Rev Sammy Wainaina: My encounter with COVID-19 and lessons learned

The human race has undoubtedly gone through a countless myriad of challenges with those intensified turning into crises. In all these times we turned to places of reverence for hope, solace, and guidance from our spiritual leaders. However, all these experiences did not leave a blueprint on how to deal with the COVID 19 pandemic, life as we knew it came to a screeching halt as businesses, schools, and places of worship closed.

Sacred places of worship closed? None could believe it, where is the profound faith? Is Christianity a deliberate hoax? These by heart are the hard questions pastoral leaders were faced with.

We talked to Rev. Sammy Wainaina (Provost All Saints Cathedral Nairobi) to gain some perspective. He is the Provost of All saints Cathedral-Nairobi, he shares on how COVID 19 affected him and his family at a personal level and his leadership at the Cathedral.

Sammy describes his direct interaction with COVID 19 as aggressively challenging and also one with profound lessons. On the 3rd of June, he was declared positive of COVID 19 and a little later his wife and children were also infected. He was then admitted into Intensive care for 4 days and was later discharged. He attributes his and the family’s recovery to boundless God’s mercy and good health. He encourages Kenyans to consider a healthy lifestyle as this is what prevented him from being worse off after being infected. He and his family underwent social stigma, according to provost Wainaina providing people with accurate information and telling the truth will undoubtedly help reduce the stigma. Compelling notable individuals of influence to come out, intentionally use their considerable sway to help in positively tackling the COVID 19 pandemic will also go along way.

As a Christian, every hurdle you endure is both a trial of your Christian belief and a lesson. It is your abiding faith and personal relationship with God that helps you overcome any challenge or crisis, For Sammy, the pandemic has taught him four key lessons which he gladly shares, having a great relationship with God is the greatest investment one can have in this life, Your spiritual capital may be the only thing to hold on to at your lowest. When ill or are going through hard times it is your family that is concerned about your well being and will do anything to assist, work hard towards building your family capital. How well do you relate with people, what kinds of friendships have you invested in? For Provost and his family, it was his social capital that helped them get food and essentials when they could not leave the house. He is encouraging us to build better friendships of value. Finally, how is your saving culture? Can you survive on your savings? Invest in your economic capital and get into a culture of savings and invest for tomorrow.

Below is the full interview he had on The Magazine.