At 18, Natasha was drifting. Church was familiar, but faith felt distant. Grief, pressure, and the desire to fit in had slowly pulled her away from the relationship with Jesus she once longed for as a little girl.

“I was going to church on Sundays,” she says now, “but from Monday to Friday, I was living for the world. I didn’t realise how far I’d drifted away from Jesus.”

That low period – months of numbness after her grandmother died and the collapse of her university plans – could have marked the beginning of a long slide away from God. Instead, it became the time when Jesus began to draw her back.

A “Yes” That Changed Everything

It was during this painful season that Natasha joined the sound and production team at her church.

“I thought, if I’m doing something, I’ll want to be at church,” she says.

That simple decision placed her in the path of London City Missionary Charlie Macdonald, who asked if she could help with the Life Exhibition – a week‑long experience that LCM has been working with to share the story of Jesus with young students in local schools.

Natasha had no idea what she was agreeing to. But she said yes. And what started as a tech role quickly became a way to find something far deeper.

A Week That Opened Her Eyes

At first, Natasha stayed behind the scenes, focused on ensuring the tablets, screens, and cables used at the event worked. But midway through the week, she saw something she couldn’t ignore.

A teacher from a special needs school arrived irritated and disengaged.

“He was huffing and puffing,” she remembers.

He ushered his class in, eager to finish quickly. He wouldn’t look at the volunteers, let alone join the activities. Yet by the end of the session, everything changed.

This teacher lingered. He asked questions. He wanted to know more.

“It struck me so deeply,” Natasha says. “If one hour listening about the life of Jesus can turn someone like that around, what could a relationship with him do?”

That moment became a mirror. She realised how half‑hearted she had been with her own faith. She had been given every opportunity to know Jesus, yet she had settled for only knowing about him.

And that realisation reshaped her life.

A Desire to Share Jesus

After that week, Natasha didn’t return to how things were before.

“I wanted to do more,” she says. “I wanted to be around the children, the teachers – I wanted to tell people about Jesus.”

She began volunteering with Faith in Schools, joining assemblies, school visits, and Easter experiences. The young woman who once stayed behind the tech desk now stepped to the front to speak. It was something she never imagined doing.

She discovered she loved it.

“It makes me so sad to think people go through life not knowing there is someone who loves them,” she says. “If we love people, how could we not want to tell them about Jesus?”

A Life Rebuilt

The transformation in Natasha didn’t stop at newfound confidence. Her service deepened her relationship with Jesus.

She kept returning to one truth: God was pursuing her. Even when she felt at her lowest, she saw God at work in unexpected ways, from university offers she hadn’t expected to encouraging moments during her time volunteering.

“Life with Jesus feels steady and full of purpose,” she says. “I still have hard days, but I know I’m loved. That changes everything.”

Around the same time, another local church partnered with them, adding five more volunteers to the team.

Even unexpected disruptions couldn’t derail the week. Schools arrived late, the weather interfered, and schedules shifted – but every single session still went ahead.

Through it all, Natasha saw clearly that God was stitching the whole project together, step by step, far beyond what she could have organised alone.

“God wanted it to happen,” she says. “And He brought everything together.”

Natasha now regularly volunteers, shares her testimony, and mentors others her age who want to grow in faith. She’s no longer the quiet teenager in the back of the room. She’s a young leader helping others encounter Jesus.

“Jesus Is My Saviour”

Today, Natasha is 21, studying at university, serving faithfully in church, and deeply rooted in her walk with Jesus.

“Jesus is my saviour,” she says simply. “I don’t know where I’d be without Him. Probably drifting – maybe even out of church. I never want to go back to that place. The joy I have now is real, and it’s because of Him.”

One week with the Life Exhibition reminded Natasha of the God who had been pursuing her all along.

Now she helps others discover him, too.