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CBN.com – Everyone at sometime or another has feelings of hopelessness. For the woman you’re about to meet, those feelings lead to long-term depression. But she found a safe haven in 700 Club prayer counselors.
Pam Bolden-Carter seemed to have a great life... a loving husband, friends, and a beautiful home. But Pam carried a burden that had taken root in her childhood.
"My dad was controlling. Everything had to be his way. You had to be perfect. If you didn’t make straight A’s in school, you’d get punished for it. You had to have this perfect life. I guess I could never live up to that perfection. Nothing was ever good enough," Pam tells The 700 Club.
That pressure lead to depression.
"I would say the earliest I suffered with depression was probably the teenage years, 15 or 16-years-old."
She questioned whether or not God loved her, but at the same time, Pam says she felt God was calling her to serve Him.
"One of the calls, I knew, was to preach the Gospel. I knew that from the very beginning."
Pam went on to college, married, and had kids. She even got a master’s degree in Christian counseling. But off and on, her battle with depression continued.
"I was at the doctor’s. Believe me, they got so sick of me and didn’t know what to do. 'Here she comes again. What’s the matter Mrs. Carter? I told you to go on medicine.' I said, 'I tried it. It doesn’t work.' You know, there was a three-year period of my life when I kind of walked in darkness."
Pam tried to kill herself by overdosing when she was 15. After years of depression as an adult, she was thinking about suicide again.
I just felt like my whole life was falling apart. I just felt like there’s nothing left. I remember I heard something say, “Call The 700 Club.” And that’s when I made that call.
Pam talked about her depression. The counselor listened, and then prayed with her.
"As she [prayer counselor] began to pray, she said, 'God has a great call on your life. And I don’t know why this is coming through to me today, but honestly I really see you doing seminars. I see you doing great things. And you may not believe that now, but God is telling me to tell you this.'”
Pam remembers, "I never told her I was a minister, so she didn’t know that. She didn’t even know me, so I knew it had to be God. And I think from that day, I really realized that God did love me."
Pam decided that with God’s help, she could live a life free from depression.
"I would just get up and pray every morning. If I felt like I needed to call The 700 Club for prayer, I called them. To be truthful, they were in my cell phone! I just hit the number, ‘700 Club.’ "
She remembers having thoughts of, "This is getting crazy. I'm calling these people every day!"
Pam won the battle, and went on to found an organization she called Women of Character.
"God established it to be a training ministry for women to be able to use their gifts," says Pam.
She says she’s grateful that 700 Club prayer counselors were always there to help.
"It's free. Get on the phone, and call. There’s going to be somebody on the other end of the phone to tell you there’s hope, even when you don’t think there is. I can tell you there’s hope. I know that there’s hope, because I’m still here today."
Do you need hope? Call The 700 Club Prayer Counseling Center today at (800) 759-0700. .
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
