Dawn is now 26 but when I first met her she was roaming the streets in Gorgie, next to Heart of Midlothian Football ground with a whole team of others that were ready to rebel against whatever they could. Not much hope in store for any of them on the surface but as I got to know them through church based detached Youth work it was clear that not one was outside God's reach.

At that time, ten years ago the central features of their lives were drink and violence and yet a strange sense of community, the common ground of life experience and rejection of a lot of the system. Over the months they took on names and then personalities and then to a degree relationships and I got to know what were the big issues in their lives, violence, fragmented family life for some, little expectation for themselves and a dependency on alcohol. Little hope? or not, because they found 'non holy' Christians who loved them even though it was a struggle.

Things came to a head after some months of rejecting the Gospel for Dawn because one night she knew that she needed to make a response. Straight away you could see the difference in her eyes but the years of habit were hard to break out of. Church sometimes worked for her and sometimes didn't, sometimes it was in Christian homes where she found she was cared for. And then the test when her closest contacts moved away and those in the church who knew her didn't quite gel with her although they loved her.

Now she has a two-year-old and is separated from the father. What of Jesus? Now He seems far away. She felt she has been given a raw deal. Does she still believe in God? Probably like 80% of young people she does - but is He real? Probably not, like perhaps most of that 80%.

So who has failed? Has she, have I, have the church where I worked? As she related how others in the group of ten years ago are doing - single parents, pimps, drug dealers, alcoholics, living with violence - I wonder whether she has failed at all?

Is it my perception or had God done a work which did change her life and saved her from the worst of these things her friends were experiencing? What is it to bear lasting fruit?

How much responsibility do we have in the process of ensuring that it lasts?

Children - Bible Sayings:

The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.

David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought with the Finklesteins, a race of people who lived in Biblical times. Solomon, one of David's sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.

When Mary heard that she was the mother of Jesus, she sang the Magna Carta.