"Charlie" interviewed by Sandie Keetch
Rescued from Life on the Streets
Young, fresh-faced and with a
purpose in life, the future looks bright for Charlie.
But there was a time when Charlie
knew only shame and hurt, trapped in a desperate cycle of drugs and
prostitution.
Hope replaced despair when she met
the Magdalene Group – a Norwich Christian charity. At their King Street
drop-in centre, she received the love and acceptance craved since early
childhood abuse and the death of her grandmother.
Gradually, trust flowed back into
Charlie’s fractured life. With the group’s support she fled to safety
to escape the drugs and vice that had gripped her teenage years.
She was baptised to mark her
new-found faith and now has a Christian husband, having enjoyed a
fairytale wedding..
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"To me, prostitution was
no different from sexual abuse, except that I was being paid
for it... I feel God has taken all that away now,” says
Charlie who found a warm welcome at her local church." |
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Prayer and counselling helped
Charlie come to terms with her past which has included an abortion, the
slimmers’ disease anorexia nervosa and three years as a Norwich working
girl.
Her fresh start came after
suffering a miscarriage and being detoxed from drugs. “My life still
seems like a fairytale but I want others to realise that they too can
escape from life on the streets.”
In a frantic bid to feel clean,
Charlie used to bath in disinfectant after working. She regarded herself
as ‘low life’ and recalls: “I had no self-esteem, I used to sleep with
anyone. I made myself look really hard, but deep down, I was hurting. I
think I needed what I though was love and affection from the men I
picked up on the street.
“To me, prostitution was no
different from sexual abuse, except that I was being paid for it. I used
to earn up to £200 or £300 a day and it all went on drugs, drink and
night clubbing – I was heavily into speed and smoking cannabis. But I
feel God has taken all that away now,” says Charlie who found a warm
welcome at her local church.
“Everyone has treated me with
respect and loved me for what I am now. It is an honour and a privilege
to be a Christian and walk the path Jesus wants rather than the path of
my old life. When facing difficulties, I ask the Lord to remind me that
nothing is going to happen that He and I cannot handle.” |
