Sand Springs minister dies from COVID-19 complications

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Jim Schrepel, right, died from complications due to COVID-19 on Tuesday.

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed its fourth victim in the town of Sand Springs. Jim Schrepel, 74, passed away Tuesday after a month-long battle with complications arising from the virus. Schrepel was the co-founder of In Jesus Name Ministries International which hosted the annual Unity Praise gathering in Sand Springs.

Less than five months earlier, Schrepel’s wife, Stephanie, contracted the virus and was one of the first cases in Oklahoma. SEE RELATED: Surviving COVID-19 in Sand Springs.

Jim Schrepel was diagnosed and hospitalized with the virus and bilateral pneumonia in early July. He was able to return home early on, but required oxygen. Eventually his symptoms worsened to the point that he had to be admitted to the COVID intensive care unit.

Although he was virus-free by the 29th, the disease and the pneumonia had already caused severe damage to his body and he suffered a small stroke on the 30th. He passed away Tuesday surrounded by his wife and children.

Schrepel’s funeral will be held Saturday, August 8th at 10:00 a.m. The service will be held outside at Reach Church at 1402 North 81st West Avenue. Face masks will be required. The church has launched an online donation link to assist the family.

The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported 1,101 new cases Wednesday with 645 hospitalizations and 6,598 active cases statewide. There have been 17 additional deaths, bringing the statewide death toll to 583.

  • Two in Caddo County, one female and one male in the 65 or older age group. 

  • Two in Cleveland County, one male in the 50 - 64 age group and one male in the 65 or older age group.

  • One in Grady County, one female in the 65 or older age group. 

  • One in Kay County, one male in the 65 or older age group. 

  • Two in McCurtain County, two females in the 65 or older age group. 

  • One in Payne County, one female in the 65 or older age group. 

  • Six in Oklahoma County, one male in the 50 - 64 age group. Three females and two males in the 65 or older age group.  

  • Two in Tulsa County, two females in the 65 or older age group. 

Sand Springs reported 12 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the number of active cases to a record-high 46. The city of Tulsa has 953 active cases and Tulsa County has 1,414.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are reporting 4,748,806 cases nationwide with 156,311 deaths. There have been 49,988 cases and 1,107 deaths in the past day. Oklahoma ranks 32nd in total cases (33rd per capita) but is 19th in new cases in the past week (13th per capita). The state is 34th in total deaths (39th per capita) and 23rd in deaths in the past week.

The World Health Organization is reporting 18,354,342 cases worldwide with 696,147 deaths. There have been 206,709 new cases and 5,116 deaths in the past day. The United States continue to lead the world in total cases, followed by Brazil with 2,750,318 and India with 1,908,254.

Surviving COVID-19 in Sand Springs

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Stephanie and Jim Schrepel.

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.

The inaugural Unity Praise event was held in 2017 at CPHS Memorial Stadium.

"Fire on the River" Praise & Worship event set for May 10th in Sand Springs

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In Jesus Name Ministries will be holding its Third Annual Unity Praise event Friday, May 10th in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, and this year it will be at a new venue. Previously held at the Charles Page High School Veterans Memorial Stadium, the nondenominational praise and worship concert will move to the Case Community Park amphitheater.

Unity Praise
7:00 p.m.
May 10th, 2019
Case Community Park
2500 S River City Park Rd
Sand Springs, OK 74063

Unity Praise was founded in 2017 by Jim and Stephanie Schrepel who felt God calling them to help unify the body of Christ in Sand Springs. "God is going to build up Sand Springs to be a spiritual hub in America,” prophesied Jim in 2017.

The concert will begin at 7:00 p.m. Friday night on the Great Lawn, and will run as late as people are wanting to stay. The theme for the 2019 Unity Praise is “Fire on the River.”

“We were inspired to do Fire on the River because of a prophetic word that Chuck Pierce gave at CityPlex Towers back in August,” said Jim Schrepel. “There’s going to be a healing move of the Spirit and it’s going to follow the Arkansas River.”

The Schrepels want to see Sand Springs churches come together as a single body, regardless of denominational differences, to praise God and seek his presence in the community. The seeds of that unity have long been planted and growing for some time now.

Several local pastors gather at monthly Ministerial Alliance meetings which include Catholic, Charismatic, Pentecostal, Baptist churches and more. The Alliance hosts several local events annually and makes substantial donations towards Sand Springs Emergency Responder Christmas bonuses.

