‘I hit rock bottom as a teenager; today I help young people who are struggling’

Sitting comfortably in a chair at YMCA Exeter’s hostel accommodation, a 24/7 support unit for 31 young people at risk of homelessness, Meg remembers the first moment she experienced God’s heart for the most vulnerable.  

“I was about ten,” explains Meg. “I can vividly remember Thursday nights with my parents, who ran youth clubs in deprived parts of Exeter. It was an incredible ministry. We would spend time with these teens and my eyes were opened to their struggles. It was the first time I experienced my heart breaking for these kids.” 

Yet despite the powerful Thursday night ministry, Meg’s family relationships were deteriorating behind the scenes. At just 13, the struggle to reconcile faith with a dysfunctional home life led Meg to decide not to attend church with her parents anymore.  

As her parents’ marriage began to break down, Meg started skipping school and entered the drug scene to escape from the challenges of being at home. 

Hitting rock bottom  

For the next four years, Meg’s life spiralled out of control, filled with drugs, house parties and unhealthy relationships. “It was a really dark time,” says Meg. “I remember feeling totally alone at 17. I had just come out of an extremely unhealthy relationship and was in a space where I felt I couldn’t trust my friends,” explains Meg. “Everyone was just using each other to get money or get high. I felt like I had hit rock bottom.” 

In that moment of desperation, Meg reached out and picked up a book her dad had left lying in the lounge. It was Pete Greig’s book, Red Moon Rising (David C Cook). “It was amazing,” smiles Meg. “I started reading about people who were following Jesus, living selflessly, focused on prayer and experiencing miracles. It was honest. Gritty. God was changing lives. It made me start to believe again that maybe the world can change through God.”  

After finishing Red Moon Rising, Meg felt a deep hunger to pick up her old youth Bible. “As I began to read,” Meg continues, “I found there was life in the Bible and it was relevant. I began to feel a sense of peace that I just didn’t understand.” 

Music to the nations 

A few weeks later, Meg’s dad was on his way to a 24/7 prayer meeting. Meg asked if she could tag along. “He did a good job of pretending not to look surprised,” laughs Meg. 

“I remember getting to the 24/7 prayer room and walking in. People were lying on the floor. Some people were crying. Others were playing tambourines or dancing. Funnily enough it reminded me of some of the house parties I was used to, but no one was on drugs. Instead, there was this overwhelming sense of love and peace. It felt safe, which was quite a new feeling at that time.” 

Meg had another surprise when a group of elderly ladies asked if they could pray for her. “They had never met me before and there was no way they could have known anything about me,” says Meg. “But they started prophesying that I would make music that would go out to the nations. Something in my spirit resonated with their words.  

“I began to think that if God is speaking to them about my life, he must care about me. That was the start of my return to Jesus. I must have put my hand up at about 20 altar calls to follow Jesus over that first year,” laughs Meg. “I was still straddling the line between my past and my newfound faith, but as I began to learn more about the Bible and the Holy Spirit, and understand about God’s grace, the transition became easier.” 

During that time, Meg began to feel God speak to her about mission and vulnerable communities. Again, she had a deep sense of God breaking her heart for the marginalised and the homeless. But after an application for a gap-year missional internship fell through, Meg found herself falling into a band with her two cousins.     

What started as a fun idea turned into folk-rock trio, Wildwood Kin – an incredibly successful band. Complete with manager and label, Meg and her two cousins toured the UK, Europe and USA for eight years.  

Heartbreaking news 

It was in 2016, during Wildwood Kin’s busiest touring cycle, that Meg received heartbreaking news. She had lost her brother to suicide. With concerts every night and for the sake of the band, Meg pushed down her grief and just kept on going.  

“It was incredibly intense and hard,” explains Meg. “I think the music industry is quite unforgiving to grief. I carried on with the band for another four years, but I began to feel more and more unsettled. 

 “Doing what we did musically was an incredible opportunity and I don’t take it lightly. But I began to realise more and more that my passion is for community and investing in my local area, and that just wasn’t possible when we were constantly on the move.”  

In 2020, Meg felt God calling her to London. She believed God was asking her to get alongside other creatives and musicians who were spiritual seekers. “My housemate and I started Shabbat Fridays,” smiles Meg. “We’d invite musicians to our flat and we’d just sit and worship and chat through loads of questions about God. It was amazing – a really special time.” 

Then lockdown hit. Suddenly, for the first time in eight years, Meg found herself unable to travel and in a space where she could begin to process the grief that she’d been carrying since her brother had died.  

As Meg began to evaluate her life, she felt God calling her to leave the band and study theology, which would eventually take her back to her home town of Exeter.   

A new season in Exeter 

“I used to live in Cornwall and loved surfing, but now, stuck in Exeter, I decided to give skateboarding a try,” laughs Meg. “I used to turn up at 8am to the skatepark, in the hope that no one would be around and I could practise by myself.  

“I started regularly bumping into these two college students who happened to skate at the same time as me. We got chatting and they’d open up to me – it was like they saw me as a big sister figure.”  

You see incredible breakthroughs in young people’s lives as they begin to open up and trust again

As Meg continued to interact with these young people at the skatepark, God began to rekindle that desire for local, community mission. “I have a heart for the unchurched,” says Meg, “and in these two young people I saw a need for youthwork support, but nothing was in place for them. I started praying that the right people would come along to support them. One day I realised that could be me.” So, armed with her newly earned theology degree, Meg began her next chapter as a youth worker for her local church. 

Merging faith and work  

Two years later, Meg can still remember vividly the moment she saw the YMCA Exeter support worker role advertised. “Two months before the job came up at YMCA Exeter, I found myself crying every night for young people in Exeter,” says Meg. “When I saw the job, I felt strongly that I should apply, but I didn’t feel qualified. I knew if I got the job it would be God’s doing.”  

Meg’s role at the YMCA involves supporting young people – who may have been living on the streets, sofa surfing or leaving the care system – at YMCA Exeter’s stage one, 24/7 supported housing. Meg and the team of support workers provide each young person with tailored support, including group activities, mental health advice or budgeting courses.   

Each young person has the opportunity to move through YMCA Exeter’s supported housing pathway, from stage one up to stage four, at which point a young person will be living independently in a one-bed flat. 

Today, almost a year into her new job, Meg sees it as a perfect merger of everything she loves: “This role is such a privilege. You see incredible breakthroughs in young people’s lives as they begin to open up and trust again. I often see God break through where it feels impossible. And I love how we pray together as a staff team every morning. It reminds me that I need to be doing everything in the power of the Holy Spirit.” 

Meg recognises that it was her heavenly Father who led her through the dark times and back to the very people that he placed on her heart at the age of ten: “My testimony was finding a sense of true, lasting safety in the Holy Spirit, and my hope and prayer is that residents get to experience that too.”  

YMCA Exeter is one of the oldest YMCAs in the world, founded in 1846. The charity provides services in supported accommodation, mental health and wellbeing, and youth services so that all young people can thrive in body, mind and spirit ymcaexeter.org.uk    

Words by Lucy Pieterse