Ellie's Premier Music Video


Updates on How to Pray for Ellie

    Our soul waits for the LORD;
        he is our help and our shield.
    For our heart is glad in him,
        because we trust in his holy name.
    Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
        even as we hope in you. (Psalm 33:20-22)

Dear friends, 

On behalf of Brian and Kim and the entire Hommel family, thank you again for your prayers and the many expressions of love towards Ellie and their family. We continue to trust the Lord to bring the healing that Ellie needs and greatly appreciate all of you that are staying updated in how to keep praying for the entire Hommel family. We have provided this page to keep you updated with what's going on with Ellie throughout this journey and will continue to provide updates as we have them. Thanks again for your amazing support and our ultimate desire remains to see the name of Jesus honored and glorified as we walk this journey with Him.


"This is not the worst thing to ever happen! Cancer is so limited. It cannot cripple love, shatter hope, corrode faith, eat away peace, destroy confidence, kill friendship, shutout memories, silence courage, quench the Spirit or lessen the power of Jesus."


Januarty 19th

We are so thankful that Ellie is through with Chemo! The last few times she has had to have her port accessed, she got so nervous and scared that she threw up before we even started. This has been so stressful for Ellie, and it’s been hard to watch her go through this. We would be lost without Jesus. Ellie has a CT scan on January 28th, and Lord willing the results will be that the cancer is completely out of her. We will send out a report once we find out. Again, the prayers and support have been so overwhelming… We thank each of you so much for taking time out of your life to pray and encourage us through this process. Pray for a good result from the CT scan!
Blessings,
— Brian, Kim, Abbey, Ellie and Selah Hommel

December 8th


October 15th


September 18th


September 3rd

August 29th was a great day in our lives, and it was such a blessing to see Ellie’s surgeon come out with a smile on his face. A far cry from the last time we saw him come out on June 15th. He, along with his team, was able to remove the tumor from Ellie’s little body! In the process, she lost only her left kidney and left adrenal gland.

As she recovered at the hospital many thoughts flooded my soul. We are so thankful for the love and support that has come our way. We are so thankful for the loving arms of Jesus that have wrapped our family up together. And we are so thankful for Ellie coming home. With that said she is still scared and still has a battle to overcome. This picture was just before leaving the hospital on September 2nd. She had been yelling and screaming and crying and when she finally was able to communicate, she shared that she was scared to have the needle taken out of her port. She was scared about more chemo. She was scared about radiation. And she was scared of the unknown.

“Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear.” (1John 4:18).

My hope for Ellie is that through this process she will not live in fear but in trust of Jesus because it is only His love that cast out her fears and ours. We start chemo and radiation next week, but we are not heading into this stage alone!
— Brian Hommel

August 29th

Surgery “went perfectly” according to the doctor. They were able to get all the tumor without taking her spleen. Radiation is still going to be necessary but they are confident that it will wipe out the cancer. Thanks for the prayers and the support. Will send another update soon.
— Brian Hommel

August 25th

First off, Ellie is doing really well. Her tumor has shrunk a great deal as it has responded well to the chemo and Kim and I are so thankful!

Ellie’s surgery is this Friday August 29th at 1pm PCT at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. I am updating you for two reasons. One, for an update so you can be praying, and secondly, asking you if you would come along side of me and fast for Ellie’s surgery?

You would eat dinner Thursday and then not eat again until dinner on Friday. I typically will drink only water during that time, but I know some of you are in the midst of your season, so do what you feel led to do.

Jesus calls us to fast and for most of us its something we just don’t find ourselves doing. But since June 13th when things changed for Ellie, my family and myself, I along with some close brothers have been fasting once a week (every time Ellie goes into chemo). It’s been an unreal encouragement for me knowing guys are sacrificing for my daughter.

I am asking for as many people as I can to do this with me. If you just can’t, no worries, this is not a pressure thing. Ellie knows that I am fasting and that I have friends doing it with me so she asked “Why?”

I told her there are times when we want to go deeper and want to sacrifice before the Lord with deep requests and when I fast my day slows down, and I am way more aware of what the Lord is doing in me and around me. Every time my stomach gets hungry it reminds me to pray for you and others. It’s a way to let Jesus know I love Him even more than food and that I really need Him to guide me and walk through this with me.

Jesus has guided me, and He has been so close to me and my family through this. I really want this cancer out of her, and I trust Jesus! I recently took the girls through the story of Job, and where he said to his wife “Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” In this life we will suffer, and it does have purpose even though we may never know why. But Jesus doesn’t make mistakes, and so I am at peace.

Specific prayers: Her tumor has shrunk a lot, but its attached to a vein that is connected to her spleen. If it doesn’t shrink off of that she will lose it. We don’t want that to happen as she needs that to fight off infections. My prayer is that it will have shrunk so much that it shocks the doctors. Pray for Kim, Abbey and Selah as well. It’s not easy for them watching their daughter and sister go through this. I will post updates on our website as soon as the surgery is over — go there for the results.

