Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit.
Scott and Christy Sawyer: Punching Back After Clinical Death and Brain Damage
About this episode
Scott and Christy Sawyer join Philip Cameron to share one of the most extraordinary resurrection stories in modern ministry — how Scott survived more than 20 minutes of clinical death at a family gathering, and how God miraculously restored him from catastrophic brain damage. Christy describes the moment her husband "turned purple and foaming" before her eyes, and the agonizing weeks that followed as doctors warned her to "prepare because he's never gonna be able to be normal again." Scott lost everything — his memory, his ability to drive, his knowledge of Scripture, even the ability to recognize his own wife — reverting, as Christy explains, to an "embryonic stage" of brain function with no activity in the frontal lobe. Drawing on Psalm 51:12 — "God will restore unto you the joy of your salvation" — Philip and the Sawyers unpack how joy can be lost and supernaturally reclaimed. Scott and Christy have documented this journey in their new book Punch Back, available at wearescottandchristy.com, which Philip calls "a Rhema lifeline" for anyone walking through a dark night of the soul. This episode is a powerful testimony of faith, resilience, and the miracle-working power of Jesus Christ for anyone who feels their dream has died and there is no way back.
Part of our Restore collection of conversations.
What's Discussed
Scott Sawyer, a pastor and minister, collapsed at a family gathering and was clinically dead for over 20 minutes — a duration doctors universally associate with irreversible brain damage. His wife Christy watched him turn purple and foam at the mouth before emergency responders fought to revive him. When Scott emerged from his coma, he had lost all memory, could not recognize Christy, could not drive, and retained no knowledge of Scripture or ministry. EEG scans showed zero activity in the frontal lobe. Yet through sustained faith and prayer, Scott has experienced a remarkable, ongoing restoration. Anchoring their story in Psalm 51:12 — God's promise to restore the joy of salvation — Scott and Christy have written Punch Back, available at wearescottandchristy.com, to give hope to anyone facing what feels like an impossible, irreversible loss.
- Christy Describes Scott's Collapse and Death
- Over 20 Minutes Without Oxygen or Pulse
- Doctors Warn of Permanent Brain Damage
- Total Memory Loss and Frontal Lobe Shutdown
- Psalm 51:12 — Restoring the Joy of Salvation
- Punch Back Book and Ministry at wearescottandchristy.com
- Christy's Prayer for Families in Crisis
Featuring Scott and Christy Sawyer
Scripture in this episode
Episode Transcript
Auto-generated · click any timestamp to jump the video
Intro
Philip:Hello everybody. My name is Philip Cameron, and this is Daily Faith. We are here because God wants you to listen to a message of hope today. Whatever you're doing, give me 30 minutes, and I promise you you're gonna have the Holy Ghost speak to your heart. The battle you're in will not last forever. The battle you're in will not last forever.
Philip:I took my kids one time to Niagara Falls, and there's a boat called the Maid of the Mist. We climbed on the Maid of the Mist and they gave us blue rain things on a beautiful sunny day, and I was all wrapped up in this hot rain stuff. And the guy took the Maid of the Mist and he went right up to the waterfalls and he stuck his nose under where the water was falling down, and we went from a sunny calm day to a storm like you would not believe, as millions of tons of water crashed down right in front of the nose of the Maid of the Mist. And for a few moments you'd have thought we were in the middle of a hurricane. And I saw my family all at one time. And then he backed out again and the sun reappeared.
Philip:And I'm here to tell you, if you're in a storm right now and your nose might be under Niagara Falls, hold fast. Because God has control of the vessel and he's going to back you out of your storm and the sun will shine again.
Philip:And you're gonna love our guests today. These are family. I have few people in America that I consider my family, and the Sawyers from Tuscaloosa are my family. Pat Sawyer is my bishop, a great man of God, and Scott is a son, and Pat is an evangelist. But Scott, you're gonna hear a story about what happened to Scott that I lived through. This is not me just talking about a book. I lived through every agonizing calling in the middle of the night, believing God. What's happening? What's he doing? How are things happening? And we went through despair and fear and doubts.
Philip:And to have him sit with us today is nothing short of a miracle. And you're going to hear about it today. I am delighted to have them. Before we do that, I want to talk to you for a wee minute about what we're doing in Ukraine.
