Pastor loves to tell coronavirus healing story

But let pastor Staubs take you back to the last weekend in March.

The yard work on Saturday. The hacking cough on Monday.

Two Raleigh pastors back at home, one still in hospital with coronavirus

Must've been the pollen, he figured.

His fellow pastor, Craig Dyson, and his groundskeeper Keith Blue, also did yard work at home that weekend.

"So all of us had this sort of weird cough on Monday."

By Tuesday, pastor Staubs had a fever of 102.9º.

He hid away in a bedroom, weak, achy and afflicted with the what ifs.

"I think like everybody in this time, there's an anxiousness."

But he's only 45. Healthy. Diligent about personal hygiene.

Still, by Friday, it was off to urgent care. And ... the test.

"At that point, I'm miserable. My wife said maybe we should go to the hospital, but I'm a little bit of a hard head."

"One more day, one more day. I'll be fine. I'll shake it off."

This thing inside just wouldn't let go.

"Vomiting, the muscle aches."

Finally, on Palm Sunday, pastor Staubs went to WakeMed.

Doctors told him the X-ray of his lungs shredded any doubt: He had COVID-19.

A day later, pastor Dyson joined him at WakeMed. And then his missions pastor, Bob Johnson, was admitted.

"We don't know where this came from. We've tried to put our finger on it, and we just can't put our finger on where this came from."

It didn't stop with those three. Pastor Johnson's wife, Yvonne, and the groundskeeper, Keith Blue, also tested positive.

But it was pastor Staubs who had it worst.

"I don't want to overdramatize -- 'I thought I was gonna die.' I didn't know honestly. There was always in my mind, I thought I was gonna get better."

He was too weak to so much as text, but he could pray.

He could listen to his praise music when he wanted to say, 'why me Lord?'"

"God, He really is good. I just knew in my heart that He was gonna deliver me, that He was gonna deliver me from this. That I'd have a story tell."

His earthly treatment included hydroxychloroquine and vitamin C.

By Easter, pastor Staubs, father of four, was home.

And it wasn't long before his church family made a triumphal entry into his neighborhood with a drive-by parade.

He does have one story to tell.

"There's hope on the other side of COVID."

Here's a man who loves to tell the story.