In 2019, a new coronavirus started to spread across the globe. The first person suffered from the disease caused by this new coronavirus was in China on 17 November 2019. On 20 February 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) named the disease COVID-19, which stands for Coronavirus Disease 2019. On 11 March 2020, WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. This book contains two hypothetical conversations between a young man, Tom, and two gurus: Dick and Harry. Guru Dick epitomizes someone who is rich and powerful. Guru Harry epitomizes someone who is spiritual but not religious. Through the conversations, the two gurus share their insights on the coronavirus pandemic and how to handle it. They further offer their contrasting views on how to benefit from COVID-19. May this wisdom enable you to come through the coronavirus pandemic with your desired benefit!

In spirituality, there is a theory that a Great Spirit hovers around us. It sees what we are doing. It guides us and protects us. It also creates opportunities for us to meet the “right” people and participate in the “right” events so that we grow spiritually. Is this theory true? I don’t know. I’m an ordinary human being without any spiritual power. However, by looking at the events that happened in my present incarnation for the past 70 years, I believe that there were many occasions in which the Great Spirit was active in my life. In this book, in nine chapters, I share the people and events which I believe the Great Spirit has used to shape my life and moved me in directions that I had never dreamt of. The chapters are: (1) On my parents, (2) On my studies, (3) On my working life as an engineer and on my wife, (4) On my working life as an academic, (5) On my sporting achievements, (6) On my working life as an editor and a consultant, (7) On my working life as an author and a speaker, (8) On my life mission and other life stories, and (9) On the Great Spirit. After living this life for seven decades and believing that it has been shaped by the Great Spirit, I like to say that it’s been a truly blessed life – a life that is filled with meaning and fulfillment! I hope this sharing enables you to be more aware of the Great Spirit in your life and you too will see your life as blessed, meaningful, and fulfilling. May the Great Spirit be with you!

Over 150 practical tips and guides that will help safeguard your family during a pandemic. COVID-19 has changed the world and touched the lives of millions. Yet this may be just the first of a potentially terrifying wave of new and lethal pandemics that Governments are ill equipped to handle. New York Times Bestselling author Tim MacWelch and emergency management expert Joseph Pred provide expert and proven advice that can save you and your family when no-one else can. Learn how to create your own facemasks, stock your pantry, and quarantine safely in your own home. With over 150 clearly illustrated survival tips, The Essential Pandemic Survival Guide is the best way that you can protect your family from the lethal impact of a global pandemic. Topics include: • Masks and gloves: What you need to know. How to use properly, common do’s and don’ts • DIY clean suit • Hand sanitizer • Your ultimate first-aid kit • Create an isolation room at home, if you must (and how to make that decision) • How to stock up sensibly for a potential lockdown. • The Ultimate Pandemic Checklist: Food, water, medical supplies, pet care, toiletries, personal items, and more • Help others deal with stress and anxiety • Manage your own mood and mental state • Care for pets in a pandemic • Make a family emergency plan • Help your local community prepare for disasters • 12-month schedule for checking on plans and preparedness with family • Put together your toolkit • Disinfect water • Chart your survival priorities • Pack your bug-out bag

In the era of COVID-19, many people have suffered high levels of stress and mental health problems. To cope with the widespread of suffering (physical, psychological, social, and economical) the positive psychology of personal happiness is no longer the sole approach to examine personal wellbeing. Other approaches such as Viktor Frankl’s theory of self-transcendence provide a promising framework for research and intervention on how to achieve resilience, wellbeing, and happiness through overcoming suffering and self-transcendence. The existential positive psychology of suffering complements the positive psychology of happiness, which is championed by Martin Seligman, as two equal halves of the circle of wellbeing and optimal mental health. This Research Topic aims to examine the different approaches to Positive Psychology and their influence on individual wellbeing during the COVID-19 era. One of the exciting development in the positive psychology of wellbeing is the mounting research on the adaptive benefits of negative emotions, such as shame, guilt, and anger, as well as the dialectical process of balancing negative and positive emotions. As an example, based on all the empirical research and Frankl’s self-transcendence model, Wong has developed the existential positive psychology of suffering (PP2.0) as the foundation for flourishing. Here are a few main tenets of PP2.0: (1) Life is suffering and a constant struggle throughout every stage of development, (2) The search for self-transcendence is a primary motive guided by the meaning mindset and mindful mindset. (3) Wellbeing cannot be sustainable without overcoming and transforming suffering. In this Research Topic we welcome diverse approaches discussing the following points: • The dialectic process of overcoming the challenges of every stage of development as necessary for personal growth and self-transcendence; • The role of self-transcendence in resilience, virtue, meaning, and happiness; • The upside of negative emotions; • The new science of resilience based on cultivating the resilient mindset and character; • How to make the best use of suffering to achieve out potentials & mental health.

