At the age of five, Paula’s little world was thrown into a tailspin when her father committed suicide. The sudden loss of her father affected Paula’s entire family. Lonely and disillusioned, Paula began a decade long search for the love and acceptance that she had only known from her father to fill the void her father’s death caused in her life. Paula’s cries for love were muffled by years of sexual and physical abuse from the ages of 6 to 13. She experienced bouts of depression and suffered from a serious eating disorder. She grew rebellious and cold, oppressed by her situation. She was lost, and hurting, and desperate to be loved.

“To the mass majority of people, she came out of nowhere. It is the same way you would feel if you were walking through the forest and an arrow pierced the air. Seemingly, it came out of nowhere and it hit a target and the target slumped to the ground, not knowing from whence the shot came. But an arrow cannot shoot itself. It has to be propelled in the bow of a mighty archer who has a precise aim. And it is in that sense of an archer’s bow that Paula White has been shot into this generation to declare the oracles of God.”

- Bishop T.D. Jakes
Founder and
Senior Pastor
The Potter’s House
Dallas. TX


At the age of eighteen, Paula was introduced to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Compelled to learn more about a Savior who would love her unconditionally despite her past, Paula spent the next two years buried in the Bible, trying to learn everything she could. As she opened herself to God, He revealed Himself to her. God showed her how He would use her voice to set millions free. She had visions of preaching the Gospel to millions and seeing people freed from bondage on every level.

Paula began ministering in the inner cities of the Washington, DC area in the late eighties. By the early nineties, she was in post-riot Los Angeles, teaching Jesus to children whose neighborhoods had been hardest hit by violence.

The evolution of Paula White Ministries has included hundreds of large-scale outreaches to the needy and lost, an orphanage and tremendous international relief. Paula’s journey from a troubled past to experiencing the abundant life of a true overcomer motivates her to touch people who, like she once did, find themselves without hope.

“I know that life is filled with challenges and opportunities and I believe that God wants us to face adversity equipped to win. God wants us to turn our stumbling blocks into stepping stones,” says Paula.

Someone once said that she serves Faith Food. She serves the Word of God and that is full of faith – faith to take you from the “familiar” and move you into the future. “Faith causes change. Anytime there is change, there is opportunity. That includes the opportunity to grow more and see more and be more. Yes, it also includes the opportunity to fail,” as Paula puts it, “but failure can be a step along the way to completion of a goal. You can fail your way to success.”

Acts 10:34 tells us that God is no respecter of persons. That means that anyone, (yes, anyone) can be used by God as long as they yield themselves to His will. That fact was the driving force that catapulted Paula White into her destiny as a powerful vessel of God.