I want you to know when any of you go through some hard times, please call on me and I will fast with you throught them.
— Brian Hommel

August 12th


July 30th


July 21st


July 14th


July 8th


July 6th

Happy belated 4th! Ellie went 3 days without eating and finally ate a few things yesterday. Today is a new day and she is doing way better. Has been crushing food all day but is still weak. Brutal to think we have to start this whole thing over again Wednesday when we go back for another round of chemo. Please keep praying the tumor shrinks! Kim and I are so thankful for all your prayers!
— Brian Hommel

July 1st

Ellie update: Chemo is done she did well got a little hairy for her but she is doing well now. Home now. Ellie got a headache but doesn’t feel bad! Thanks for praying. It took forever as the chemo was late to the hospital but Ellie was a champ through it all!
— Brian Hommel

July 1st

Kim and I could use prayer for Ellie today as we take her for her first round of chemo at 10:30 PCT. She is nervous. Ellie’s prayer is that she doesn’t loose her hair and our prayer is that this chemo shrinks the tumor and her appetite doesn’t go away. She is a champ and getting stronger everyday!
— Brian Hommel

June 25th

Kim and I had two doctors appointments today the first one was with our oncologist and he said the report came back that she has a favorable stage 3 Wilms tumor so praise Jesus for that information! Chemo will begin once a week starting next Tuesday for the next 6 weeks and after that we will take a CT scan if the tumor has shrunk then surgery will follow. Pray it does! The second appointment was with a homeopathic doctor and he helped us to prepare her and help her immune system recover faster. Thanks for praying for Ellie!
— Brian Hommel

June 21st

We all made it home last night and Ellie loves being home and we all for the first time were happy to home too. She slept thur the night last night:) now the training begins we are all changing what we eat. Got to get crazy healthy! Keep praying! Kim Casey Hommel is researching like crazy on what she should eat to help kill this cancer.
— Brian Hommel

June 20th

Kim and I wanted to give you the latest update. Last night our doctor came by and said she was doing amazing the blood transfusion dropped her heart rate and increased her red blood count and said if she can eat solid foods and go poop we could leave Friday afternoon. She did both! Ellie is doing great today and still need her blood pressure to drop but looks like we are heading home! We can’t thank you enough for your prayers we still need them this is just one stage of many. Please pray the next 6 weeks of chemo and radiation shrink this tumor so it can’t be removed completely! Thanks for all the prayers we covet them!
— Brian Hommel

June 19th

Jesus ain’t messing around! No internal bleeding! Thanks so much for praying. We are doing blood transfusion to help her red blood count spike up. Keep praying we want out of this place so we can start chemo.
— Brian Hommel

June 19th

Doc came in Ellie’s red blood count is low her heart is pumping more to compensate they r doing an ultra sound to see if there is some internal bleeding going please pray. Ellie is in a lot of pain rt now and she can’t take the meds that work best cause of this problem. If there is then we r headed back to surgery. Pass the word please.
— Brian Hommel

June 18th

We are so overwhelmed with the love and support and wanted to give you an update. We met with our oncologist last night and based on his opinion the tumor is favorable. Now he said he only works in 100% and so he sent the tumor to Chicago and they will be determining what the state of it is but our doc is one of the best in the country so we feel really good about his opinion. Pray it does come back favorable. What that means is when she gets healthy she can leave the hospital we need prayer for her blood pressure to drop and pass gas still. Once she is home for a few days we will start chemo and radiation for 6 weeks to shrink the tumor then go back for surgery. If all goes well once she recovers we will have 20 more weeks of chemo and maybe a little more radiation. The road is long but I never thought I would be relieved to have my daughter go thru 28 weeks of chemo but my mind has been I wasn’t sure she would make it which has been so brutal. My heart has been so heavy for her that words fail to compare to my pain. The battle is not over but we feel we have a great chance!
— Brian Hommel

June 17th 

We are asking for a few specific prayers today: the biopsy report comes back today and there are 2 stages of type 3 Wilms tumor one that responds favorably to chemo and one that doesn’t not and the second prayer is that Ellie can pass gas today. We walked a bit yesterday and she has gone potty 5 times and there is no blood in the urine which is a great sign. Thanks.
— Brian Hommel

June 16th

With great pain I write this morning last nights surgery didn’t go like we had hoped. Ellie’s tumor had spread and it was too big to remove. They are taking a biopsy of it and coming up with the right type of chemo to attack it. 4 weeks of treatment in hopes to shrink it and take it out in the 5th week. We r in a lot of pain but are hope is Jesus and our prayer is that He would deliver her from this. Ellie is the most stubborn person I have ever met and for the first time I am so thankful for that part of her. Thanks.
— Brian Hommel

June 14th

Could use prayer for my girl Ellie Grace tomorrow. She has a tumor on her left kidney surgery is at 1pm pct they will remove the kidney and place a port in her chest and chemo will follow pray that won’t be need!
— Brian Hommel

"This is not the worst thing to ever happen! Cancer is so limited. It cannot cripple love, shatter hope, corrode faith, eat away peace, destroy confidence, kill friendship, shutout memories, silence courage, quench the Spirit or lessen the power of Jesus."