I believe in God because when I did a work placement in a prison, I could see him make a difference to people's lives.

Lots of the women I met with in prison had problems, as you might expect. Most had hard backgrounds and many came from damaged families and had had a very shaky start in life. They'd made some bad choices, somewhere along the way, and ended up spending time in prison as a consequence.

Some of the women I met had become Christians while in prison, others had already been Christians, but had wandered off from their faith, then refound it through the chaplains in the prison.

I was really struck by the way these women's belief in God gave them hope and strength, while going through a very difficult time in their lives.

Time spent in prison is hard for anyone, but the women I met who were Christians were very definite that God was with them, helping them through it, and even giving them a lot of joy, in very bleak, harsh surroundings.

I also saw them grow, little by little, in self-confidence, in being able to forgive themselves for the harm they had done to others, and in being able to forgive those who had damaged them. They began to appreciate how much God loved them, and how much he forgave them, and as that sank in, it changed them in all sorts of ways.

I've been a Christian for almost as long as I can remember, but was very moved by such clear signs of God being at work in real people's lives here and now - and in ways I'd hardly expected when I first turned up at the prison and all I could see were the bars.