But the Ministerial Alliance only represents a handful of churches in a community with dozens of congregations and thousands of Christian believers. The Schrepels want to see all of them come together.

The Shipley family, from Sand Springs, will be performing at the event along with musicians from several local churches. Darin Shipley, a Tulsa Police Officer, is a recording artist with albums and a traveling ministry. His brother Carey plays drums, and his daughters and wife, Pam, are all talented vocalists.

The worship team from The Stronghold church is expected to play, as will a few other groups. In addition to worship music, the event will also have a time of ministry for women since it is taking place on Mother’s Day weekend.

CPHS Memorial Stadium to host non-denominational praise and worship night

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Unity Praise
7:00 p.m. 
April 7, 2017
Memorial Stadium
500 N. Adams Road
Sand Springs, OK 74063

Donations to the event can be addressed to:
In Jesus Name Ministries
P.O. Box 1616
Sand Springs, OK 74063

Click HERE to donate online
Visit In Jesus Name Ministries on Facebook.

By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

It has been thirty years since Jim and Stephanie Schrepel first felt God calling them to start a ministry. But the timing never seemed right until now. Jim turned 71 years of age last week and the couple celebrated their 38th anniversary, but he is more energized than ever before when it comes to following God's call on his life.

You could compare the couple to Abram and Sarai, and fittingly enough, Stephanie's maiden name is Abram. Jim personally identifies more with Noah. He feels God calling him to do something that has never been done before, and like Noah, he has had to endure some skepticism from people who don't share his vision.

The vision came to Jim during an intercessory prayer session. "I saw myself standing at the old Forward Youth Building, looking down in to the Charles Page High School stadium, full of people praising the Lord." He knew that God was calling him to make it happen.

Thus began the difficult but rewarding journey to launch the first and possibly annual Unity Praise event. "It's a time to bring the body of Christ together, without worry of denomination," says Schrepel. "No denomination has the corner on praise. Praise is universal. God is trying to put this together, showing that denominations can come together and work together."

A lifetime in the Sand Springs community has given Schrepel plenty of connections. He has attended church with House Representative Jadine Nollan and City Councilman Phil Nollan in the past. Jadine introduced him to City Manager Elizabeth Gray. "Mayor (Mike) Burdge and I have known each other for decades," says Schrepel. "The City has just embraced this. Everyone I've crossed paths with has been there to meet a need."

Word of Life church recently moved Forward Youth Ministries to their main campus and sold the old building to The Stronghold church, formerly known as The Church at Moriah. Stronghold pastor Brent Thurber has caught on to Schrepel's vision and will be one of the speakers at Unity Praise.

Also speaking at the event will be former Word of Life Children's Pastor Smiley Elmore, Jr. Elmore played running-back for the University of Missouri from 1987-1989, participated on the TV show American Gladiator, and is an active bodybuilder, speaker, and physical fitness coach. 

There will be multiple worship teams and speakers from area churches working together to put on the event. "God has just opened doors and given us favor. Every day people are getting on board with it."

Securing a venue, sound equipment, advertising, and insurance can get expensive, but Schrepel isn't sweating it. "It has just totally blown us away how the money has come in. It's come from the individuals--not just businesses and churches. They're catching the Unity Praise vision and wanting to see change in Sand Springs."

"God's going to build up Sand Springs to be a spiritual hub in America," says Schrepel. "I asked myself, 'Tulsa's right in the middle of the Bible belt, why is there not more happening here?'"

In the beginning, many church leaders doubted whether Schrepel could pull off an event of this magnitude in Sand Springs. But he insists he has nothing to do with it, it's all God's work. "It's to raise up a new generation of ministers."

The event is on sure ground now. Flyers have gone up all around town, the location, speakers, and musicians are all secured. The Schrepels will even be guests on Good Day Tulsa on April 3rd at 9:00 a.m. to promote the event.

"This event is going to saturate Sand Springs with the word of God."

In correlation with the Unity Praise event, the two have also founded the nonprofit organization "In Jesus Name Ministries." Jim was previously a Radiologic Technologist at City of Faith, while Stephanie supervised Respiratory Therapy at the Oklahoma State University Medical Center. Now they feel called to be paramedics to the body of Christ.