Teenager in Hong Kong Rehab.

Teenager, Alison Lievesly, has swapped Ashtead for a hot, humid and very noisy "camp" (shanty town) in Hong Kong. She is working with addicts, prostitutes and the homeless - people who are often seen as failures and drop-outs from society. But that isn't how Alison sees them, because she knows God can transform lives.

Alison is working for St Stephen's Society set up by Jackie Pullinger. In 1966, Jackie left England because she felt that was what God was asking her to do. She had no idea where God would take her, and ended up working in the Walled City in Hong Kong. Now demolished, the Walled City was a lawless district, a haven for drugs, illegal gambling, prostitution and pornography. In a few cramped acres tens of thousands of people lived in squalor. The police were loath to enter the district.

It might seem foolish, but Jackie went into the Walled City and talked about Jesus. She helped people as best she could, and prayed. In answer to her prayers, brutal gang members gave up violence, and prostitutes found new ways to live. From those beginnings grew the St Stephen's Society, which now houses, at any given time, 400 people at various stages of rehabilitation.

Alison has joined a team led by Cheung Jai. "Cheung Jai is a walking miracle: he is an ex-herion addict and violent criminal who was often kept in a straitjacket and spent 3 years of a long prison sentence in isolation. He is now wonderfully gentle," says Alison. "We visit old people and hospitals, and take rice boxes to street sleepers. I'm constantly amazed to see God changing the people I work with.

Alison's day starts at 7am and finishes at 10pm. But she still manages a run in the mornings! "A lot of the work involves chatting with ex-addicts, whom we call brothers and sisters," Learning to develop healthy relationships is an important and time consuming part of rehabilitation.

But why couldn't Alison have looked for similar work here, or gone to college, like many of her friends? "For 16 months, God constantly challenged me not to go to university. I argued it out a lot, because it is a huge step. But the call was so clear that in January I applied to the St Stephen's Society. God may want me to end up helping others back home. For now, I see being in Hong Kong largely as a learning experience.

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