Pandemic and loss unite 2 rural pastors around faith
NOkL, MO. >> Thirty miles of rural Missouri separate the two churches, and so much else. One is mostly white; the other hosts services in five languages for a flock that spans the world.
Still, every Tuesday the pastors meet midway between their houses of worship, seeking each other’s counsel, sharing their joys — and, more often, their burdens. Because in these pandemic-wracked days, they are sometimes overwhelmed by the crucible of ministering.
“Whether it be the death of a member, whether it be somebody upset, whether it be losing funding, whether it be just all sorts of different things, or maybe just our own depression, just dealing with being locked up at home,” said pastor Mike Leake at Calvary of Neosho, a Southern Baptist church.
One church was staggered by COVID-19 early on. The other has not had as many infections but has seen congregational life turned upside down.
The ministers struggle. Pastor Joshua Manning of the Community Baptist Church in Noel was sickened, himself.
And still, they persevere. While they both want to keep parishioners safe, they are determined to carry on with in-person services as long as members of their congregations are eager to attend.
“Our mission to profess the Gospel doesn’t end because the coronavirus is here,” Manning said. “And so, we have to still function. We still have to preach. We still have to meet together.”
At the end of a recent Sunday, 11 people were immersed in a turquoise baptismal pool behind the altar of Community Baptist, thousands of miles from the islands in the Pacific Ocean where they were born.
This was the last of five
services for five international congregations — in all, about 200 people — who worship at the church in Noel. The town of 1,800 in the far southwest corner of Missouri has a large immigrant population, including Pacific Islanders, Mexicans, Sudanese and refugees from Myanmar.
Most arrived here drawn by the opportunity of a job at the local Tyson Foods chicken processing plant. Many were infected with COV ID - 19 dur ing the summer when McDonald County, where Noel is located, became a hot spot of the pandemic.
Few places were hit as hard by the virus this summer. Though it has just 23,000 residents, in late June only four other Missouri counties and the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City had recorded more cases. So far, there have been 1,715 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 24 deaths in McDonald County, according to figures released Dec. 7 by the county’s health department.
At the start of June, McDonald County, had fewer than two dozen confirmed cases. By June 23, 498 cases
had been confirmed. Three days later, Tyson Foods announced that 371 employees at its chicken processing plant in Noel had tested positive for COVID-19. Tyson said it is implementing a new COVID monitoring strategy, but did not provide an update on confirmed cases up to December despite multiple requests.
“Just pretty close to overnight, most of our church body and the town largely
had it,” Manning said.
At the onset of the pandemic, Manning closed the church for two months to follow safety guidelines. When he reopened it in June, he contracted the virus and was forced to shut it down again for a month.
His wife, Lauren, and three children also were sickened, as was Lauren’s grandfather, who died in October. And the church’s