On March 7th there was only one official, confirmed case of the COVID-19 pandemic in Oklahoma, and less than 1,000 cases in the country. The virus that has now infected over 1.5 million Americans was still just a distant rumor for most Oklahomans, and the nationwide shutdown of restaurants, stores, schools, churches, and parks was something few saw coming.

That was the day Stephanie Schrepel began to get a sore throat. She had recently returned to Sand Springs from a family trip to Disney World, with layovers in Atlanta and Houston, making it hard to say where exactly she was exposed. Fortunately, she was the only member of her family to contract the virus, and her husband, Jim, left on another trip before she could potentially infect him.

“Jim was scheduled to fly out to California to help take care of my parents,” says Stephanie. Her mom had recently undergone surgery, and Jim volunteered to help take care of his in-laws while Stephanie’s sister was on vacation.

While Jim was spending over a week and a half in California, his wife was back home, going about her usual business with nothing more than a scratchy throat and some mild exhaustion, which she assumed were caused by allergies and jetlag. She attended her Monday night Bible study at her son’s house, but midway through the meeting, she began to feel feverish and left.

“I get home and I take my temperature and it’s 100.5. Overnight I started getting worse, and the next morning I emailed my primary care physician.” Her doctor called on Wednesday and told her to go to the health department for testing, but the health department didn’t have any tests either.

At the time Stephanie was beginning to become symptomatic, the entire nation was facing a shortage of COVID tests, and they were reserved for people who had traveled overseas, or who had been in recent contact with an international traveler.

By Thursday Stephanie had alerted her pastor that she was sick and had been in physical contact with fellow church members through her Monday night Bible Study group. The church board made the decision to cancel services at Reach Church the following Sunday, weeks before the statewide shutdown was mandated by the Governor.

Finally, four days after the onset of her fever, she was finally approved by the state epidemiologist for a test. “I was literally the poster child for what could go wrong with testing. I went to a drive-through at OSU, they did the test, it went to Saint Francis, and it sat over the weekend and wasn’t prepped the way it should have been.”

After the test was improperly processed, the specimen was no longer valid and Stephanie had to be retested a full week after first becoming feverish. It was another ten days before the results came back and confirmed she had the virus.

On March 7th, when Stephanie began to feel symptomatic, there were 946 cases in the country. By the 28th, when she was officially diagnosed, there were 14,855 in the country and 377 in Oklahoma.

The 28th was also the first day Stephanie was fever-free. By that time, Jim had returned from California, and he was put up in the Hampton Inn for eight days to avoid being exposed. They celebrated their 41st anniversary with her inside and him on the porch.

The fever was one thing, but Stephanie also suffered a sinus infection and pneumonia as a result of the virus. She never got sick enough to require a ventilator, and because of her medical background she was able to check her oxygen levels and heart rate at home.

Stephanie is the Director of Respiratory Therapy at Cleveland Area Hospital, where she is now helping her fellow COVID survivors to regain proper lung function. Stephanie herself is still struggling with shortness of breath from walking more than short distances. “We’ve had patients who have been in a hospital bed anywhere from two to three weeks. We get them to a place where they can go home and function independently.”

“I was probably one of the few that should’ve gone to the hospital that didn’t. I just feel like God protected me. Some of it was not my own common sense. I probably should’ve gone ahead and called an ambulance, but in my mind I was thinking ‘I’d have to turn off the alarm, I’d have to go open the front door,’ and I was having a hard time just walking ten feet to the bathroom.”

The Schrepels will have an opportunity to thank God for that protection this Friday at 7:00 p.m. when they host the fourth annual Unity Praise event at Case Community Park. Together, the couple runs In Jesus Name Ministries International, which puts together the non-denominational worship gathering every year.

The event will feature live music from Roger Rister, Darin Shipley, and Eddie Preas, with preaching from Jim Schrepel and Negiel Bigpond. “Whether you’re Charismatic, Free Will Baptist, Church of Christ, the main focus is that we need Jesus,” says Stephanie.

The event will be held on the two-acre Great Lawn at Case Park, which should provide plenty of room for attendees to social distance and maintain their safety while celebrating the aspects of their faith that transcend denominational differences.

Case Community Park is located at 2500 South River City Park Road in Sand Springs.