Victory in death: Far from defeated, faithful see God’s hand in passing of Jamie Coots

Pastor Jamie Coots lays hands in prayer during a service at the Full Gospel Tabernacle In Jesus Name church located in Middlesboro, Ky.

MIDDLESBORO, Ky. – The grieving danced so hard they toppled a fern.

Men in stained jeans and plaid shirts stomped up and down in front of the casket. They mumbled and shook under the funeral home’s brass candelabras, and the praise to God for the life and death of Brother Jamie Coots was deafening.

Except for the tears of his widow, the mourning was hard to find.

Coots’ body lay in an open mahogany casket. A plain cross and two brass pins hung on the coffin lid. On one: “Faith.” The other: “Devotion.”