Dear Loving EChurch Family,

I have so much to tell you that I don't know where to start. This is a bit
long, so get something to drink and sit down.

First of all, I'll tell you that God has blessed us emencelly.

Not only has He blessed us, but He has made us stronger, as well.

We survived the F4 tornado on June 24th of this year, in the bath tub, me
on the bottom, and VErnon on top. We did not have time to make it down into
the crawl space, as it was right across the highway when I heard it and
felt the pressure drop in my ears. After the tornado was over, VErnon got
out of the tub and helpped me out of the tub. He then told me: "We got to
get out of here, there's gass." He couldn't find his shoes, so he put on
his slippers and walked through all the glass and debree and mud and stuff,
and walked outside to try and shut off the gass valves. They were broke. He
came back in the house, and I was finding my way with my cane and my purse
and he met me in the entry and helpped me out the door. We got as far away
from the house, as possible, as all the gass tanks in town were putting out
gass. One could really smell and hear those gass tanks. It was almost worse
than the tornado. I was scared. We were concerned with all the cars driving
in town that a spark would cause the gass to ignite and we would have all
gone up in flames. It was not a pretty sight. God was with us all. Someone
came over to us and asked us if we were alright. I said blank no! They
asked us if we were injured, and we said no. They explained that they had
to find the injured people first. We understood, but nevertheless, I was
scared. I sent Vernon back into the house for a cell phone. He found his
cell phone, and grabbed several things of mine and brought out to me. I
thought that was sweet. One of them was my very expensive Plextor Daisy CD
Recorder I had bought after arriving back from Portland, my tape recorder,
and some CD's. He called Dean and told them what happened, and asked them
to come up and get us. They came up, and they couldn't believe it. Betty
grabbed me and squeezed me, and we both cried. After a while, we were on
their way to their house, when we were struck witha super heavy hail storm.
It was horrible. I was just sure every window in Dean's truck was going to
be broke, but nothing was broke, and no dents in the truck. The hail was
bad, too. We made it to De Smet, and that loving little dog Mitsi didn't
know what was going on. Again, God was with us.


The next day, We endured the stress of seeing what our house was like after
it all. The news media wouldn't leave us alone. They were relentless. I
finally talked to KELO Land TV station, so they would leave Vernon and Dean
alone to work. We learned who our friends were, even though the county and
state were very rude to them, and wouldn't let them in Manchester to help
us the next few days. When we found out this, to be honest, we were very
upset. The county and state didn't help us at all. They just bulldosed what
they wanted to, and the county commissioner got his stuff all cleaned up.
No one was given time to go through anything, or pick. We did find out who
our friends, are exactly who we thought they were. We learned that this
loving EChurch family was more support to us than we ever expected. The
emotional support and prayers from you all have been tremendously
wonderful. We thankyou from the bottom of our hearts.

Three days after the Tornado, The Lord found us a nice house that needed a
lot of work on the outside, and some work on the inside, but He has given
VErnon the strength and wisdom to do that work. We couldn't have done this
without the help of his brothers, Dean, and Lyle, for whom we are very
grateful to.

God took Vernon's Dad away from us, on the evening of July 28th, which was
the day that we became owners of this house in De Smet, South Dakota. It
was unthinkable what our doctor did to Vernon's Dad. He preferated his
colon, and didn't tell the family about it until they got back to the
hospital from lunch, and found Dad in intensive care. Then Doctor Wiedel
had to admit that he preferated his colon. It was too late. Dad looked like
he was going to have trippletts. We waited for him to have surgery, but
found out much later that Doctor Sy was in surgery with someone else. It
was horrible that night when he got out of surgery. They had flown in blood
platelets from Mitchell to try and save him. Doctor Sy who did the surgery,
felt so bad, he was so kind and loving when he told us that Dad would not
make it through the night. Dad passed away at 11:20 that night, as they had
taken the equipment off him at 11:15 that evening. I was holding on to
Dad's hand when he died. Doctor Sy stayed with us and comforted us, until
we left the hospital that night at 12:30. God will deal with Doctor Wiedel
when time comes for judgement day.


Again, we endured another stressfull event, when at the two buildings we
have left in Manchester were robbed and vandelized on September 21st of
this year. Many things were stolen and other things were just thrown
through the buildings. God was telling us something.

I cried many tears through all of this, and I prayed, and I talked with
some of you on the phone, and you were very loving and sweet. I felt all
your love and prayers through all this time. Vernon took this all very
hard, as well, but he did not show his emotions. He often got mad at me,
but we delt with it. Of course, he never got physical in any way, just when
i went to squeeze him when he needed those lovings and squeezings. I got
many lovings and squeezings back. <smile>

We have been so very grateful for all of the help from all our relatives
and friends, and the Mennonights, and for the gifts and donations we
received from family, friends, and Churches.

Through all of this decitions have been very hard to make, and I don't know
if VErnon knows how much I've prayed to God asking Him for the right
decitions for us to make. Vernon and I talked with Dean and Betty and Lyle
after the robbery, and we all felt, what I had been praying about, that we
should sell everything in Manchester, and sell the property as well. We new
we would take a loss as for all the lawn and garden parts he has there, is
worth much more than he'll ever get out of it. I continued to pray that God
would send the right person to us to buy the property. Vernon and I talked
about it a lot. I told him how much I was praying. He felt that was good.

Over a week ago, Rex Guyer saw VErnon in the alley working on the rooff of
our house, and stopped to talk to him. He told Vernon that he and his wife,
Lynette Guyer were interested in buying the Manchester property. Rex said
they would talk about it, and get back to us.

Just so you know, Rex and Lynettte Guyer were one of the couples expecting
twins that lost their house which they were renting, in the tornado in
Manchester.

Last Friday, at around 5:30 PM, Vernon came into the house and said to me:
"You just sold your property in Manchester." I was upstairs making beds,
and I was super glad. We were getting ready for company for supper that
evening. When she got here for supper, we told her, and we had something to
celebrate.

On Monday afternoon, Rex called to tell us that we would be meeting with
the lawyer on Tuesday at 1:30 PM. We did just that, and it went excellent.

We didn't ask a lot for the property and the two buildings left on it, but
we are free from that expense now, and we'll hopefully have an auction sale
in a few weeks, and sell everything up there that needs to be sold. We have
60 days to get everything off the property, but it is their's now.

Please join me in Praising God for everything He has blessed us with, and
please continue to pray that this all goes well, and that the meeting with
the auctioneer goes well tomorrow, and that we can have this sale soon, and
get it done with.

Please also pray that Vernon and I could eventually get out of debt, as
this has not happened yet at all, as we've been spending all our money on
fixing up this house and replacing things that were lost or damaged in the
tornado. The insurance company has been a bit slow, at paying us for the
items we've submitted for replacement or repair, but we did not have
replacement at full value, so they only replace a very small percentage of
things at today's prices.

Please watch for us in December on the Weather Chanel on Storm Stories. We
were interviewed and filmed in September. I will keep you all informed, as
to when the film will be shown.

We want to thank you all so very much for your love and prayers.

God Bless you all.

Love you all,
Pat Ferguson