and a half and ask you questions about your health. But like you said, David, our health is such a huge part of our lives. It's not only symptoms and pain and all those things. It impacts our faith. It impacts our minds. It impacts our relationships. It impacts our careers. Like it does, like you said, it changes our whole life. And so it was really an honor to hear her say that

David Heflin (32:54.374)
Right?

L. A. Sprague (33:02.912)
she was encouraged just to be listened to.

David Heflin (33:07.74)
Yeah, that's awesome. Andre shared this story, I mean, this verse from, I think it kind of fits well with what you're talking about and what your show is doing for people, both the person sharing as well as the listeners. says in Philemon 1.7, your love has given me great joy and encouragement because you, brother or sister, we could say, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord's people. And so that's a yeah, that's a that's an awesome thing to get to be a part of. And I know your show is doing that.

L. A. Sprague (33:31.832)
Ugh.

L. A. Sprague (33:36.174)
That's an honor. Wow, thank you. That's an honor. Again, glory to God.

David Heflin (33:42.48)
Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. Glory to God. And I just always inspired myself from interviewing other people to just hear how they were listening for God's voice in some way to fill in whatever part of the gap they felt called to fill it fill in, you know, in your case with the podcast for giving people a forum to share that have never had the opportunity that were both Christian and with chronic and had chronic illness.

And know for us, even though we do a podcast, it's not our main thing. Our main thing is our support groups. And so the podcast is more of a, you know, supplement. But we did that because we felt like there's not hardly any Christian support groups for people with chronic illness. And so, so many times you just keep hearing people and witnessing people who have gone through a really dark time, like you said, but they have found joy in the middle of it. And they have found joy because they stayed connected to God and because of what God was doing in their lives to bless other people.

L. A. Sprague (34:14.062)
.

L. A. Sprague (34:21.581)
Yeah.

David Heflin (34:38.266)
And so this is a, story like that. So thank you so much for sharing about that. I think, I think something close to joy is I think we experienced joy the most in community and you're not even though the podcast is your main source of outreach, you're not just a podcast as, as I understand it, you're building a, community. And so what are some other ways along with this podcast? What are some other ways that people can connect to each other through?

L. A. Sprague (34:43.426)
Yeah.

David Heflin (35:07.794)
the avenues that you're providing.

L. A. Sprague (35:10.284)
Yeah, so that's a great question. We have a few resources. So on Facebook, we have the Christians with Chronic Illnesses Support Group. And again, if you go to Christians with Chronic Illnesses, you can find that in any of our show notes, or probably just look it up on Facebook and maybe you'll find it. It's a very small group right now. We have a Discord chat, same deal, and show notes. And other than that, I would say

you're more than welcome, obviously, to connect with our podcasts at cwcipodcasts.gmail.com or at cwcipodcasts on all platforms. I think we get a lot of interaction on TikTok where people will be kind of commenting back and forth to each other. And that's always really sweet to see. And that's something totally not, you know, manufactured by me at all. That's just TikTok. And so it's really cool to see people interacting in that way.

And on our podcast, different episodes, people will encourage you to reach out to them. I have an interview coming out at some point that's a therapist and she welcomes you to visit her clinic. so I would say just even, we also have a website where you can go and look at the guests and go and see their resources and connect with them that way.

David Heflin (36:32.968)
That's awesome. So you mentioned several things there. The Facebook, is it a group or page? Did you say it was a group? Okay. So Facebook group and you mentioned Discord, which is not something that people in my generation are use as much, but certainly for people of your generation, I think probably would use more. And I know my kids do and it just courts a big way of building community. We probably ought to look into it honestly, but that's great that you have it.

L. A. Sprague (36:38.166)
Yeah, it's a group. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

L. A. Sprague (36:54.126)
You

David Heflin (37:00.392)
And also you mentioned this website that people can go to and see the other resources. that's just really helpful because that way people can go to a particular place and see where these things have been curated and brought together. And certainly we'll find something that will be helpful to them. And so I appreciate you building this community the way that you are. Yeah, sure, sure.

L. A. Sprague (37:18.808)
Yeah.

L. A. Sprague (37:24.748)
Yeah, thank you.

David Heflin (37:28.808)
Is there anything else you'd want to share about what God is doing in your ministry or your life? Or anything else about the podcast you want people to know?

