Having Faith To Help Those Impacted By COVID-19
People gather outside of Crystal Heights Care Center on Tuesday night to pray for the residents and staff there.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Crystal Heights Care Center sent out their latest numbers of individuals impacted by the COVID-19 virus on Wednesday morning.
The facility reported that they have 16 employees with the virus, with 1 employee that has recovered. The facility also reports that 49 residents have tested positive for COVID-19.
The facility also reports that 9 residents have passed away from COVID-19.
On Tuesday night, over 30 individuals that wanted to share the power of prayer encircled Crystal Heights Care Center and spent considerable time praying for the people inside the facility and its employees and the community.
Katie Beerbower felt lead to hold the prayer vigil, and before long others asked to join in.
There were originally 30 informational packets for those wishing to participate, and those were quickly gone, and many people then shared the packet with others.
As the group began to organize to pray, a rainbow took shape over Oskaloosa.
Beerbower took the rainbow as a sign from her grandma. “God is totally here tonight. The Holy Spirit is absolutely going to be present.”
Beerbower works at a local pharmacy and helps to set up the medications the residents need with staff at the facilities. “I just know how broken-hearted they are. They are struggling with everything that’s going on, and there’s nothing I can do physically to help them.”
“We’ve been praying every day,” adds Beerbower.
Remembering an organized prayer at the schools during the beginning of the school year, she wondered, “Why can’t we do that at Crystal Heights.”
Beerbower prayed for several days. “That was what I felt, that we should do that. You know there’s power in prayer, and there’s power in numbers and so the more people that we could have come out and pray, the better the outcome.”
A message went out to a large group of friends to say, come out and meet me. Then another suggested making the post public on Facebook. Beerbower was cautious about that, because of the potential of negative comments. “I didn’t want to deal with anybody’s negative comments.”
“I deal with them every day,” adds Beerbower of working with the staff from Crystal Heights. “So I’ve talked with them numerous times, to these people I consider friends, who are in tears because they feel helpless and they’re doing everything they can, and it’s not enough, and they’re giving 150% right now. They feel like it’s not enough. They want to do more, and they don’t know what else can be done because they’re giving everything they have.”
So people came out to the grounds of Crystal Heights Care Center, knowing that they wouldn’t be able to go in and help and pray individually, people like Beerbower said, “this is the one thing that we can do.”
“We’ve been praying from home, but it makes sense to come out and pray around the building,” Beerbower added.
Two nurses from the facility who were off shift came back and sat in their cars. “They just sat there and just cried, and they just kept saying thank you so much.”
In Mahaska County, the state website says that 89 individuals have tested positive as of Wednesday, while 619 tested negative for COVID-19.
Of those 89 who tested positive, 10 have passed away, while 20 have recovered.
Mahaska County is part of RMCC Region 1, which currently has 151 hospitalized patients compared to 161 patients yesterday.
There are 28 patients in ICU, compared to 29 yesterday. During the past 24 hours, 5 COVID-19 patients have been admitted to the hospital, compared to 13 the day before.
You can learn more at Mahaska Emergency Management website site https://mahaskaready.com/covid-19-info and the State of Iowa website at coronavirus.iowa.gov.
