Not holding back

My Bible: reasons to believe in the power of the Bible

‘In 2004 I was a primary school teacher. I decided to do some volunteer work over the summer. I stood at train stations helping people with where they wanted to go. There was a group of teenage girls mucking around. But I started talking to them and found I could do so normally. 

Isaiah 54.2 says, “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains out. Do not hold back. Lengthen your chords. Strengthen your stakes.” I opened the Bible and read these verses. I thought that God wanted me to work with teenagers.

That was scary. So, I worked with Youth For Christ, teaching sexual relationship lessons in secondary school. I loved it. They think they know everything, but they don’t! Fast forward 13 years, and these verses spoke to me again. I was between jobs. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to do something with human trafficking.

I realised that I was meant to set something up, so I set up my organisation, Freedom 2. We work with girls who are at risk of exploitation in East London. It might not be sexual exploitation, it might be drug running. Without these verses I would have thought that I couldn’t do it.

They have given me courage and confidence. The work I do is so rewarding. Now I feel that I am doing something, even though I know I could be doing more. Doing something makes me feel content.’

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