L. A. Sprague (37:36.975)
Sure. So I mentioned music earlier. am, this is the first time I'm publicly announcing this, but I'm writing an album. I am four songs in and the goal, we'll see how it goes, but the goal is to have it finished by December of this year. So at least written, at least written. Okay. So I'm not sure about recorded and produced, but the hope is to have the whole album written by December.

So again, that's under LA Sprig. And yeah, so I'm super excited about that. The whole theme of the album, I believe it's going to be called, The Humanity. And it's based on different humans that I either know, knew, or, you know, we're familiar with. So yeah, right now we're four songs in.

I'm having an idea for today, so maybe later today I'll be working on that. And as for the podcast, just hoping to keep it consistent. It's definitely easy to feel some burnout if I'm pushing myself too hard. So that can be tricky, but I do find a lot of great joy in the podcast.

David Heflin (38:32.636)
Okay.

L. A. Sprague (38:54.688)
Soon here, we're probably gonna take a break from interviewing people and start promoting for season two, try to get some fundraising for season two. We didn't do any sort of Kickstarter fundraising for season one. And so right now this is coming all out of me and my husband's pockets, which has been so enjoyable. And I'm very grateful that he's been supportive of that. So yeah, we're hoping to, probably about,

probably about November-ish of this year, maybe do some kickstarting maybe before that. So we'll see how that goes. So other than that, yeah, mean, new episode every Monday and I'm very grateful for everyone listening. We also just started a new Patreon subscription.

different levels and such. So we're going to have some exclusive episodes on there. So if you like the show, you know, and want to support it, you're more than welcome. And then you can see some exclusive episodes for our members there.

David Heflin (39:58.568)
Okay, awesome. Awesome. Some exclusive episode sounds good. Yeah, so that's a lot. You got a lot going on there with the music and your podcast plans. so with the music, so you're working on this album, but do you already have, so you already have some things on YouTube that people could find or Spotify?

L. A. Sprague (40:02.126)
you

L. A. Sprague (40:17.462)
Yeah, so we're, yeah, we're on lots of listening platforms with our music. So YouTube, Spotify, Apple, probably almost anywhere you go, it will be on there. So it's, unfortunately, because I'm such a small artist, it's very hard to find. So it's L period space, A period space, Spreg.

S-P-R-A-G-U-E. And you have to put it in just like that or you might not find me.

David Heflin (40:51.036)
I got you. That's good to know. So we'll try to link some of that as well. And so we've got quite a few things we'll want to link for this episode. Well, Ale, I want to just thank you again for being with us today. It's been a pleasure to get to talk to you again and very thankful for everything that you're doing. Just thanks for coming on the show.

L. A. Sprague (41:13.078)
Yeah, thanks David. It was really a joy to talk to you again. I'm super excited for our connection and for lots of other connections and I'm super looking forward to seeing how God is growing his kingdom, particularly of us chronically ill kids of his. So thanks for the honor of being on your show. And it was a great first interview. So thank you.

David Heflin (41:28.934)
Yeah, amen.

David Heflin (41:33.264)
Yeah, well, you did great and it was good to have you. And I wanted to just say you brought up the connections. Yeah, I think that's something that is improving now that, you know, whether you're talking about the Diamonds Conference or your podcast or Broken and Mended, know, Chronic Joy, some of these other ministries that are starting to work together a little bit more and collaborate a little bit more. And I think at least know what each other's doing. so I hope and pray that God will continue to

L. A. Sprague (41:56.546)
Yeah.

David Heflin (42:02.792)
build up those resources and ministries for people going through a very hard time. And if you're listening to us and you found us on Spotify or someplace like that, I certainly encourage you to go also to our website. It's brokenamended.org. You can find the podcast there as well, including our blog posts. You can also find information about support groups and also our social media connections. And a little bit like LA was saying, if you're so inclined and want to help us with our mission, there is a way there that you can.

donate to our cause as well. so we can continue to bring resources to help those in need. Our mission is helping or connecting hurting people to Jesus and each other. And so thank you again for being with us on In the Seams. We look forward to our next time together.