Here is an article that was written in today’s Brantford Expositor on what happened last year when Ken was hurt during the disassembling of the Singing Christmas Tree last year.

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Ken Ricketts says he is still here because of a miracle.

The 44-year-old Brantford man was injured by an electric shock in a mishap at Evangel Pentecostal Church last Jan. 3 while helping to dismantle the church’s annual singing Christmas tree display.

Ricketts had no discernible heart beat for about 40 minutes while fellow parishioners, including a firefighter and a nurse, and then paramedics, toiled to bring him back from the brink, administering CPR and four shocks from a defibrillator.

Ricketts has no memory of the event but was later told that emergency workers were ready to give up. It seemed hopeless.
A friend started to pray. And then a couple more joined in. All of a sudden, a gash on Ricketts’s head started bleeding profusely. His heart was again pumping.

Ricketts was rushed to hospital and, after 10 days in a drug-induced coma, he pulled through. Nearly a year later, he is back to work as an electrician, with no lingering physical problems, he said Friday.

“People tell me I’m lucky,” Ricketts said. “I don’t think it was luck. It was God. It was a miracle.”

Ricketts’s story will be incorporated into this year’s singing Christmas tree presentations at Evangel Church via a video with clips of Ricketts and some of the people who helped during last year’s emergency.

The Christmas tree is a 30-foot artificial tree assembled like a jigsaw puzzle with runners and bases and six different floor levels. When assembled, the tree boasts thousands of lights, said Pastor Scott Bacon.

Choir members stand amid the artificial bows during the performance, creating the effect of a singing Christmas tree.

Presentation nights will be Dec. 11-13 and 18-20 at 7 p.m. Admission is by freewill offering.

Bacon said he expects between 2,500 and 3,000 people will take in the presentation over the next two weekends.

The theme of this year’s presentation is “God with us,” and concerns finding faith during difficult times of personal loss, Bacon said.

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At a Glance

WHAT: Singing Christmas tree presentation at Evangel Pentecostal Church, 30 Fairview Dr.

WHEN: Dec. 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, and 20 at 7 p.m.

COST: Admission by free-will offering.