Strategies for overcoming COVID-19, from the Henrico Ministers' Conference

(Sponsored content) – The Henrico Ministers' Conference hosted a panel on March 22 titled "How I Overcame COVID-19: Real Issues, Right Now Strategies," during which panelists described how faith brought them through the worst parts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moderated by the Rev. Zynora D. Manson, president of the HMC, panelists were asked a series of questions about contracting the virus, handling the symptoms, caring for loved ones and surviving isolation. The panel included Rev. Marcus Martin, New Bridge Baptist Church; Rev. Barbara Allen, Body of Christ Church; Executive Pastor Angela Bartlett; Special Guest Rev. Dr. Milton A. Hathaway, New Covenant Community Church; Rev. Dr. Emanuel Harris, Jerusalem Baptist Church; Executive Pastor Angela Bartlett, New Covenant Community Church; Deb. Zimmerman, R.N.; and Stephanie Flowers from the VDH.

Many of the panelists in attendance had been exposed to the virus at some point. For Hathaway, founder and lead pastor of New Covenant Community Church, having COVID-19 proved to be harder than he initially thought.

"My first thought was not so much dying—I think I've come to grips with the fact that we're all going to die—but reality for me was making sure that our ministry was secure," Hathaway said. "I felt comfortable about that, and that the things God had begun with me would not stop because of my absence."

After being diagnosed with COVID-19, Hathaway shared that he was handling it well at first.

"I was taking walks every day, I was doing the vitamins and all of the quarantine, and then all of a sudden, I started having chills and getting extremely tired," he said. "I had to understand that, for one of the first times in my life, I was dealing with something I could not handle by myself. I’ve always had a backup plan, and sometimes a backup plan to that —I'm a military man with over 30 years in the military, very strategic—but this was one of those moments where I simply had to put it in God's hands and trust the process."

For others, the pain caused by the virus stirred the most concern.

"What COVID does is that it reacts on the weakest part of your body, and I have nerve damage," Rev. Barbara Allen, founder of the Body of Christ Church in Henrico, said. "That COVID caught hold of that nerve damage, and it made the nerves hurt more than what they normally would."

When asked how she got through it, she said she asked God for help when she was at her worst.

"Believe it or not, he is that kind of God," Allen said. "I'm a living witness, and if he says sit up, you will sit up, even if I hadn't sat up for a long time."

Deb Zimmermann, a nurse that's worked with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia Department of Health throughout her 40-year career, reminded the panel that much of what's known about the virus is still a work-in-progress.

"What's interesting with this disease is that we're learning more and more. Remember, a year ago, we didn't even know anything about this disease," Zimmermann said. "What we've discovered over the past year, is that those who have underlying conditions, particularly, respiratory, cardiac and neurological diseases, this disease will impact those abnormalities more so and affect those individuals."

That's why it's so important for seniors and those with other co-morbidity conditions or health issues to get vaccinated, but it really is an unusual disease."

Many panelists in the conference had already been vaccinated, and they agreed that others should do the same.

"I want everyone to remember that the purpose of me coming on tonight was to encourage everyone—every listener and every panelist—who hasn't had the shot to get the vaccine," said Stephanie Flowers, a community health worker with the VDH. "Because you are protecting yourself from those who are asymptomatic, who are walking around you every day, and don't know they're infected."

The HMC streamed the discussion on its Facebook page. The video can be found on YouTube by searching for the Henrico Ministers’ Conference or at https://www.facebook.com/655570000/videos/10165596804165001/.