By Jeff Louderback

This is a story about the silver lining of the COVID pandemic.

Life in America forever changed during COVID in 2020.

Lockdowns that destroyed small businesses and communities, and protected big box retailers. Needless mask mandates for a virus that the vast majority of patients survived if they avoided the hospital. Destructive and dangerous vaccine mandates requiring an experimental shot that didn’t prevent transmission or infection of the condition it was supposed to treat.

Yet, amid all of that, there was an awakening that impacted many people in a positive way. I am one of those people.

Back in 2020, I was editor of a community magazine and worked as a freelance writer and freelance publicist. I was apathetic about politics and issues, and I was lukewarm with my Christian faith. Then March 2020 arrived, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and then public health director Amy Acton started their daily show where they peddled fear-mongering propaganda claiming that the virus was something it wasn’t.

I never wore a mask throughout the pandemic, and never stopped living my life. Yet I was extremely concerned that first week, until I started researching readily available data and noticed that, though the big-box retailers were open while small businesses were closed, people weren’t dying in the aisles as they would have if the virus was indeed what the so-called experts said it was.

I started writing about the truth about COVID solely based on Department of Health information. It wasn’t long until doctors, epidemiologists, and nurses who worked for major hospitals across Ohio started entrusting me with information that they couldn’t publicly share for fear they would have their licenses revoked and lose their jobs. At times, critics would ask me where I got my medical degree. I would tell them that I have 12 medical degrees (because I had 12 consistent medical sources). That’s my first experience finding out just how contentious speaking out about something I believe in can be. I was called everything from a “Covidiot” and a “serial killer” to “Charles Manson” and a “dangerous extremist.”

The vitriol continued when I organized rallies against mask mandates, lockdowns, and eventually vaccine mandates at the state house; mask-free grocery shopping outings where people who were afraid to get their groceries without wearing a mask could do so in peace with safety in numbers; the Celebration of Liberty events that drew hundreds to Blystone Farm; and Five & Jive, which was a weekly meetup in the Dayton area supporting restaurants and taverns that didn’t force masks.

While I saw first-hand what it meant to be the target of cancel culture – yes, I did get death threats – I also gained a lot of support from like-minded people who understood we were not being told the truth, and that our Constitutional rights were being trampled on.

In 2020 and heading into 2021, I also escaped apathy in my faith. I was raised in a small non-denominational church where my uncle was the pastor and I attended with my parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins among others. Yet, as an adult, though I was still a believer, I was not all in. I was lukewarm. I believed, but I did not fully abide by God’s word. I look back and think about how many years I wasted not being the man He intends me to be.

Gradually, since then, I have grown in my Christian faith. I seek the Holy Spirit, strive to abide by the Bible, and read the Bible through a new lens. I am a work in progress and keep growing. I pray daily that He restore the lost years down to the second when I wasn’t the man He intends me to be. I pray daily that I seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance for everything instead of letting my own emotions control my decisions and reactions. I pray daily that He give me knowledge, wisdom, discernment, and guidance so that I can be a true servant leader, grow closer to Him, and help others grow closer to Him. When I fall short – and I do fall short because I’m a sinner saved by grace – I sincerely repent and try not to commit that sin again. Now, sin weighs heavy. When we are committed to God and committed to keep growing, sin weighs heavy and demonic warfare against us is stronger. Satan doesn’t want us to fully surrender to the Lord and ask Him to direct us and lead us.

My path to stronger faith resulting from the early COVID years is also related to career and lifestyle changes. I returned to full-time journalism, first covering politics and issues for The Ohio Press Network and then joining The Epoch Times 3 ½ years ago. Then, a few years ago, I started recognizing a need to lead a simpler life centered about sustainable living, which led me to move down here to Highland County in the Appalachian foothills.

Five years ago, I would have never imagined I would live in a rural area in southern Ohio, learning to grow produce on my Tower Garden, learning to grow microgreens, having a garden, and locally sourcing what I don’t grow. I used to drive past farmers in their fields and not give them a second thought. Now I recognize they are the lifeblood. How food is grown, where we get our food, and what’s in our food are essential questions to ask.

My journey continued when I covered the RFK Jr. presidential campaign from start to finish. It was then – traveling the country attending town halls and interviewing RFK Jr. and his supporters – that I started to learn about chemicals in food, corporate capture of government health agencies, and the importance of knowing where our food comes from.

When RFK Jr. left the race, backed President Donald Trump, and coined the phrase “Make America Healthy Again,” I started covering MAHA, sustainable living, and homesteading, and that’s what I am doing now.

Christian faith and sustainable living are inter-related. I find myself growing closer to God through the work I am doing – perhaps because I no longer see myself as “Jeff Louderback, writer and reporter,” but I want to be known as a child of God who strives to glorify Him in everything I do. I feel at peace down here in southern Ohio and feel that God is leading me to do more.

I often talk about my faith, write about faith, and share my story. Not because I’m perfect, but because I’m far from it. I need Jesus because I don’t want to go back to being lukewarm and a man who has not fully surrendered. I don’t want to go back to being apathetic and more interested in myself and what I’m doing than seeking to know and do His will. And just when I think I am where I need to be, God humbles me, corrects me, and lets me know I still need to fully surrender to Him and trust in Him.

This has been a year of excitement and happiness, and of heartbreak and disappointment. This has been a year when I’ve felt exhilarating highs and unexpected lows. This has been a year of continued growth, and knowing that I must continue to seek Him and immerse myself in the Bible so I can be a witness for the Lord, and not just a bystander. This has been a year when I’m reminded I need to be better.

I am focusing on my walk with God, striving to write impactful stories for The Epoch Times, growing All In Ohio (the online publication about rural living and sustainable living), and becoming more involved in my role as a board member for our nonprofit organization Strangers Helping Strangers, which is a ministry where we provide disaster relief services and perform community projects for people in need.

I am praying that God lead me to a church community where I can grow and serve. I am praying that God lead the right people in my life so I can keep growing, be blessed, and be a blessing. I am praying that God bring a Christian woman I can share a life centered around God with. I am praying that every story I write, every project I’m involved in, and every decision I make glorifies Him. And I am praying that He give me the courage to keep standing up for what is right, based on His word, and not return to apathy.

For me, that is the silver lining of COVID – and the path forward that started back in those early days of 2020