Nobody's Child

John Robinson had the worst possible start in life. Taken into care at four months old, he was left in abusive foster homes for most of his childhood. At fourteen he was sent to a detention centre for arson. Gravitating towards a life of crime, he moved from borstal to the streets to psychiatric hospital, a scarred, tattooed, broken and angry young man. Yet God had plans for John. He would go on to run the Eden bus ministry: frontline youth buses which travel the toughest parts of Manchester with the gospel. The teams befriend young people and sometimes accompany them to court. 'My passion is, and I pray always will be, for those who feel downtrodden, hurt and rejected,' says John Robinson. 'They feel like scum, and wake up each day with nothing and no one. I know exactly what that feels like.'