John Robinson
JOHN ROBINSON had the worst possible start in life. Taken into care at four months old, and never wanted or visited again by his alcoholic mother, John was left in abusive foster homes for most of his childhood.
Knowing nothing but an absence of love and total rejection, by the age of 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. Today he runs the Eden bus ministry: frontline youth buses which travel the toughest parts of Manchester with the gospel. The teams befriend youngsters and sometimes accompany them to court.
'My passion is, and I pray always will be, for those who feel downtrodden, hurt and rejected. They feel like scum, and wake up each day with nothing and no one. I know exactly what that feels like.'
John is married to Gillian, an ordained minister in the Church of England. They have two daughters.