This book explores the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic is poised to be a permanent fixture in the modern world which in contemporary times will be thought of in terms of before and after the pandemic. It looks at how the pandemic has brought to the fore the question of the appropriate ethics, politics, and spirituality and highlights the present condition of humanity and the need to rethink alternative planetary futures. It argues that the pandemic has existential and epistemic implications for human life on planet Earth, and a post–COVID-19 future requires a fundamental transformation of the present economic, political, and social conditions. Drawing on empirical case studies on the COVID-19 pandemic from Africa and beyond, contributions in this book challenge the reader to rethink alternative planetary futures. It will be a useful resource for students, scholars, and researchers of African studies, citizenship studies, global development, global politics, human geography, migration studies, development studies, international studies, international relations, and political science.

As we witness the mounting illness and death toll of the coronavirus, the messages of the Old Testament prophets offer comfort and truth. They call us to repentance and affirm God's faithfulness. Doman Lum crafts twenty-one sermons which preach the good news of God's love. The story of the great pandemic involves the impact of COVID-19, President Donald Trump, the murder and killings of African Americans, and the 2020 presidential election. The Old Testament prophets and contemporary biblical theologians share spiritual insights, faith, and trust. Lum encourages the reader to become involved in the public response, the public health programs, and government responsibility to cope with this health crisis as citizens of the United States. This book features the reading of Scriptures, profound and thoughtful sermons, and pastoral prayers. It is for the individual, family, community, and nation who seek spiritual counsel in the midst of the pandemic.

This book explores what anthropology can contribute to an understanding of how people live through pandemics. It reflects on how pandemics are experienced and what we can learn from Covid-19 as well as previous instances that might inform future responses and help to alleviate suffering. The chapters highlight current research and longer-term reflections from different countries and areas of the discipline, covering medical anthropology, care and surveillance, digital and experimental ethnography, and the everyday economies of lockdown. They show the breadth and originality of anthropological work relevant to thinking about and responding to pandemic situations. Extending beyond Covid-19, the volume considers the implications for ongoing and future research under pandemic restrictions and gives a broad overview of current anthropology relevant to questions about pandemics. It will be of interest to both academic and applied anthropologists, as well as to sociologists and those working in global and public health.

COVID-19 isn’t simply a viral pathogen nor is it, strictly speaking, the trigger of a global pandemic. Since the outbreak began in late-2019, an outpouring of clinical and scientific research, together with an array of public health initiatives, has sought to understand, mitigate, or even eradicate the virus. This book represents a snapshot of critical responses by researchers from 10 countries and 4 continents, in a collective effort to explore how Cultural Studies can contribute to our struggle to persevere in a "no normal" horizon, with no clear end in sight. Together, the essays address important questions at the intersection of culture, power, politics, and public health: What are the possible outlines for the panic-pandemic complex? How has the pandemic been endowed with meanings and affective registers, often at the tipping points where existing social relations and medical understanding were being rapidly displaced by new ones? How can societies discover ways of living with, through, and against COVID that do not simply reproduce existing hierarchies and power relations? The 30 essays comprising this collection, along with the editors’ introduction, explore the formative period of the COVID pandemic, from mid-2020 to mid-2021. They are grouped into three sections – ‘Racializations,’ ‘Media, Data, and Fragments of the Popular,’ and ‘Un/knowing the Pandemic’ – themes that animate, but do not exhaust, the complex cultural and political life of COVID-19 with respect to identity, technology, and epistemology. No doubt, readers will chart their own pathway as the pandemic continues to rage on, based on their own unique circumstances. This book provides critical-intellectual guideposts for the way forward – toward an uncertain future, without guarantees. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, Cultural Studies.

Sunday School across America is on a decline. Biblical literacy is at an unprecedented low amongst believers, and it seems as if there is no end to where this could lead to in our churches. The COGIC Sunday School department desires to help aid literacy by providing quality supplemental lesson material. Enlisting help from scholars across the country, the department wrote the Interpretative Expository, an exposition for each lesson of the Sunday School curriculum. Also, to assist pastors, preachers, missionaries, and laity with sermon subjects and preparation, our team has included a sample sermon outline from one of the lessons. Reemphasize the message of Sunday School by preaching a message from the text of the lesson.

The COVID-19 pandemic has permanently changed lives around the world and no dimension of life and leadership seems to have been spared from its wrath. It has also stirred us into thinking about novel approaches to lead organizations and societies toward a shared, sustainable future. This book offers novel perspectives on leadership and change management after the COVID-19 pandemic that take us beyond striving for thriving—perspectives that are grounded in emergent theory, research and practice. It highlights sustainable leadership and change management strategies to effectively deal with unpredictable and rapidly changing situations—particularly in a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). This book also highlights engaging perspectives by specialists from different disciplines such as business, psychology, education, and health care. It serves as a practical guide in identifying and responding to leadership challenges and opportunities in each of the four VUCA categories of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—and how they affect businesses, organizations, and societies as a whole.