Road To Redemption
Road To Redemption
June Kohls - Finding Hope at the Well
June Kohls draws listeners in with a profound parallel between her life journey and the Samaritan woman at the well. Like Jesus who traveled specifically to meet this outcast woman, June reveals how God purposefully seeks us in our lowest moments, offering living water when we feel most unworthy.
Growing up with an angry father and a codependent mother, June felt invisible even within her church community where leaders seemed to favor children from "normal" families. Despite early rejection, she maintained a unique connection with Jesus, asking not why her circumstances were difficult, but simply for God to heal her parents' hearts. This foundation of childlike faith eventually blossomed into her life's calling.
After marrying young and losing her infant daughter to medical negligence, June nearly succumbed to despair. The birth of her son Chad gave her reason to persevere as a single mother. Through remarkable divine intervention, a company owner offered to back her in starting a successful clothing store. Later, intentional Bible study transformed her relationship with Christ, leading to founding Heart to Cross, a ministry serving 150 women through both spiritual guidance and practical assistance.
When a stroke left June permanently blind in one eye, she recognized it as a spiritual attack. Rather than retreating, she doubled down on her commitment: "The devil was not taking me from my ordained calling." This resilient faith exemplifies how God weaves even our most painful experiences into something redemptive. June now leads women's groups at Destiny Worship Center, offering the same living water that transformed her life to others seeking wholeness.
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Welcome to Road to Redemption, a show sharing powerful life testimonies, giving hope to those on their own road to redemption.
Speaker 2:This is Road to Redemption, and this is Valerie Peterson, your host for today. I am so glad you're tuning in. We have an amazing guest here in the studio with us and her name is June Coles, and many people in this community know her and she is going to share today. We're going to start with her testimony and then from there she has some words of encouragement for our listeners. So, June, welcome to this show today.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you. What an honor to be here. Anytime I can talk about the Lord, you just call me.
Speaker 2:I love it. It's so true about you. How many years, June, have you been in ministry.
Speaker 3:Here in the area 24. Wow, 24 years 24 years and in Atlanta a few years prior to that. Yeah, so for a while for a while, for a while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Amazing, Amazing Cause I'm looking at you, know I know you well and I know what you're doing for and in this community and I can say I just so appreciate you and your ministry with women, you and your ministry with women.
Speaker 3:So I thank you. I love it. The women I minister to are gifts. They're true gifts to me. That's how I look at it.
Speaker 2:The Lord will lead one to me and I said thank you, father.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I have an opportunity to love her.
Speaker 2:Can we start and can you share your story, your testimony, with our listeners today?
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, I thought that I would start there. I will tell those listening I'm basing this on the well-watered woman and that I want to take it from John 4, when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well, yes, and he knew. He knew she felt like less because of how others looked at her, looked upon her, but he knew he made that trip there just for her, just for her.
Speaker 2:And I look at it. Wasn't, when she was there, not the typical time that people went to the well to get water? It was so hot.
Speaker 3:It was so hot when he came and even his disciples said I don't think you should be here. You know, for whatever you're tired, we had a long journey and he said no, this is where I need to be, isn't that precious it is?
Speaker 2:Talking about a meeting with Jesus right there, and I remember reading a book by Rachel Cannon about her. Her name was Fotini and she really was, you know, the first female evangelist and her story is amazing. Where she went from there. Yes, like that encounter with God totally transformed her life, right?
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, and I mentioned that. I said that's what we should do when we hear the Word of God. That's what we should do when we hear the Word of God. Even those and I'm going to talk about those that are needing a relationship with our Lord, when they hear the Word of God and it touches their heart, they are. We are to go tell everyone. Look what Jesus did.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes exactly exactly.
Speaker 3:So, all right, I share parts of my testimony and I leave out some that we just don't have time for the goodness of the Lord in my life. But I'm going to start with my life as a child and because my brothers and I lived in a very dysfunctional home with an always angry father and a very meek, codependent mother. We all suffered emotionally and did our best to cope with our life, but it was hurtful and it was embarrassing.
Speaker 3:It was as a child because we never knew when our dad would have an explosion of temper. We never knew. Therefore, we never invited anyone to our home any friends. So mother took us to church every Sunday, which I loved. I love church and that's really the only place that, as children, we went. They didn't have the money, we didn't go out, we didn't do a whole lot, but I love church and as a little girl, I could feel almost rejection or almost like I didn't matter to some of the people in the church that were from what I called normal families. The children that had normal parents seemed that the people that ran the church were drawn to them, like if there were three of us little girls and one of the uppers in the church would come to speak. They would speak, or she would speak to the other two and never acknowledged me. So I felt shunned.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes, and that's not a good feeling. Yeah, yes, and that's not a good feeling. So I felt no one knew our emptiness. My brothers and I, we were embarrassed to talk to anyone. We had no one and even because of the attitude from the people in the church, there was no one there to go to in church.
