“God, please open the door for me!" prayed five-year-old Hannah, struggling with the locked door. Click. Open door.

Hannah's childhood seemed as full of God as some are full of teddy bears. Hannah was born and grew up in a Christian community in rural Brandeu, in Norway. It was a fairly idyllic existence.

"We had a little farm," says Hannah - "well, a few pigs, a few hens, a dog and a cat."

There were 30 other people living with her and her family in the Christian community at the time. The children within the community were home-schooled together.

"There weren't many of us in the 'school.' In fact at one point I was the only one in my class," says Hannah, "but it must have been good for us: we got the best marks in the county."

Nestled in this secure environment, Hannah grew in her simple faith. As a 10-year-old she was powerfully filled with the Holy Spirit, an experience which gave her an overwhelming desire to be baptised in water.

"My parents felt I was too young, so I nagged them for a whole year," she laughs. "They finally agreed, so when I was 11, I was baptised. It was an amazing moment; I remember feeling so happy afterwards."

Over the next few years Hannah "waxed strong in spirit", throwing out secular CDs, and telling her whole family that they needed to be more holy. The original angel child.

But all that was to change.

"When I became a teenager, it all went downhill," says Hannah. "I started drinking with a few of my friends and got more into boys."

This may sound normal enough for a teenage girl, but it led to Hannah's faith sliding away. A year or so later Hannah's family moved away from their community and Hannah had to start from scratch in a new place. She struggled to adapt, especially starting a new school. Her unusual upbringing meant she was dismissed by her new peers as "weird".

"I began to hate my life, and hate myself," says Hannah. "I actually wanted to die - I couldn't see the point anymore."

Hannah never actually attempted suicide, but as she puts it, she "gave up on life". She couldn't see a way out, a point beyond her hopelessness. So when one of her few friends started smoking and drinking, she joined in too.

But Hannah knew it wasn't who she truly was. She would think to herself "Is this going to be the rest of my life?" She knew that deep down, it wasn't what she wanted, or what she'd dreamt of in her childhood.

"I knew there must have been a purpose for my life," recalls Hannah. "I wanted to find out that purpose."

Her breakthrough happened in 2005 when her older sister, also a Christian, had completed a "Training Year" at a Jesus Fellowship Christian community house in the UK. She invited Hannah over for a Jesus Fellowship festival weekend.

"Wow. I was blown away!" enthuses Hannah. "I had felt so far away from God, and now my eyes were opened to how I could live if I wanted to live totally sold out for God."

Hannah was impressed by the easy friendliness of other people at that weekend. She had become used to people shunning her or staying in their own friendship circles. But now she was greeted and made to feel welcome.

The warmth touched Hannah, and she decided to stay in a Jesus Fellowship community house in London for her summer holiday. At the time she was 17.

Why London? "Initially, because it was the capital," says Hannah. "It's the centre of England: there are over seven million people living there; that's a lot of people to reach!"

She wanted to meet a variety of people from different backgrounds, races and cultures. The diversity of people attracted her immediately.

In the short month that Hannah stayed in London, she formed close relationships with the people living there and started to really grow spiritually. But her month in England was soon up and Hannah returned to Norway to start her college course.

After only a few months, she grew restless. "I was fed up of college," recalls Hannah. "I didn't fit in. I just wanted to chuck it all in and go back to England."

So, in January 2006, in a leap of faith, Hannah decided to leave her home, her country and her family and embark upon a Jesus Army Training Year at "Spreading Flame", a Jesus Fellowship community house in London.

"My view of church was quite selfish really," admits Hannah, "in that I saw it as basically just for me. Now I can see how wrong that is! Being here has opened my eyes to the power of love - for each other and for those we meet - wherever they're from."

As her Training Year drew to its end, Hannah began to pray urgently about the decision that she needed to make: what now?

The answer came when she was reading her Bible - a verse leapt out at her:

"In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple... Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?" (Luke 14:33-34)

Hannah saw this as an answer to her prayers and made the brave step of giving up everything she knew in Norway to move into Christian community in London. She has since started co-leading a group for teenage girls and longs for it to increase.

"I think it's important to make sacrifices to show God that you're serious," says Hannah: "something this good is worth paying a high price for."