So often we are asked why we are called Woman at the Well Ministries. Please read on so that we may let you know the miraculous blessing we have received just from the name that God has given our ministry.
As a child my Daddy had a story in the Bible that he chose just for me. When I was but a little girl, he began to speak to me about the Woman at the Well. At least once a week, my Daddy would chat with me about the important lessons that I could learn from the Woman at the Well. Time passed, but his Bible story for me never changed.
I am sure to Daddy it seemed like only days, but in reality many years had passed and I was in high school. I was so blessed; my Daddy took me to school nearly every day until I could drive my self. Every trip to school included a conversation centered on the Bible, Jesus or some other spiritual thought. And like many days before this particular day Daddy spoke about the Woman at the Well. Only this time he asked me a question that would linger in my heart and mind even until this day. He said to me, “Kim, if God had sent you to the Woman at the Well where would she be today?” I was so concerned with my own reputation and making sure that no sin could “get on me” that I didn’t really have anything to do with those who did not walk closely with God. My Dad had spent much time using the Woman at the Well to explain to me that we could go to where sinners are and bring them to where we are without ever being who they were or staying in the sin they were practicing. He often explained that sinners were the ones who really needed to see the love of Jesus and the transforming power of His grace and mercy. He and my Mom were always trying to teach me how to reach out to others and bring them to where I was without them bringing me to where they were. This particular day, Daddy was bringing it home and once and for all he was going to settle the issue with me. All day, I thought about his question. At first my heart sank. How could my Daddy not think that I was the best in the world? How could he not know I would have done the right thing? Soon, though, my thoughts turned to prayers, as I knew exactly what my Daddy was saying. I knew in my heart that if God had sent me to the Woman at the Well, for fear of my reputation, I would have not gone and she would not have met the Saviour I carried within my heart. I knew that my focus had shifted from the center of God’s will to the pride of my heart. I knew that my intentions were great but my motive was from pride and not really from the love I had for Jesus. So, that day in the halls of my high school I learned great lessons from the Woman at the Well.
Time passed and still at least a couple of times a week my Daddy would speak to me about the Woman at the Well. It seemed as if he never ran out of lessons to teach me from the Woman at the Well. Then suddenly like some terrible nightmare, I found myself kneeling by the bedside of my dying Daddy. He was just a short time from his coronation day and his entrance into that city not made with hands, eternal into the heavens. But like countless times before, he spoke to me about the Woman at the Well. This time, however, he told me that I had understood the lessons from the Woman at the Well and that he knew I would live them. He then said, “Kimmy, every chance you get, tell the Woman at the Well about Jesus.” Of course, I never forgot that conversation and I purposed in my heart that I would do my very best to never forget the lessons learned from the Woman at the Well and to try and reach every Woman at the Well that God placed in my path. Then the miraculous happened. God called me to the ministry and suddenly because of open doors I had just hours to come up with a name for the ministry that God had called me to. But, I needed only seconds. God had named my ministry from childhood and this was the beginning of a new and wonderful journey learning the lessons from the Woman at the Well.
Kimberly Miller, January 2006