LEARY, Ga.—Joyce Barlow had barely warmed her pew seat at Mt. Zion Baptist Church before having to deal with health scares affecting two members of the congregation.
She had just delivered her campaign speech when the holy ghost filled one of the deaconesses. The woman began shouting and convulsing. A couple of . church members carried her out of the sanctuary. Barlow, a registered nurse, followed them, to check on the woman. After caring for her, a church member alerted her to an elderly man who had passed out. The man has diabetes and had not been taking his medicine. It messes with his “manliness” so he doesn’t take it, he told her. For the man and the deaconess, it was one of the few direct connections they had to immediate health care.
