Like many people I know I didn't particularly have a good home life and can honestly say I had no relationship with my father. Nor did my mother and I spent my childhood just wishing that they would get divorced. My father died when I was 15 and now that I am a Christian the only emotion I have toward him is a sense of loss, knowing that I will NEVER have a relationship with him.

At school, I quickly learnt that the more outrageous one was the more popular you would be. From being very shy at a young age, I taught myself to change. All through primary school I was top of my class and would have been Dux of the school in Grade 7 had I not been expelled. I was smoking at a younger age but by the time I was twelve I was beginning to experiment with drugs and sex.

Not having had to do homework or study at primary school to excel, I continued not to in high school and just relied on my talents to get me through. By Year 10 I was still getting good results but the lifestyle I was indulging in took its toll and I was asked not to come back in Year 11. I went on the dole, back when you could do nothing and get away with it, and lived life to the full. Raging out, as we called it back then.
I remember turning 18 and many people I knew where having fun in the pub scene etc. but having already been doing that regularly since I was fourteen, I was bored.

Not long after one of my trips over east, I became pregnant. I had a wonderful man I lived with in Sydney who wanted to marry me, and I'm sure would have been a wonderful father to my son Jermayn, but I ran away from that. Just like I always did because I was afraid to commit myself.
When Jermayn was one and a half my friend, Janet, and I decided to drive around Australia. We arrived in Broome and I found out that an old boyfriend had gone to Geraldton and was now a Born Again Christian. I was horrified so caught a bus down to Geraldton to rescue him. It didn't quite work out like that as I got saved too! I went back to Broome to break the news to Janet and collect my car, only to find out that while I was away she had also been witnessed to and was now saved.

Sometimes I think about the extremely dangerous situations I put myself into during my life. Like waking in the morning not knowing how I got there, hitchhiking or traveling around with another female and a baby and picking up hitchhikers, and can see that God must have had a plan for my life to have protected me so much. My life as a Christian has been full of blessings but has had its fair share of trials too. However, because of my faith in Jesus Christ and his promise that he will not put me through more than I can handle, I have learnt to work through things and not run away, which never works anyway. I know that if I hadn't have been saved when I was, there is a good chance that I may not even be alive today.

Being a Christian doesn't make you perfect and that's not how you get to heaven. The great thing is that we are saved by grace and as long as Jesus is Lord of your life, you WILL make heaven your home, no matter how imperfect you are!