Dr. Pamela Prince Pyle has witnessed people glimpse eternity.
A board-certified internal medicine physician and the chair of Africa New Life Ministries, Dr. Pyle has spent over 30 years caring for terminally ill patients in United States hospitals and Rwanda clinics.
She’s seen patients, on the brink of death, suddenly open their eyes and call out the name of Jesus or describe visions of Heaven.
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One patient, unconscious for three days, suddenly sat up in bed, clapped his hands, and exclaimed, “Jesus, Jesus!” before taking his last breath. “I have seen so many people see Heaven, see Jesus,” she told The Christian Post.
Now, she’s sharing her experiences in a new book, Anticipating Heaven: Spiritual Comfort and Practical Wisdom for Life’s Final Chapters.
A devout Christian, Pyle said it was a combination of her medical experience, faith and interest in the human experience that led her to write Anticipating Heaven. The moment of inspiration came in 2018, after 29 years of practicing medicine.
“I was asked to see a patient I had treated many times. She had a lung disease that was getting progressively worse, and on this day, she just said, ‘I’m really ready to not do treatment anymore, and I want to know what that looks like.'”
As Pyle sat by her patient’s bedside, holding her hand, she was struck by the weight of what was happening.
“I just had this moment where I glanced around the room for a second and I saw her family’s photos. I just had a pause of like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to miss her so much. I can only imagine how much her family’s going to miss her.'”
Overcome with emotion, she began to cry. But it was the patient who comforted her, saying, “It’ll be a good death.”
That moment stayed with her.
“I knew her confidence was in our destination,” Pyle told CP. “God, I think, used that moment, that phrase, that patient to really stir in my heart.”
The idea of a “good death” became the cornerstone of Pyle’s book, which is as much about preparing for death as it is about living well.
Much of Anticipating Heaven is practical, dedicated to helping people navigate the complexities of healthcare, advance care planning and spiritual readiness.
“I really wanted to address how to navigate healthcare, the principles of it so it could be applicable in any healthcare system, but how to be heard, how to prepare with questions, what to expect when you go to the hospital, what your rights are as a patient,” Pyle shared.
The book also addresses one of the hotly debated topics in end-of-life care — miracles.
“I would see so many pray for a miracle, and we’re taught in our faith, ‘As you have faith, so you will be healed.’ But the reality is, not all prayers are answered with a miracle,” she said.
Instead, she emphasizes the one prayer that always results in a miracle: the prayer of salvation. “Regardless of where your loved one has been in the past, continue to speak faith and truth and love and Jesus. Even in an unconscious state, Jesus can still reach them.”
Pyle’s personal testimony of faith is interwoven throughout her book. Her husband, she revealed, had a near-death experience that led to his conversion.
“Jesus reached him in the middle of the dark where he saw Hell. And the only thing he knew was his child-rearing in the church — ‘Every knee will bow, every tongue confess. Lord, save me.’ And Jesus saved him in that moment.”
The transformation was so drastic that she initially thought he had suffered a mental health episode. “I even made him get tested,” she quipped. But two years later, she herself came to faith.
One of the most profound aspects of her work, Pyle said, involves near-death experiences.
“In medicine, we’re always trying to describe things that we see, that we’re observing,” she explained. “And there’s two ways that people may die. One is called terminal restlessness — that’s the medical term. It’s described as fear, not being settled, crying out, talking about darkness, seeing snakes. It’s a fearful, terrible description.”
She contrasted this with what she calls “Near Death Awareness.”
“It’s often described as peaceful. The patient may begin talking to those who have already passed. They will sometimes describe getting on a train, packing their bags, and being ready to go. It’s a preparedness, a readiness and a peacefulness.”
Pyle is acutely aware of the growing support for physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia in the United States and across the globe.
“It is really surprising to me that 72% of Americans believe in euthanasia, which isn’t even legal here,” she said. “We have 10 states that allow physician-assisted suicide, and over 60% support it. But what I encourage is that there’s something in the dying process that can be beautiful. It’s an opportunity for families to come together to be reconciled. And there’s nothing more powerful than a person dying in faith as a tool for evangelism.”
Those who choose euthanasia are in unimaginable pain and despair, she acknowledges, adding she does not judge them. But she wants people to know there is another way.
“I just feel like I need to share the offerings of things that I’ve seen,” she said. “God has a plan. Our days are numbered, but when you’re choosing what I call a defined death, it may be that that was your day — but there’s no natural process to it.”
Anticipating Heaven is not just about preparing for death; it’s about how to live, Pyle said, adding: “A good death is not an event. It’s really a lifestyle. It’s how we live our life today because we don’t know what tomorrow holds.”
She calls it “living anticipating Heaven.”
“Every day, I anticipate my day. Sometimes it’s the big picture of Heaven that I anticipate. That God’s going to place someone in front of me that I can share the Gospel with. I anticipate Jesus’ return. I live in a state of anticipation. And because of that, I feel so much more joyful.”
With her book, Pyle hopes to equip churches and individuals with the tools to walk through the end-of-life journey with confidence and faith. In a world where death is often a subject to be avoided, Pyle said she wants to encourage people to look toward it with hope, confidence and anticipation.
“We have Bible studies to go with it,” she said, “to really equip the church, the Body of Christ, with this information so that they can use it as a tool to help those that are not in the Body of Christ to know His name and have hope.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
