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I saw a vision of a woman holding her arms out beseechingly as on a refugee poster. I wondered what she wanted: she looked desperate for something. Then words moved past like a television credit: what can you give us? - Jackie Pullinger
Jackie knew that she had to take God's calling seriously and head off. But how? She applied to all the missionary groups she could think of, to church organisations and the Hong Kong government, but all the doors closed in her face. ‘You're too young, you're too inexperienced, you have the wrong qualifications,’ she was told. Just as she was about to give up, her vicar told her to go anyway. In 1966, she bought a one way ticket on the cheapest boat she could find that was going to Hong Kong. She barely had enough money for this, and there was no turning back. She found a job teaching music at a primary school which was located in the Walled City - Hong Kong's most deprived and dangerous area. Most of it's inhabitants were poor, and had to work in sweatshops under appalling conditions so they could eat. Others became prostitutes or sold drugs. All of them feared the Triad gangs – even though most of the gang members were just teenagers. Eventually, she gained the trust of these young men, and one by one they began to believe that she really meant what she said – that she cared for them. Many of them were drug addicts. Miracles happened as young lives were transformed by the power of the gospel, and the boys were leaving their addictions behind completely. Several reformed addicts joined Jackie in her mission. Jackie promised herself very early on that she would never ask for money to support her work, but money started coming anyway. She won the trust and approval of the Triad gangs, to the extent that when vandals ransacked her youth club one night, a Triad boss sent guards to watch them so that it wouldn't happen again! As Jackie's work continued to grow, she found herself able to open a second house. When she needed a third home, Jackie, and a couple of American missionaries, set up the St Stephen's Society. She continues to work in Hong Kong and south-east Asia today. The society has become one of the most successful drug rehabilitation programmes in the world, rescuing and redeeming hundreds of young people from a life of misery on the streets.
