Gareth Jones is LCM’s Field Director for Children, Youth and Schools. He is passionate about sharing the gospel with young people because he knows the difference Jesus makes when we feel utterly broken.

There was a book on Gareth's shelf that he didn't read for a long time. It was a Bible his sister gave him when he was 17.

"She had written on the front of it, saying ‘if it remains closed, it'll always be a book. But if you read it, it will change your life,’" Gareth recalls.

At the time, it didn’t mean much to him. But that Bible would later mark the turning point of his life.

Growing up fast

Raised in a small Welsh town, his parents were not Christians. In fact, Gareth didn’t know a single Christian during that time and had no real concept of faith growing up.

"I wouldn't say anybody I knew was a Christian. I didn't even know what a Christian was," he says.

Gareth’s childhood was anything but easy. His parents’ marriage was difficult. His father was vicious when he drank, and Gareth experienced his share of family violence.

His world was shaken further when Gareth was just 11. His mother, his anchor, died suddenly.

"It tore my life apart," he says.

Thrust into secondary school with a volatile father and only his older sister around, he spiralled into gang life, drugs, violence, and truancy.

"I didn’t care what happened to me,” he confesses. “I didn’t think I’d live beyond my late teens. I was just empty."

In the middle of this darkness, Gareth began questioning life. He remembers nights lying awake, staring at the ceiling, silently pleading to be taken away.

"I just thought 'There’s got to be more to this world than this.'"

But then things started to change

It began when Gareth’s sister introduced him to a group of young Christians at an outdoor pursuits centre. The contrast between his rough background and their peaceful, gracious demeanour stunned him.

“They didn’t swear. They were kind. They had such inner peace, and I wanted to know what they had,” Gareth recalls.

“So, I opened the Bible my sister gave me and started reading it.”

As he read the Gospels, something awakened in him.

“I couldn’t believe how amazing Jesus was. How he loved people – it blew me away.”

Still, Gareth felt unworthy to be a Christian.