Philip:For those that don't know, we have a home in Moldova, a village of houses called Vatra. When kids leave the orphanages they come to us, instead of being put on the street and traffickers getting them. They come to us and we put them back to school. This last summer, one of our girls called Natalia graduated as a doctor. It took six years of supporting this girl to go through medical school. We paid her mom's food and her mom's care for six years — her mom's bedridden — and we gave this girl a chance to be a doctor, change her life, change their future, change their family forever.
Philip:And as you know, at the beginning of this year Russia invaded Ukraine. We've had a house in Ukraine for years, seven years. We've had a home there, and so we didn't talk about it much. We just cared for it and supported it and took girls in. And then suddenly when Russia invaded Ukraine we were put right in the middle of this horrendous storm.
Philip:These orphan kids that we have in Vatra — caring for people is part of the DNA of our ministry. Whenever they come to us, we get them giving away stuff. An orphan always gets, they never give. And how to break the orphan spirit in a heart is to cause that heart to give. It's the same for you. If you have an orphan spirit, give something away and it breaks that spirit.
Philip:So these kids have been caring for widows and poor families. They cook meals continually, they bring wood, school bags, shoes, clothes, non-stop, in continual outreach. And when Ukraine was invaded by the Russians, 490,000 people ran to Moldova — 10 million ran away altogether, 490,000 came to Moldova. Our kids, within hours of the first shot being fired, were up at the border cooking and caring for moms.
Philip:The dads couldn't leave. Any man between 18 and 65 has got to stay and fight. So you imagine in your street that a tank shows up at the bottom of your street and starts blasting with its gun at all the houses, and you grab your kids, you shove some paperwork in a bag and you run. You run for your life. If you're lucky you catch a bus. Many just walk to the border. I have video of them walking out of the darkness holding their babies, running for their lives.
Philip:And our kids, orphans, were right on the front line loving and caring for them, and holding them, taking their babies and holding the babies while the mothers fell apart, because they had just said goodbye to their dads and their brothers and their husbands with no hope of seeing them again. It's unbelievable. Tens of thousands of people have died. And America forgot about it. America was all over it for the first few weeks, and Johnny Depp's court trial honestly turned the news back to nonsense. And it's brutal.
Philip:As we speak, the Russians have taken away 30% of their water supply, 30% of their power. They are bombing and shelling everything that produces heat, everything that produces water, oil, heating systems. They are destroying everything and there's a crisis. As we speak there's a crisis happening.
Philip:I got a phone call a few weeks ago from one of our leaders, and Nadia said, Philip, if we don't help, these people are going to freeze to death. Thousands. This is not a winter like Alabama or Tennessee or Florida. This is like Maine. Brutal months of deadly cold and they have no way to heat themselves. So we and our ministry here have been working non-stop collecting coats, churches donating coats to us, and we have over 15,000 coats to give away. Two or three containers are ready, and there's a third one being put together as we speak.
Philip:But one other crisis we have — I got a phone call last week. The house in Ukraine we have leased for the last five years, the man who leased it to us wants to leave Ukraine and he's selling his house. So the girls that were in Ukraine, we moved them to Moldova for safety. And the situation is that they may have to go back to Ukraine, and if the house is sold to someone else there's nowhere for our girls to go back to.
Philip:And I've had the incredible challenge to believe God to buy a house in a country at war. It's the craziest thing I've ever been asked by the Lord to do. And the Lord challenged me. He says, would you risk it? The house and the furniture and the van is $200,000. And the Lord says, would you risk $2,000 to save 24 girls' lives? And would you risk losing it? I said I would. He says, well, get another 99 people to think that thought and the house will be bought and the furniture we put in and the van will be there.
Philip:So I gave $2,000, and Pat, my own pastor, says I'm in, I'll give also. And we are about halfway there to having this house bought. And I'm asking you to believe God with us to make this miracle in wartime happen for these folks.
Philip:Watch this video. When God challenged us to open a home just a year ago, we looked for many months to find a place big enough to make a difference in young girls' lives. We finally found the perfect place that can house 24 girls. We signed a long-term lease with the owner and it has just ended. At the moment we are able to house the Ukrainian girls in Moldova, but as the war drags on there is pressure to have those who escaped the Russian invasion return to Ukraine. Moldova simply cannot afford the cost of maintaining so many refugees.
Philip:Many have returned to Ukraine. Many have left for Europe and the USA and will never return. Our girls wait every day to return to their homeland. If their home is sold, there will be nowhere for them to go.
