A recently married Texas pastor who
welcomed a newborn son with his wife just
four months ago is now struggling to
restart his life after publicly disclosing that
he grappled with a coronavirus infection for
several weeks that led to his church being
emptied and his day job as a car salesman
coming to an abrupt end.
Eli Jacobs, 51, who is senior pastor of
Resurrection Body of Christ Church in
Dallas, Texas, told The Christian Post in an
interview Tuesday that he’s grateful to be
alive after his five week bout with the
coronavirus, which led to him being
hospitalized for two weeks after he began
struggling to breathe, but dealing with the
aftermath has been a challenge.
Jacobs’ battle with the virus began in late
March when he first noticed he had
developed a rash on his hands while he
was at work selling cars.
“They don’t mention about the rash but you
start breaking out with rash and I know
that my hands, by me taking care of it, I
know it was something new,” he said,
noting how he had speculated the rash
might have been due to high blood
pressure or some type of chronic illness. “I
just know all my skin was breaking out.
The skin was peeling off.”
As time went by, Jacobs said he started
getting tired easily and couldn’t get up in
the mornings. He would eventually talk
with his wife about his symptoms and they
decided to get tested for the virus, and his
results came back positive.
He tried to treat himself at home but he
developed a fever that lasted for four days.
He began losing the taste in his mouth and
started struggling to breathe.
“My breathing was not normal like it used
to be,” he said. “You know how somebody
put their hands over your mouth and nose
for a minute and let it go? That’s how it
felt.”
Jacobs said his wife would eventually take
him to two separate hospitals to get care
for his infection.
“I felt weak. I felt like I wanted to lay down
all the time. I went into the hospital. The
first hospital they really didn’t do too
much. They gave me an IV, kept me in the
hospital and tried to get my temperature
down,” he said.
His wife would later move him to a
different hospital which he said was
mentally taxing as he worried about death.
“Mentally, when I was going through the
COVID, you think about dying. You could do
a whole lot of thinking on that bed, I’m just
going to be honest. You start thinking
about everything. I was thinking about I
just had a baby, just got married, and I
didn’t want to leave them behind. That was
my thought. I got a church and nobody
knows I’m in this hospital. All alone, you
have to fight it mentally because they don’t
let nobody go in with you,” he said.
“I think that stress can take a toll on your
body. I just really believe that. I had
difficulty sleeping and I think it has an
effect on your mind that causes your body
not to fully function like it can. … When you
think about dying it’s hard to sleep,” he
said.
At the time of his hospitalization, scores of
black and Hispanic pastors were dying
from the new coronavirus along with many
others from minority communities.
He said after his release from the hospital
he did an interview with Fox 4 to educate
members of his community about the
virus.
As people learned that he was infected,
however, Jacobs said people started to
avoid him.
“When I got home I tried to go get a
haircut. They saw me on the news and
everybody start to act like, ‘Well, I can’t
take the risk. I got kids at the house,’” he
said.
Jacobs noted that he also spoke with
pastoral colleagues and invited them to
come pray for his 100-member church but
the pastors turned him down too.
“People acted out of fear,” he said. “I was
getting text messages from people saying,
‘Do you still believe in Jesus now?’ You
know, people just being mean.”
The father of two said most members of
his congregation have also given up on in-
person services.
“A lot of people called and said, ‘Bishop,
we love you but for our family’s sake we
want to kinda stay away from church for a
minute.’ And I kind of respect that,” he
said.
Although he respects the decision of his
congregants and everyone that has tried to
be safe by avoiding contact with him,
Jacobs says he sometimes regrets publicly
sharing his coronavirus diagnosis.
“I was trying to help people but it kinda hit
me back in the face,” he said.
Jacobs said as a result of his diagnosis he
lost his job as a car salesman and is now
looking for a new one.
“They were telling me I couldn’t come back
to work right now,” he said of his former
employer.
Jacobs said he only recently found out how
to apply for unemployment too. Despite
having a wife and young child, he said he’s
the only person in his household who has
received a $1,200 stimulus check so far.
He also recently received an eviction
noticed he shared with CP for at least two
months of unpaid rent.
“My biggest concern, financially we are
struggling. By being on the news it kinda
really got out there,” he said.
Despite his concerns, Jacobs said he is
trusting God the same way he did when he
was hospitalized with the coronavirus.
“I said Lord, I know you can heal me but I
can’t lay in this bed,” he recalled telling
God before he was finally released from
the hospital. “How we gon’ get money? We
just walking by faith.”
Those wanting to reach out to Pastor Eli
Jacobs can contact him on Facebook
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