Betheseda Ministries was founded in the fall of 1993, shortly after founder Leslie Montgomery became a Christian. Raised in a vortex of abuse as a child, Leslie had spent years working through the residual issues associated with it in secular counseling, education, and literally hundreds of self-help books – all to little avail. After becoming a born-again Christian, she began a walk of healing found only in dependence upon Jesus Christ and has never looked back.

Not so ironically, the name ‘ Bethesda’ means, ‘house of mercy.’ Bethesda is a pool of water mentioned in the New Testament of the Bible, in the book of John in the 5 th chapter. It was a pool that is associated with the healing power of Jesus Christ. The New International Version says;

  1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"

  7"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."

  8 Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
      

Leslie really related to that story. She knew that although she was not physically disabled, she was challenged emotionally, mentally, and spiritually due to some of the difficulties she’d gone through in life. One of the most profound things that touched Leslie’s heart when reading that passage was that Jesus asked the disabled man if he wanted to be healed. It seemed at first an absurd question. Doesn’t everyone want to be healed? Healed from the vast spiritual separation from God in their heart? Healed from any emotional trauma one might have endured? Healed from mental or even physical abuse? But as she reflected on the many people she’d counseled through the years she realized that many people didn’t want to be healed because one, they got so much attention not being well, two, because they were too scared to cling to Christ and finally, because they feared their identity in Him, that is, who they might become.

Additionally, the story impacted Leslie because Jesus is referred to in the Bible as the Living Water, and it is said that if one drinks from the well spring of Jesus, you will never thirst again (See the beautiful, restorative story of the Woman at the Well in the New Testament book of John 4:1-26). The disabled man at the Pool of Bethesda didn’t need to be put into the water to be healed. He just needed to put his faith in the Living Water – Jesus.

Bethesda Ministry first started with the girls Leslie counseled professionally at a residential girls home for the Y.W.C.A. (Young Women’s Christian Association), and then to women she counseled at the Tennessee Prison for Women in Nashville, Tennessee. Every chance she got to share the power of healing found in faith, Leslie took it, sharing the miraculous changes that had and were occurring in her.

Leslie became an avid reader of the Bible so that she could learn more about God’s Word and share it with others, and became a prison chaplain for a large multi-level jail in Nashville working with both male and female offenders. After working with inmates for approximately 18 months, Leslie began writing full-time for a variety of sources on counseling issues from a Christ-centered perspective including, but not limited to, Focus on the Family. From there her ministry skyrocketed, and since that time she has written several books and traveled world-wide sharing the healing power found in Jesus Christ.

While many men are and have been blessed by the work and books of Leslie Montgomery and Bethesda Ministries, the predominate focus of the ministry is on women and children.

The Pool at Bethesda Ministries is dedicated to revealing Biblical truths through a variety of sources and a commitment to guiding both believers and unbelievers to God and His healing power. Every book, tape, and other product offered through this ministry are developed to lead unbelievers to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and/or believers to a deeper, intimate, or healing relationship with their Savior through God’s Word, the Bible.

Related:

Pool of bethesda Mission Statement
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Bible History : The Pool of Bethesda

	This is one of the few sites that there is actually little debate about. It is located just north of the temple mount. This is the "exact" location where Jesus healed the man at the waters of the Pool of Bethesda. The story is found in John 5. The colonnades were visible at the time of Christ, but the pools would not have been enclosed like it now is. At that time, the floor level was much lower.
( Image courtesy of Dig the Bible)	During Biblical times, pools were public facilities where water was stored for later use. They generally were not used for swimming.
Jerusalem at the time of Christ
	Pools of Bethesda in the foreground.  It was here that the Savior healed an invalid on the Sabbath, leading to a negative encounter with the Jewish leaders (John 5).  The Antonia Fortress (castle) is the background.  The Antonia fortress was the Roman garrison and a possible place where Christ was taken for trial before Pilate.
(Model, Holy Land Hotel, Jerusalem)