Speaker 3:Now, that may not have even been truth. That may have just been what I felt because of my insecurities. They probably some of them may not have meant to shun me, but that's how I took it because of my insecurities. So now the Lord's always working. Even in all of my hurt and all of my embarrassment, he was working. The enemy was trying to scar my heart so that I would reject Jesus, even at a young age. Because I talked to Jesus all the time and the enemy knew it. I just talked to him all the time. Yes, now, I never questioned him why I didn't have normal parents. I never once questioned him. I did ask him to heal them, even as a child I did. I wanted the Lord to change their hearts. So I finished high school a year earlier than I was supposed to. I did everything, hard studied, finished high school a year early, wow. Then I married at 18 years old. Actually, I was 18 only one month when I married. I felt desperate.
Speaker 2:Was he a high school sweetheart to you?
Speaker 3:He was older. He was five and a half years older. So I thought finally someone will take care of me and love me. So obviously I didn't have discussion with the Lord. Should I marry? Because desperate people it's true what people say do desperate things.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:So I thought finally someone would fill that void. After two years I became pregnant. I had a beautiful baby girl. She died after living only two hours. I lost her tragically from negligence from a doctor and an unqualified nurse. My life went from bad to a point that I really didn't want to live. I didn't think I could take any more hurt.
Speaker 2:Talking about loss.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was hard. The doctor. I changed doctors because I wanted a Christian doctor and I told the doctor I just want, I want my baby. The Lord's going to give her back. You know, you're young, you're not thinking right. And he said, well, you do not need to get pregnant now, your grief, you need to settle down, heal from your grief. Well, I didn't listen and I got pregnant and I had a beautiful baby boy. What a gift. Yes, so my marriage did not last, but my son, chad, my precious baby boy, chad, my precious baby boy, got me through. He got me through. I had someone that I could love and someone that loved me unconditionally. He was a joy.
Speaker 3:The Lord blessed me always with good jobs. I was a go-getter, I was determined to-getter, I was determined to be the best, and so I would move up, get promotions and all of that. Now remember, I had a son to raise on my own and I was the one bringing in the money for Chad and I. But God was working behind the scenes. You guys, I had no idea that the owner of the company I was working for. I had never discussed my past losing my daughter. I had discussed nothing with him, but he knew Someone had told him, so he brought me into his office and said that I see your work, I appreciate it and I want you to look for a small business that I could back you in.
Speaker 2:Wow, Talking about uncommon favor June.
Speaker 3:That's the Lord, he's always working. So I said, well, okay, let's do this thing. So I started looking and trying to find and I did. I found a small ladies clothing store that was for sale and it was in a nice part of Birmingham. And I told my boss or the man that owned he wasn't really my boss, but he owned the business that I had found this. So he started making calls and everything. So the Lord brought that to fruition and there I was Now remember I'm still in my 20s, y'all Very young.
Speaker 2:Very young.
Speaker 3:And was able to purchase that, and it cared for Chad and I tremendously. Okay, what else do I want to talk to you guys about? I feel like I want to get to the well-watered woman.
Speaker 3:Yes, I want to get to the well-watered woman, yes, and how the Lord used every difficulty, every heartache, every disappointment to bring me to a place that I wanted to be well-watered, so to speak. I wanted more of him, whatever it took. So I met my now husband and we started going to Bible study. That was new for him. He was a Christian and he grew in his desire for the Lord, joined a Bible study. I had been asked to join a Bible study where the woman was only asking 12 women See the Lord. I accepted yes. So that's exactly what I needed Someone that I could talk to, someone I could ask questions.
Speaker 3:I always read my Bible. I love the Bible stories, but there's something different when you dig in the Word of God for guidance. When you dig in the Word of God for guidance, and that's what I knew I needed and what I wanted. And my husband, greg, was doing the same thing with his Bible study. So it was glorious that we were growing together in the Lord. And what happens with that? You want everyone to have what you have, especially those that could identify with my past, that they were embarrassed over their past or they didn't feel good enough. My thought to every woman the Lord brings to me. I let them know you are so dear, not only to me but to our Lord. You are dear. You have so much to offer and they start realizing they are who the Lord meant for them to be. So he will use the hurts now.
