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Back on the streets

As a drugs dealer and criminal, Paul Aylen knew what it was like to be homeless, sleeping rough on the street. Then his life turned around — no more break-ins or drugs. He was able to get an education, a job he liked, and even acquired a lovely wife and baby daughter along the way. Today he’s back on the streets again. But this time he’s telling other people how his life was turned around.

Paul’s downhill spiral began as a child of just six years old when his parents got divorced. He recalls: ‘I felt a lot of hurt and anger. All this anger just built up because of rejection by my Dad’. Paul became so unstable that he had to be placed in foster homes. By his teens, he was in trouble with the police and expelled from two different schools.

‘At 17, I found out where my Dad was. As soon as I saw him, I knew I didn’t like him. I wanted to cry out to him, ‘Where were you in my childhood, when I needed you?’ I tried living with him, but couldn’t. So I ended up on the streets, sleeping rough.’

So desperate

Returning to his mother, Paul’s difficult behaviour left her unable to cope. He ended up on the streets again. He became so desperate that he decided to commit enough crime to get arrested. It worked and he spent 15 months in a probation hostel.

Paul’s troubles grew. He and his long-term partner split up. Then he was rushed into hospital with what was diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. It took months for him to learn how to walk, talk and use his hands again.

Moving into a house with other people who were heavily into drugs, Paul became a drugs dealer. He explains: ‘We all want to be loved. We all need acceptance. When I was a drugs dealer, people would turn up at my door needing me, wanting me.

‘Then, after a few years, something happened in my heart. I realised I couldn’t cope anymore.’ The turning point for Paul came on New Year’s Eve in 1994. ‘I was stoned on drugs, sitting alone drinking beer in a miserable bed-sit. I thought, “I’ve tried women, drugs, drink, but nothing’s worked for me. God, if you really are alive, then come down now”.’

A few days later he went to a minister and said: ‘I want to find Jesus’. Paul found Jesus — and a brand new life. Now he’s teaming up with Open Air Campaigners (OAC), who tell others how God helps them. Paul explains, ‘I believe in the God of miracles. He can change anybody’s life if they let him’.

For more information, contact OAC at http://www.oacgb.org.uk or on 0191 268 4320.