OUT LATE with mates, drinking, bit of shoplifting: Emmaline at 14 was a pretty ordinary teenager. But just one year before that something extraordinary had happened to her. Something that meant she could never quite feel right about the alcopops or clothes-nicking from New Look.

Emmaline, now 18, grew up on a council estate in Brighton with her parents and two younger brothers. "Life could be pretty chaotic" she recalls, "but Mum and Dad were Christians and that brought something really good into our lives". When they'd found the Jesus Army they'd found the church they were looking for - and church was "home" to Emmaline, too, from an early age.

It was at the Jesus Army in Brighton that Emmaline made friends with two other girls, Amy and Lizzie. Their friendship was a lifeline. "We were very close" says Emmaline "because we knew church was different - and church was who we really were."

"If we were in trouble or down or upset, we'd help each other call out to God" she says. "I knew there had to be something more - or I had a hope there was something more!"

Hope became certainty at a big Jesus Army event in Sheffield in autumn 2004:
"We were hearing about Jesus calling people to follow Him. I just knew I had to be baptised - then and there.

"It was just incredible. Everything inside of me felt clean and new."

But just a year later, Emmaline's faith was slipping away. "As I realised the cost of following God, I started to try and blank it out" admits Emmaline.

Two paths opened up before her. "It was either what I selfishly wanted or what I knew God was saying".

"You could tell that she was struggling" recalls her friend Amy "and we had our struggles, too. But Emmaline knew that she had to make a choice. I knew she'd make the right choice. And we'd pray together and that would make things seem clear again."

Certainty for Emmaline came in a church meeting as they sang "this is my home, the harbour of my soul." "I knew then I couldn't live my life as it was any more" says Emmaline. "And I knew I had to get away from Brighton and make a new start".

So Emmaline upped and moved to a big Jesus Army house in the Northamptonshire countryside. It was a leap of faith which smashed a lot of insecurity.

Amy is fired with esteem for Emmaline's courage: "I admire how determined Emmaline is" she enthuses.

And Emmaline found new friends in Northamptonshire who spurred her on like Amy and Lizzie had done: Esther, 15, and Fiona, 24, look at the real Emmaline inside, not the external image.

And Emmaline is clear about one thing: "Jesus is my friend" she says simply. "You help a friend. You talk to a friend. And you work at a relationship together."

Emmaline now longs to bring people into what she has: "Coming from my old way of life, I really care about people living on council estates, facing the kind of pressures I faced. Some people in my situation never had church to turn to - so I want to be there for them, to be a friend."

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