The Well Ministries

by Kristina M. Rhoades
Originally printed in the March 2000 issue of “The Well”
Some details were eliminated from the original printing due to space. Dates and other information has been updated to current year.

Added Note: This is my personal testimony of how the Lord touched my life and healed me from a lifetime of depression and gave me the vision of The Woman at the Well and this ministry. I know it is long, but it is worth reading!

Just like many other children I suffered from peer pressure. It was much worse than most would experience though. This abuse from my peers started the blows to my self-esteem, which in turn caused severe depression. I believe that emotional abuse is worse than physical abuse in some ways. With physical abuse there are visible wounds and others can see why you are suffering. With emotional abuse the wounds are so hidden that sometimes you can’t even see them yourself.

All through school I remember being the center of everyone’s attention – not in a good sense, but that I was the brunt of everyone’s jokes and mockery. It wasn’t just typical childhood teasing. This was mean and cruel. I remember my mom calling the school on many occasions complaining of how I was harassed and mistreated.

I was always overweight but did very well in my schoolwork. I was a good girl. I didn’t smoke or drink or swear. I could never cheat on a test. But I can remember that the only way I could get my peers to speak to me was to let them cheat off my test papers or let them copy my homework. That was just as bad as cheating myself. They teased me for being a good girl, for being overweight and for being smart. It was unmerciful.

I remember once, while in high school, being nominated for Homecoming Queen. When the announcement was made of the finalists names everyone laughed when mine was read. At first I actually thought I could win. Ha! You know how in a multiple choice test the options to choose from are usually two that can be close to the answer and one so far from the answer that you can rule it out right away. That’s what my nomination was – just another joke – so far from a possibility that I didn’t even get one vote. I couldn’t even vote for myself.

My first boyfriend didn’t come till age 16½. It was the one thing I had sought my whole life – acceptance from my peers. I was so afraid that if we didn’t stay together I would never find someone again who liked me. With typical teenager/parent troubles coupled with other troubles at home, I couldn’t wait to marry him. I had already been accepted to college but chose not to go there and marry Lou instead. We were married the year after I graduated from high school. Though my parents were against me getting married at 19 years old and though we have had our share of “rocky roads” in our marriage, I know that God had his plan for us to be together in marriage and in ministry all the way from the beginning. We’ve been married now almost 23 years and in ministry for almost 14 years. Things like that just don’t happen by chance.

It was my husband, while we were dating, that brought me to church. I was almost 17 years old when I gave my life to the Lord for the first time. I had not been raised in a “church-going” family. My parents really didn’t understand my newfound relationship with God but the people at the church gave me the acceptance I had been searching for. It wasn’t from my peers there, but from the adults, who would have been the parents of my peers.

I spent the next 19 years looking for the acceptance of my peers, going in and out of depression because I couldn’t find it. I really didn’t think about acceptance from God. I was only concerned with approval from my peers. It wasn’t until late summer of 1996 that I realized that. It was then that I stopped looking for that approval from my peers and started looking to God.

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