Andrew Hamblin and his wife Taylor at a recent church service in Gray, Ky. | Facebook/Andrew N Taylor Hamblin
Seven years after snake-handling Pastor Jamie Coots of National Geographic s popular Snake Salvation TV show died after he was bit by one of his snakes during a church service, his community of Appalachian Pentecostal snake-handlers are now looking to Jesus and doctors for help with venomous snake bites.
Coots, who starred alongside Pastor Andrew Hamblin from LaFollette in Snake Salvation, died in his home in 2014 after turning down medical assistance to treat the venomous snake bite.
In a report from National Geographic published Monday, Hamblin, 29, who now pastors the Free Pentecostal House of Prayer in Gray, Kentucky, with his new wife, Taylor, shows that the group of Pentecostal snake handlers are increasingly calling on doctors for help when they get bitten while handling venomous snakes instead of simply praying that they don’t die.