This year, Ambassador Bible College experienced COVID-19. As coordinator of the program, I helped form protocols intended to prevent students from spreading the disease in the classroom and the home office. These included daily temperature checks, wearing masks and distancing in the classroom—measures that have become all too familiar these days. They worked, too—at least, for several months. 

It was not until late in the second week of December that one of the young men in the class messaged me that he was sick and had begun isolating himself. He logged on to a video feed for class the next day. So far, so good. We followed procedures and we hoped that even if he did test positive for COVID-19, it had not spread to others in the class.

Actually, that was true to some extent. The sick fellow lived in the home of a family in the Cincinnati East congregation, along with two other students, and neither of those students or anyone in the family contracted the virus. However, others in the class did.

On Sunday, one of the young ladies in the class informed me that she had developed symptoms. She and her roommates began isolating. By the next day, two others started feeling sick, and stayed home. We had planned in advance to use Zoom for students to be able to see and hear classes if they could not attend in person—although doing so was never intended to be a long-term practice. 

Our experience finishing the 2020 academic year in the spring convinced students and faculty that ABC is not effective as an online program. Our current students agree whole-heartedly. We conducted the final six days of class before winter break completely online. Fortunately, those days, coupled with the break itself, provided sufficient time for sick students to recover and for others to complete quarantine and return to class in January.

When things settled, 10 students—half the class—had gotten positive COVID-19 tests. Two others were certain they had the virus, judging by their symptoms and exposure, but they were not tested. Michael Fike, who has been assisting Cincinnati pastor Steve Myers and attending many of the ABC classes, also contracted the virus. None of the other eight students became sick, but six of them certainly had close exposure and may have been sick but asymptomatic, as one of those who tested positive had been. Thus, of 20 students, only two have a fair confidence of never having contracted COVID-19. All the others recovered completely. We still follow the protocols to prevent spread of the disease, but we are much less apprehensive of any danger than at the start of the school year.

Having described our experience, please let me note an important lesson that has become clear to me. Different people have experienced this disease in very different ways. At least one of our students was completely asymptomatic. She was completely surprised at testing positive because she had no signs of being sick. Most who got sick only had a sore throat, congestion and slight fever for two or three days. However, Mr. Fike had considerably worse symptoms for several days. A woman in the class who was a few months shy of 60 years old had flu-like symptoms for more than a week and lost her senses of taste and smell. At the same time, a man in the class who is a few years older than her experienced only very mild symptoms for a couple of days.

What I saw among the students might have led me to believe that COVID-19 is not a very serious disease, and that governments and health agencies have overreacted to it. However, that was not the end of my experience. At the same time the ABC student body was dealing with the virus, my wife learned that her parents, who are both more than 80 years old, had been exposed to it. They subsequently became sick and were isolated in their home. Their children brought them food and medicine that they left on the doorstep without close interaction. Through phone calls several times a day, we waited anxiously as our sick parents suffered and struggled to recover. My father-in-law did recover, but my mother-in-law grew worse. She was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Fortunately, she is back home now. She did not succumb to COVID-19, but she still needs oxygen and is fairly weak. Her doctor says it may take several months before she feels back to normal. This experience shows me that there have been valid reasons for many of the restrictions imposed on the population attempting to control the spread of the virus—but that does not tell the complete story.

My experience of COVID-19 matches what data about it shows: a large majority of people who contract the virus experience relatively mild symptoms and recover. However, for some, especially those who are older or have health conditions, the disease can be dangerous and even fatal. If I only experienced one end or the other of this spectrum, I would be tempted to expect everyone to view the disease as I did. That also seems to match what is happening around us. Some people are convinced that COVID-19 is not serious and that the restrictions are an overreaction at best—a nefarious conspiracy at worst. On the other hand, other people see catching the virus as a death sentence and are amazed at how many people do not share their alarm.

Proverbs 18:17 says that the first to plead his cause seems right—until his neighbor comes and examines him. That may describe well how people have shaped their ideas of COVID-19. What they’ve seen or experienced first often sets their beliefs, and they can be difficult to change. I don’t write this to accuse or correct anyone; just to confess that I was forced to accept that people with widely differing attitudes toward the virus may all be correct, at least to some extent. This has shown me the need for greater patience and understanding. The virus is an enemy; a person with different views than me is not. 

The happiest thing to report in this is that ABC continues to operate. We considered carefully whether or not to commence in-person classes in late August, and it seems that God has blessed our decision. He has made up for our mistakes and sustained us through challenges. We pray that this will continue for years to come.