Hello all, I am writing this to inform everyone of what has been going on. Please read and be uplifted and join with me in thanking God for His Blessings. Yes it is a long read, but well worth it. I�m sending this to both Ranger net and Prayer net. If you get it twice, Please disregard one of them. To start, Last July my father in Law took a turn for the worst with his heart. He wound up at JPS Hospital in Fort Worth. They told us that he needed to go to Galveston to have open heart surgery. He wasn�t sent and having no insurance only made things worse. It got to the point that he was having at least 5 heart attacks a day and we were watching him slip farther away. God intervened and he was abruptly sent to Galveston. He had 2 open heart surgeries in one day. The later to save his life. Recovery was slow and he wound up back at JPS. An external pace maker was installed on a Friday in November and on Saturday morning he had a stoke. That evening he had a brain aneurysm and lost control of his right side. After being stabilized (several weeks), he was sent to a rehabilitation home. There were signs of improvement and then slipping back. He developed an immunity to the strongest antibiotic and thus received blood poisoning. We thought that he wouldn�t make it to Christmas. Darlene was torn apart, after all that God has done for him to bring him back time and time again to finally have it come to this was very hard to bear. I reminded her of the spiritual awakening in one of her two brothers. We have been praying for them ever since I met her 18 years ago. Finally we could see God beginning to work in his life. There was some peace from this knowledge. Also during December, my brother was rushed to the hospital. He had double pneumonia and we were told that each lung was 50% filled with fluid. The outlook was not good. During all of this, our van gave up it�s life and we were left with my �66 pickup (we have four kids, not easy). Just before Christmas, Dad (father in law) overcame his blood infection. He made enough improvement that the above mentioned brother in law and I took him to his home on the 26th for an hour visit. He became too tired and we returned him to the Rehab. home. After we got him back in his bed, he was asking when I would take him to my home to take care of him. I am the only one in the family strong enough to handle him. It was hard to tell him I couldn�t take off of work to do that. Now back to my brother. He is now out of the hospital and at home. He�s still on Oxygen but is much better. One and a half weeks ago, a family donated a van to the church, the board voted and donated this �89 Ford van to Darlene and I. It isn�t perfect but is MUCH MORE than I could have hoped to get. GOD IS SO GOOD! I�m having trouble seeing the monitor for the tears of joy in my eyes. Darlene and I take two kids from next door to Church with us, very hard in the pickup. We needed a vehicle that could seat 8 people, obviously a car would not do. Guess how many the van will seat. You�ve got it right, exactly eight. Darlene visited her dad last week and found him sitting on a reclining chair without assistance. THAT IS SUCH WONDERFUL NEWS. He also talked with my mother in law on the phone this weekend. And finally today, GOD SAVED MY LIFE AGAIN. I was at work and was called to the back to repair a chemical pump. A small boiler for the line was being removed from the wall and I moved while they took it down. There was a problem with lifting it off of the holding brackets about 18 foot off the ground. Suddenly the tank broke free and everything leaped upwards. The extensions required for the forklift (about 12� Extensions) jumped up about 1 foot and the tank about another foot. The tank came crashing down to the right and landed exactly where I had just been standing moments earlier. It came through the emergency eye wash and shower station, through a 2" water main, and a 1" water manifold and hit the chemical pump bracket I was working on. The back end hit the top of a hoist boom and rotated outward from the wall. It landed on top of a concrete retaining wall (about 1.5� tall) and broke out a triangle of concrete about 1� x 8" x 1.5" thick. It also missed a 2" gas main by about 3�. If it would have gone to the left instead of the right, it would have landed on top of two test boilers for R & D. Both boilers were at full pressure and full burn - each with a 2" gas main. During all of this, NO ONE WAS INJURED AT ALL!!!! Once again GOD IS SO GOOD!! He answers prayer and meets needs that we don�t even know about and above all else, HE ALWAYS PROTECTS US FROM HARM. All I can say is "TO GOD BE THE GLORY, GREAT THINGS HE HAS DONE." God bless you all, Commander Kerry Mangum Fort Worth, TX _______ To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe rangernet" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit http://rangernet.org/subscribe.htm http://rangernet.org Autoresponder: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
