JEN WAS “kicked out of school” at 14. After that, in her own words, she “went pretty wild”: drugs, festivals, parties – everything possible not to conform.

In 2001 Jen was 16 and out clubbing. She met some young people who had grown up in the Jesus Fellowship; they became good friends.

“I’d been put off Christianity,” says Jen, “because Christians seemed too ‘nice’: everything ‘sorted’ and ‘tucked in’. Reality isn’t like that.”

Jen went to a church event with her new friends. Everyone was singing a song with the words “I fall on You, because everything else is insecure”.

Jen stood listening – and then burst into tears.

“I remember feeling a total peace that cleared away all of the rubbish inside of me and something in me felt satisfied,” recalls Jen, “I went home and wrote it off – thought I was just a bit emotional that day – but deep down I knew it was something more because I never cried.

“What I felt that night kept bugging me – I couldn’t forget that peace that I’d never felt before and had always wanted.”

Jen kept coming back after that. “I wanted to find that peace again and I couldn’t find it anywhere else. When I wasn’t in church meetings I had panic attacks and it was these that drove me to give my life to God.”

A year later, at 17, Jen decided to get baptised. “I was determined to be different – so I was up for trying it!”

“People talk about amazing experiences they had when they were baptised – but it wasn’t quite like that for me,” admits Jen. “I was baptised in a river; it was freezing and I didn’t really feel anything special. But there was a real change in me after that. From that moment on I didn’t take drugs or get drunk.”

By 2007, Jen had reached a point in her life where she knew she had to make difficult choices. A long-term relationship meant that her future seemed certain, but she knew God was calling her to more.

“Somehow I knew that it compromised what God wanted me to be,” says Jen. “I can be quite reckless and I realised that God wanted to use that recklessness for Him.”

At a Jesus Festival, another song line hit Jen: “So let us rid ourselves of anything that slows us down”. The reality of what God was asking hit her. She ended her relationship, and a week later moved into a Jesus Fellowship Christian community house called “Living Stones”.

“I love the idea of a random bunch of people living together, muddling through living for God and making it work,” she says.

The future? Jen’s passion is to see young girls realise they are loved and valued by Jesus; to find their security in God.

“I know what it’s like – I’ve been there. You see it all around you, young girls who think they’re worthless. They give themselves to things that just cause more pain, because they don’t think they’re worth anything better.”

“I want to show them that there’s something more. If God can rescue me, He can definitely rescue them. It’s a long journey; I’ve still got a lot to learn.”