Speaker 3:He's always there working, but so is the enemy, Because the enemy could see my potential, could see your potential. He's going to do anything possible to prevent you from being successful. So, anyway, when we moved here, the Lord goes before us and prepares the way. When we moved here, the Lord goes before us and prepares the way we moved here. And I was immediately asked to be a core leader at Community Bible Study and, of course, I said yes.
Speaker 1:Talk about Jesus love on women, just all that.
Speaker 3:Community Bible Study was wonderful. I wanted to be able to. There were rules, you know, and I wanted a personal relationship to teach the women, a personal relationship with the Lord and to be able to pray one-on-one with them, and all that. So Cindy Holland and I started a ministry called Heart to Cross yes, started a ministry called Heart to Cross, and back then this was before the churches really had women's work. We're going back 20-something years. So we had 150 women that registered. So it was very active. We were a twofold ministry we taught the Word of God and we helped financially destitute women. So the Lord gave me the desires of my heart. Well, after two and a half years I was considered or given the title of Mercy Administrator, and I was glad to be that, to be able to show mercy when needed.
Speaker 3:Well, in the middle of the night one night I had a pain in my head and it was pretty severe pain, but it was gone as quickly as it came. I went back to sleep. But when I woke up the next morning I was losing sight in my right eye. Well, we had a function going on in destiny. That night I didn't go to the doctor. I thought, oh, I promised I'd help in the kitchen and I'll go to the doctor tomorrow. Well, my sight continued to slowly disappear and a dear friend was working in the kitchen with me, sherry Bowling, and she was a next nurse and I just mentioned. By the way, have you ever had a pain in your head and it affected your eyesight? She said no, and I said well, I can't even see out of my right eye, hardly right. So the next morning I did, and I did what they say I had a stroke in the optic nerve. It, I guess, passed from my brain through the optic nerve. Well, now, guys, I realize the enemy was trying to kill me because we were doing great things for the Lord. He was mad, he tried to take me out and I feel that the Lord said you got our eye, you're not getting anything else. So he was right, I tried to. I even went to a doctor and stayed for treatment in California to try to bring my eyesight back. Well, I still am blind in my right eye. But you know what? It made me more determined, more determined to do the Lord's work.
Speaker 3:The devil was not taking me from my ordained calling. My calling is to love women, to minister to them. Use my testimony to let them know it's okay, what your past was, and let them know I made wrong. I look to the world sometimes to fill the void in my life. It never worked.
Speaker 3:So, coming back to John 4, when Jesus met the Samaritan woman, he went to the well just for her. He asked her for a drink, making her feel that she can and does have something to offer. But she asked questions how can I do this? Da, da, da, da. And he said you can do all things through me, I'll give you strength. Things through me, I'll give you strength. So the cup of water that Jesus offered the Samaritan woman at this point was fresh, unpolluted, clean water. So my not issue, but declaration to women going through anything, don't seek the polluted water that the world offers. Go to Christ, go to someone that can lead you to Christ.
Speaker 3:And I'll close with this. It's from Psalm 4610. I want you to understand this deeply Nothing in your life, no pain, no setback, no moment of confusion, is wasted. I am weaving every thread of your story, even the ones that seem broken or frayed, into something beautiful. You may not see it now, but I am working behind the scenes, shaping every detail for your good, because you love me, because I have called you for a purpose that reaches beyond what you can imagine. I will not let anything be in vain. Trust me, I am turning it all yes all of it into something glorious.
Speaker 2:Wow, and aren't you an example of Romans 8, 28, that he takes, doesn't say some things or a few things, all things, and he weaves them together for good. It doesn't mean they are good, right, june Right, but he weaves it together for good. Yes, what would you say? You know we always like to close and say get in the word, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Find a good Bible-based church, yes, and also find accountability. There's something about shoulder to shoulder with other women. Anything you would like to add to that as we close out today?
Speaker 3:I always give the girls, the women that the Lord brings to me Joel 2, 25, 27. I will restore to you the years that swarming locusts has eaten the hopper, the destroyer, some translations say the canker worm. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you Awesome.
Speaker 2:Thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3:I loved it and appreciate the offer. Thank you, yes thank you.
Speaker 2:If someone wanted to find out more about your ministry, can we close out there what you do here at Destiny?
Speaker 3:Worship Center. Yes, I lead a women's group on Tuesday at 9 o'clock. Unfortunately, right now we're full over full, but you can contact me at June Coles and that's K-O-H-L-S at gmailcom and I will meet with you one-on-one at the church cafe.
Speaker 2:Awesome, Thank you, June Thank you Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Road to Redemption, sharing powerful life testimonies, giving hope to those on their own road to redemption. If you have any comments or questions, we would love to connect with you. You can reach out to us at destinyradiolive. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next week on road to redemption.