Philip:In the natural it seems impossible. We have already strained every sinew in our ministry this year to care for thousands of destitute lives. We are about to send at least two containers packed with warm clothes to help these lost souls survive the brutal winter. But what about the young lives we already committed to protecting? Where would they go? Can you imagine handing them a bus ticket to a war zone and telling them you are on your own, we have nowhere for you to go, your home has been sold? How would they survive in a country stuck in the no man's land of war?
Philip:We are going to believe God to buy this special place. We will continue our work in Ukraine and trust him for protection as the days ahead unfold. We will be right there in the middle of tragic events, with a place of refuge for young girls to find rest in a home provided by loving hearts. If God moves, the home we need is already waiting. We just need you.
Philip:Will you pray? Will you give? I'm certain everyone who could wouldn't even hesitate to help this miracle take place. That is how this huge door of opportunity could open. We can minister to these dear souls for years to come and be a beacon of hope in a bleak battlefield of despair.
Philip:You can make a miracle happen. Join with me. A hundred people giving $2,000 — I want you to be part of this miracle. Every one of those faces you saw, caught by a trafficker, is worth $300,000 a year. That's what they make off one girl. If one girl's worth $300,000 to the traffickers, surely we can rescue 24 for $200,000. Surely there are a hundred people who have $2,000 watching. Our address is real simple: The Orphan's Hands, PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. It'll be on the screen. You can also go to www.dailyfaith.tv or call 1-833-DAILY-FAITH. Help us with this. We need a miracle this month before winter really grabs this country.
Philip:You will watch on your screen, I promise you, on the news, people freezing to death in Moldova this year. I can promise you that we can be a part and a help to those in such dire straits. Please. I want to watch this short video. You are going to love today's program. You talk about faith and hope — these are my family. I've known this kid since before they were married and I know this story. I've lived it with them. You're gonna love this. Watch this video.
Philip:A family gathering, everyone laughing and having a great time, and Scott fell down. And they tried to bring him back and they fought for his life. And what you saw was him in the moments after, and the days and weeks subsequent, as he fought his way back from literally death. And the miracle of his life is unbelievable, and I believe this is a resurrection story for your situation. And they have a brand new book called Punch Back that you have got to get today.
Christy Describes Scott's Collapse and Death
Philip:I promise you, Scott and Christy, I love you guys so much. Thank you for being with us today. When I watched that I was watching you watching that video, Scott, and you were cringing watching the darkness that you walked through. But I thank God that there's a hope in Jesus. Christy, tell us how you felt as your sweetheart — I mean, you guys are just the most loving couple I've ever known. How did you feel when you watched him lying dead in that family's home? And the words are so hard to give.
Christy Sawyer:I was in complete and total shock. I watched my husband just completely die, turned purple, and foaming things coming out of his mouth. I mean, the video that you saw, Philip, those were some of the very bad moments, but those were not even the worst of the moments. The fear that gripped me was like chains that did not want to let go. The fear that I was fighting on the inside — to believe, can I even believe that we're gonna come through this? How am I going to actually function? What are we going to do when the doctors are telling you, you need to prepare because he's never gonna be able to be normal again?
Over 20 Minutes Without Oxygen or Pulse
Philip:How long were you dead for, Scott? How long were you gone?
Scott Sawyer:About 20 minutes.
Philip:Over 20 minutes. And everyone knows that a brain without oxygen for 20 minutes is gone. There's just no coming back from that. And yet you are back in ministry. God is using you in a tremendous way. I know there are people watching today that have got to get this book. You may have watched your dream die like Christy watched Scott die, and you're thinking there's no way that God can resurrect it. And this book, Punch Back, is a Rhema word. I can feel this in the Holy Ghost as I'm talking to you. There's someone watching us today that is in a dark night and there's no light, and they're bumping into obstacles that seem to want to kill them, and they're saying, please God, help me out of this circumstance. And this book is going to be the Rhema, the lifeline, the chink of light, the hope in your situation. And I just believe that this is a divinely appointed day today.
Doctors Warn of Permanent Brain Damage
Philip:And so Christy, on this recovery — because it's been a long and agonizing road — what state was Scott in when this whole thing happened? I mean, he couldn't — he didn't know anyone, didn't remember anything, did he?
Total Memory Loss and Frontal Lobe Shutdown
Christy Sawyer:You want to say everything is gone. He lost everything. It was gone when he came out of the coma. Everything. As the power goes — he couldn't remember anything. I cannot explain to you how — okay, if you see EEG reports from the brain treatment center, you would see the back of his head, the waves in his brain, looked great. But the center and the frontal lobe of his brain, there was no activity going on. He reverted to an embryonic stage in his brain.
