Barbara

Meet Barbara!

Name:

Barbara Kruger

Age:

She’s not telling… but in our opinion she doesn’t look at day over 35! 

Favorite Color:

Blue

Hobby:

To  REALLY be in the presence of God in the holy of holies, completely overwhelming kind of way.

Barbara in all of her loveliness after Friday Morning Chapel.

What we love about Barbara:

Her genuine desire to everyone in her life experience the presence of Father God, her nurturing “mama hen” personality, and her willingness to do what God asks of her!

Want to see a life truly transformed by the power of the love of Jesus? You need look no further! Barbara is a woman who has not only given her life fully over to Jesus, but who leads the way for others to do the same. There is no person to great or small, in Barbara’s book that is undeserving of the love of Christ! Her testimony is so wonderful and so powerful, we HAD to share it!

Picture the scene-- it’s midweek at The Father’s House Church at our weekly Wednesday night church service. The presence of Holy Spirit is powerful and thick, and people from all sides are worshipping the Lord and experiencing Father God’s embrace in ways they never have before. In the midst of this, you hear explosions of emotion from the left hand side of the church-- Weeping, laughter, deep and powerful intercession. What you find when you look to investigate these noises is a woman completely undeterred by the people or circumstances around her. She is concerned only one thing, getting in and staying in the presence of her Father. This woman, if you haven’t already guessed, is Barbara!

Barbara is not only presently enrolled in our “Core School,” which is the first phase of Kingdom Awakening Apprenticeship, she is also an active member of The Father’s House Church. She leads a ministry called “Setting the Captives Free,” where she takes teams once a week into the Butte County Jail to speak hope and life into completely hopeless situations. As she shared her heart about jail ministry, Barbara told us,

“I go in and I just love on the girls, and I’m Jesus to them. I tell them about our program and I encourage them and lift them up, and I see their lives change as well as the lives of everyone else around them. I basically see people that are as bound up and broken as I was, and I share Jesus with them and they have a new life.”

Barbara is a force to be reckoned with when there’s a life at stake, and she pours into and loves on those girls in jail tirelessly. In fact, there are many women in Life Recovery Ministries* today because of the relationship Barbara has culminated with them in the jail.

Barbara with some of the ladies from Life Recovery Ministries

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 But Barbara’s life hasn’t always been so full of vivacity.  Quite the contrary, actually, her life used to be the picture of dysfunction. When asked to describe her life prior to her conversion, Barbara was at a loss for words.

“My life was absolute chaos—I never knew when I was going to jail or losing my kids—I was constantly out of my mind, ready to snap—right a the edge of a nervous breakdown all the time.”

            Barbara’s life took a turn for the worst at age 13, when her father was sent to prison. This was too much for her to handle.

“I was always a daddy’s girl.” She told us.

Upon her father’s imprisonment, Barbara ran away from home and began using Methamphetamine.

“That,” she recalled, “Is when the insanity began. Everything was in an uproar—drama all the time!”

            This insanity continued well through Barbara’s teenage years into a large majority of her adult life. Over the years, Barbara had two children, and they were living with her on a ranch where she was staying at the time. She was tired of the dysfunction that was ruining the lives children and herself.

“I prayed to a God I didn’t even know saying ‘Get me out of this!’” Barbara told us. “My actual bottom was when I took my daughter, Shree, to jail with me and I lost my grand daughter and my youngest daughter for the third time to CPS. I knew that Shree was there because she was just following my example. That’s when I knew if I didn’t change my life, my daughter would be going in and out of prison for the rest of her life, just like me and the rest of my family were.”

Barbara continued to say, “To lose your kids in one thing, but to sit in a jail cell with your daughter and know that it’s because of your actions is beyond anything!”

            Once she had resolved to change her life and her jail term had ended, Barbara knew going back to her prior living situation would bring nothing but death to her and her family. “Everyone I knew was using, and if I went back with them, I’d be doing the same thing!” Barbara told us.  So, when she got out of jail, she contacted Danny Harp, who she had met in a recovery program in one of her brief attempts at sobriety, and told him that she’d  had enough. Danny invited Barbara to come to a revival meeting, which she obligingly attended. At this meeting, Danny introduced Barbara to a friend of his, who offered to take Barbara in until she was able to get on her feet.

“I ended up staying there for quite awhile, sleeping on the floor,” Barbara recollected, “I was originally only supposed to stay for three days, but they kept me for nine months!”

After those nine months, Barbara ended up finding a job, getting her own place, and regaining custody of her youngest daughter, Holly. Barbara’s other daughter, Shree, still continued in her addiction, but as Barbara walked out more and more of her own recovery, Shree eventually followed.

            After serving God for years, a hunger for intimacy with God began to increase more and more inside of Barbara. She had been attending services at The Father’s House church for quite some time, was leading teams into the jails to minister, and was very intrigued by Kingdom Awakening Apprenticeship’s “Core School.”   

“I wanted to be complete—wanted to be able to minister without anything holding me back.” Barbara told us.

At first, because of the schedule of her job, (she does taxes at H&R block seasonally) Barbara didn’t think she could do Core School. But when Barbara decided Core School was something she wanted to pursue, she approached her boss and explained the situation to her. (Now mind you, the Core School Barbara was wanting to attend was at the peak of tax season.) Her boss’ response to Barbara’s request of a change of schedule was, “Well, Barbara, I know that you pray, and things happen for people who pray.” With that, Barbara’s schedule was reworked, and Barbara enrolled in Core School.

            When asked what’s changed inside of her since the start of Core School, Barbara says that she’s learned who she is— and she’s “more Jesus” than she’s ever been before.

“I have more self worth that I didn’t have before. I didn’t think I deserved things and now I believe I deserve them! I have a lot of peace—a LOT of peace, and just fullness. In the rest of my time in Core school, I just want to know him more.”

And Barbara’s life now? There’s no way to describe it other than completely and utterly restored! Barbara told us with joy and sincerity in her voice,

“I have everything, I’m serious! I’m so blessed! I’m walking in such a state of blessing right now!”

Her family. Her relationships. Her heart. Her finances. All has been given back to her in a way that only Jesus could have done!

“My life used to be [absolute] INSANITY,” Barbara told us. “But now? God tells me that I’m his beautiful daughter… and you know what? I believe it!”

It is people like Barbara that make our jobs worth it.

Barbara Kruger, Thank you for being you! We love you and we’re so proud of you!

*Life Recovery Ministries is a residential 12-month drug and alcohol treatment facility and is situated in South Oroville as an arm of The Father’s House Church.