Choose LIFE!. Peggy Scarborough

my special family doctor, Dr. William Epperson, who has always cared for our family and encouraged us all the way, always positive and giving me hope. To Dr. Todd Kiefer at Duke University Hospital, who supervised my medical care and was most encouraging to me and my family, never giving up on me. And to Dr. Dana Pournaras, the lovely doctor at Advanced Wound Care at Myrtle Beach, who actually got my bleeding surgical wound healed up. What a Godsend she and her whole staff were.

      For the many others my computer just could not remember, please forgive me and know I love you dearly.

      Foreword

      Dr. Peggy Scarborough is an intercessor. She is a published author, speaker and radio personality.

      Twice, she has battled back from some medical prognosis that seemed terminal. Earlier, it was cancer. She came out of that battle with deeper insight into healing and spiritual warfare – she wrote a book about that experience. Recently, a heart-valve implant, now relatively routine, went desperately wrong, threatening her life or even more troubling, promising to leave her in a vegetative condition.

      Doctors, innocently, pronounced her productive life as over, her chances of normalcy as virtually non-existent. Intercessors across the nation and around the world rallied, and prayed, and God raised her up – miraculously. Her recovery is evidence that God still intervenes; that faith still touches the throne of God; that He still heals; that in the most intractable and impossible situations, God still acts.

      This book is the story of her recent struggle with death. It is not only a tribute to Peggy’s indomitable faith, but to the prayers of an invisible circle of intercessors gathered around her, not physically, but virtually, in the Spirit. Peggy has been and even after this episode, continues to be a prayer-mobilizer par excellence. She works in building prayer teams for governors across several states. She serves the Cry Out America endeavor touching every county in South Carolina. She mobilizes prayer for her own denomination, the Church of God. Her story reminds us, that sometimes intercessors need intercessors.

      Whether Peggy’s encounter with near death was a medical fluke or a direct attack of some demonic spirit who took aim at the huge target on her back, due to the important role she plays, the outcome was the same – and the Evil One would have loved to see her light diminished. When doctors gave no hope, intercessors believed and formed an invisible circle around her. They appealed to heaven – and God spared her life.

      I know you will be inspired by reading her story. I hope you, as an intercessor, will see the importance of your own role. And if you are not a serious intercessor – join the movement. Around the world, the tide of prayer is rising.

      Glad you are still with us, Peggy!

      Bishop P. Douglas Small, President and Founder

      Alive Ministries: PROJECTPRAY

      PO Box 1245

      Kannapolis, NC 28082-1245

       www.projectpray.org

       www.pdouglassmall.org

       www.americapray.org

      Note from the Author

      CHOOSE LIFE! is the first book I've ever written that actually incorporates pictures into the story, as well as links to online videos. Many of the photos are candid, spur-of-the-moment shots; and because all of them are taken on cell phones and other electronic devices in varied settings and sometimes in dim lighting, we weren't able to get them consistently clear and sharp.

      I'm so grateful, however, that Sherri and others felt inclined to capture some of the episodes of this journey in pictures and video. At the time, she and they were doing so just to keep loved ones and prayer partners near and far informed of the situation and of my progress. We didn't know that these pictures, as well as random social media posts, would eventually become key components of a book that was to be written; and that the photos and video clips, in their raw and unplanned timing, would chronicle a powerful testimony of hope for others also trying to recover from traumatic health experiences. We didn't know, but God did! I thank Him for each and every one of these pictures, and I can't tell you how often I've wept with joy over the past few months as I've proofread and edited changes in the book to include them.

      The print version of CHOOSE LIFE! has a few dark or cloudy pictures, and a few were even taken from film stills of videos shot on smart phones, which made them a little blurry. We lightened what we could, and it disappointed me terribly to have to delete a few that couldn't be salvaged. In the process of edits and re-edits, I debated whether to remove the pictures entirely; but to do so would have robbed you of part of the story. I believe they were meant to be an integral part of this book. So, if you have to squint to see through the darkness of some of the photos, just know that we did the best we could to make them more viewable. Thanks for indulging me by allowing me to keep even the hard-to-see ones woven into the fabric of my testimony... Peggy

      Live

       “I SET BEFORE YOU LIFE AND DEATH.

       CHOOSE LIFE.”

      “Live" was the word that I heard loud and clear in the middle of the night. Then quickly afterwards a weak but professional and cunning voice echoed “Die.” All night long the voices kept speaking back and forth. It became clear that I was in the middle of a war—a serious spiritual war. I had never heard actual voices in my life but I heard them that night. Soon I began responding. When the voice of the Lord proclaimed “Live,” I responded, “Live.” When that deceitful voice of the enemy said “Die,” I answered, “Live.”

      Then I heard a door slam from the operating room that was next door. I had not even had a memory in years of the old-timers in my home town when I was a child saying, “When someone will not die, slam a door to let them know it is all right to pass into the next world.” I pointed my weak hand that was not the paralyzed one toward the sound and proclaimed loudly “No, I will live and not die.”

      Then I heard male voices talking but I could not understand them. I did not know if they were angels, demons, intercessors or hospital staff. But then one voice declared, “I guess we'd better cancel this funeral.” From that moment my recovery began. Was it intercessors whose voices I heard? You tell me...

      Today I walked through our den and my eyes fell upon a framed word over the fireplace that read “Live.” Every time I pass that word, I am reminded of the greatness of our God. My friend Nancy Williams had brought it by our home one day shortly after Christmas. She presented it to me in a beautifully wrapped package. I wept when I opened it and so did Nancy. She had walked into a gift shop and saw it on a shelf. She knew at that moment that I had to have it. This was the word I kept hearing all night, July 7, 2016 that started this miracle in motion. Every time I look at that gift, I thank my precious Jesus for that word from Him.

      Preparation for surgery was a video by Arthur Burk I had watched during the month of June. I had prayed, believed God for a miracle surgery. I had called or emailed my closest intercessor friends, asking for their covering. Arthur had reminded us in that video that even when you are under anesthesia, your spirit is still awake. I had not spent much time with the video because of a busy schedule; but it was obvious during those crisis hours, my spirit was in charge even when my body was not.

      Since that time I have thought much about working on our spirits-- getting us ready for such crisis experiences as I underwent. It’s so important to read