Philip:Some things you need to forget, though.
Christy Sawyer:That's true. That's true.
Philip:But I mean, as a minister and as a pastor of an incredibly successful church, to wake up and not know a word of the Bible, and not know how to preach — I mean, you imagine, folks, he can't drive a car. The one day I wish I could have been with you all was when Scott realized that Christy, this gorgeous woman, was his wife. That must have been a happy day.
Christy Sawyer:When someone said, you must have had a shout and a spell at that moment.
Psalm 51:12 — Restoring the Joy of Salvation
Scott Sawyer:Is she good looking? There's more. I just married her.
Philip:You've got to find joy in the middle of it. You've got to find joy. I was outside yesterday and Psalm 51:12 says this: God will restore, God will restore unto you the joy, the joy, the joy of your salvation. I said, that means I can lose my joy. If he restores it, that means I can lose my joy.
Philip:People right now, it's not by chance you're watching right now. You have lost your joy. No devil — you have lost your joy. You have lost your daily faith. You have lost it. Get it back. Tell the devil he's a liar. He is a liar. Cast down every vain imagination. Demons will be in your brain. That's where the battle is.
Philip:So the last time you were on with us, you were way worse off than you are today. And I said to you as a Christian — what does it mean? You were still coming back. You were still coming back. And Christy, I said to you, you guys need to write a book and make this a point of faith. And the name of your book is Punch Back. Put it up on the screen, Philip. I want everybody watching me today to get this book.
Punch Back Book and Ministry at wearescottandchristy.com
Philip:If you go to wearescottandchristy.com — Amazon doesn't get as much of a cut and their ministry gets more of the book's revenue — wearescottandchristy.com. And you need — you talk about a book of hope, giving someone an answer to their predicament. Sometimes you just don't understand.
Philip:When this whole thing happened and I was called and they said he is in the hospital, we don't think he's going to make it — Scott, his mom had just passed away a few weeks before, and the last time I'd seen Scott was conducting this incredible, anointed-of-the-Holy-Ghost funeral. And I'm sitting there, and his dad called me and other folks, and I said, dear Lord, please God, don't take his life. And I've watched the restoration, and there's still ways to go, but my goodness he has come back so far.
Christy's Prayer for Families in Crisis
Philip:Christy, we have three minutes left. I want you to pray over a mom that's losing their son, or family in crisis. I want you to pray that God will give them the power to get off the mat and punch back. Pray for us.
Christy Sawyer:Father, in the name of Jesus, I speak this moment, speak to this family, speak to this situation, wherever you may be, whatever you may be going through. I declare that in Jesus' name you will be strengthened right now, that the Holy Spirit will fill you and allow you to be the powerful woman of God or even the man of God that you have been created to be. In the name of the Lord, I praise you God that you are giving us faith to believe that you will move the yes in our life. You put the power inside of us through the Holy Spirit.
Christy Sawyer:Thank God that we can hold on to something that may seem like there's no answer. God, we stand on your word and we believe it for us today. We will make it. Where there seems to be no way, you will open a way, in Jesus' name. Thank you God that you will allow someone today to understand they will overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and they will rise up and speak life and faith over their situation.
Christy Sawyer:And the one key word — believe. Believe. Jesus Christ is for you. He is creating miracles on your behalf right now. In Jesus' name, Lord, I thank you God, you are strengthening us. I feel it right now in the name of Jesus.
Philip:Well, I think everyone watching now knows where the power came from. This woman would not quit. She would not give her husband away. And she is watching daily. There are ongoing medical struggles, there are still battles, but there are victories every day. I want you to get this book. I want you to get this book today. Let me put it back up again. wearescottandchristy.com. Get this book today. It is an answer to your situation. You are not destined to be counted out. Your destiny is to get up and knock the devil's head off in the name of Jesus.
Philip:We love you. Let me say this: get in contact with Scott and Christy and send them an offering, because they are living by faith every day and your gift can change their world as well. We love you. Thank you for being with us. God bless you, Scott and Christy. We'll see you again soon. Thank you for watching Daily Faith. Bye-bye.
For 25 years the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova, from providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells, to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They championed the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons, and in the process orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus.
God helped the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness. Now, no longer orphans, they want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. The Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in The Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and Ukraine who want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people.
Please contact us today by calling 1-833-DAILY-FAITH. You can also give by going online to www.dailyfaith.tv, or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Topics
sawyerpunch backclinical deathmiraculous healingbrain damage recoveryresurrection testimonyovercoming trials