'No, devil, you can't have my momma': Pastor saves choking elderly woman during church service

A pastor in Alabama stopped a service to save a choking elderly woman who was worshipping when a piece of a mint sent her into a coughing fit.

Mt. Zion church in Cottonwood, Alabama, had a visiting pastor named Brandon Stewart come into town to perform a revival service. A revival service is a "reawakening of spiritual fervor. It is to revitalize the spiritual ardor of oneself," according to Christianity.com.

As the service was coming to an end, Pastor Stewart noticed that a church member named Lois Adams was coughing and thought that she might be sick.

"In the middle of the message and we were just kind of going, and we were getting ready to close, I heard coughing. I know it’s allergy season and colds were running around, so I was like it could be just that. And we were about to lay hands on her and heal her in the name of Jesus in a minute," Pastor Stewart explained, WTVY reported.

Churchgoers went into a moment of panic, however, as other worshippers started to become fearful for the elderly woman's life.

"I was praising the Lord like everybody else, but I had a piece of mint in my mouth because I get a dry mouth. I got choked on it," Adams recalled.

The woman said once she started choking, she immediately realized someone was lifting her off the floor.

"I went to coughing, and a little piece of it reckon went down my throat and I couldn’t breathe. Next thing I know, somebody has me in the air," she recalled.

The person lifting her into the air was Pastor Stewart, who had rushed over to perform the Heimlich maneuver.

"I picked her up off the ground. She treats us like her kids, so, no, devil, you can't have my momma," Stewart said of the incident.

"We jump in and Pastor Derrick comes up because he is backup. He’s like 'here we go.' He’s a first responder also and a great pastor of this church. And doing that, once she was clear and could talk, we all made a joke." Pastor Stewart added.

The pastor was adamant that once the woman's life was saved, it was time to get back to the church service.

"We did the business, now it’s time to get back to business," he declared. "It could have been anybody else in that position, it had nothing to do with me, but I’m honored and humbled that [God] used me in this position to be able to spread his gospel and to be able to help Miss Lois,” Pastor Stewart said.

Both the pastor and Adams stressed the importance of knowing how to perform the lifesaving technique.

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