In 2017, Johanni was one of the first at-risk children in Honduras to receive vital care and mentoring from mission partners Lindsey and Steve Poulson. Several years later, thanks to steadfast support, she’s on a path to a bright future.

“When I was eight years old, I spent most of my time out in the street. My parents didn’t send me to school. No one was looking out for me except myself.”

These are the words of Johanni, a 16-year-old girl in Honduras. But it’s not just her story – many thousands of children in Honduras are living this today. Many children’s parents don’t have the capacity to care for them properly. Many children don’t go to school for one reason or another. Many children try to find a sense of belonging on the street and are drawn into gangs.

Back in 2017, aged eight, Johanni used to spend a lot of time in a local park. One day, she met some young adults who were different. They listened to her struggles and told her Jesus loved her. They invited her to play some fun games. Over time, these people, mission partners Lindsey and Steve Poulson, helped Johanni and 14 other children register for school. It was the beginning of a new life chapter for Johanni as well as the start of what would grow to become a life-changing project for children.

Mentoring makes the difference

This group of 15 children were the beginning of Proyecto Alas, a programme that supports at-risk children to continue in education and make good choices for the future. A key part of this programme is that each child was assigned a mentor, a safe adult to meet with for an hour a week to talk about anything and everything.

Mentors also visit them at home and pray with children’s families when possible. “My mentor listens to me, encourages me and helps me make positive decisions,” Johanni says.

Now 16 years old, Johanni is an aspiring nail artist. “Most girls my age don’t make it to high school, so I’m really proud of my achievement and growth.” She is sure she wouldn’t have made it this far without her mentor at her side, supporting her all the way. Johanni still spends time with the kids she used to play with in the park – but now, they do their homework together at Proyecto Alas.

The Poulsons are grateful to have walked alongside Johanni since the beginning of the programme in 2017 and to have seen her and others grow and flourish over the years. More recently, the Alas team have also set up a transition to adulthood programme for those who have graduated from secondary school, and Empresas Alas, a business arm that aims to make the project more sustainable. Now, 65 children and young people are connected to the mentoring programme, 10 young adults are in the transition programme and Alas’s businesses – a barbershop and a coffee shop – aim to provide employment for young adults.

Faith is an integral part of everything they do. The mentors, who are all Christians, are committed to demonstrating and proclaiming who Jesus is. “If we do that well, it’s kind of inevitable that people will want to know him,” Steve says.

One step at a time

Rather than expecting lives to change overnight, Lindsey and Steve and other mentors with Proyecto Alas invest in incremental development – walking alongside at-risk children and young adults over several years as they take one step at a time. The Alas team begin by help meeting children’s most basic practical needs, supporting them to build secure relationships and to continue their education. Without this foundation, ideas of living a stable, independent life and going to university will remain distant dreams.

It’s slow, steady work for both the mentors and the children themselves. Lindsey, Steve and others involved with the project have always known that the long-term, slow-burn work of mentoring is worth it, but seeing someone like Johanni come this far is the ultimate reward.

As Johanni’s words at the beginning of this article stand for many children’s stories, we hope the following words of hers also reflect the stories of many other children: “At Proyecto Alas, I have finally found a place where I belong, where I can be myself, and where I can begin to dream about my future.”

Pray together

Give thanks for the life-changing work of Proyecto Alas.

Pray for God to strengthen and encourage Lindsey and Steve and to bring many more children to the programme.

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The post Johanni’s journey: street life to full life appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

There are five new faces at the CMS trustee table. They bring a wealth of experience across finance, governance and pioneering leadership.

Dupe Adefala completed an MA with CMS and is a Biblical and Theological Studies graduate of Regent’s Park College. Dupe is driven by a passion for community action and growing the next generation of leaders.

Our finance and governance functions are boosted by three seasoned experts.

Tunji Iyiola, a Fellow Chartered Accountant with over 20 years of senior leadership experience, shares our heart for discipleship at the edges.

He is joined by Jonathan Smith, who brings 25 years of public sector accounting wisdom alongside a dedication to his local church.

Oluwaseyi Kehinde-Peters’ experience spans HR and social impact, focusing on economic dignity and inclusion for women and young people.

Ruth Whitaker brings with her a passion to see people engaged in mission and encouraged to give with joy. Ruth was CEO of Mission Aviation Fellowship for 16 years. Her skills will be invaluable to equipping CMS supporters and encouraging people to follow their own calling into mission.

Thank you to all our trustees, past and present, for giving your time and skills for CMS.

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CMS celebrated the graduation of 38 Pioneer Mission Training students on 11 December 2025 with a commissioning ceremony filled with prayer and praise.

James Butler, Pioneer Mission Training leader, opened the event with a reminder that we are sent by Jesus into the harvest that awaits – to leave behind what is past, carry forward what we’ve received and go where Jesus leads.

One graduate, Paul Latham, says he has “never fitted in”, but that at CMS he found a community of others like him.

He describes the pioneer teaching team as “great founts of knowledge,” and stresses that the strength of their teaching is that they’ve done pioneering mission themselves; they can offer guidance based on their own experience.

Angela Rena Collins Itzstein, who also graduated, said one thing she particularly appreciated about the African Christianity focus was the breadth of perspective afforded by students in different countries participating online:

“You have all of these different people, from all different types of experiences, wanting to do different things, but we’re all able to come together and share our hopes and our dreams and the things that God is saying to us and share that in this space.”

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Human suffering has a way of overwhelming us, often leaving us asking, “how can I make a difference?” But for some, unimaginable pain isn’t a barrier – it’s a call to action. 

In 2005, while lamenting the suffering of millions of women impacted by Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and forced marriages, CMS mission partner Ann-Marie Wilson asked God: “Who will help girls like this?” To her amazement, the answer came back as an audible voice: “You will.”

Two decades later, Ann-Marie is still answering that call. Through her international organisation, 28 Too Many, she has gathered the stories of over 3,000 FGM survivors and built a global movement dedicated to ending FGM worldwide and advocating for women’s reproductive health. 

We pause to celebrate her achievements and thank her for her long-term service as a CMS mission partner.

Here are some of the people and places that have shaped her world-wide fight.

The girls who launched a movement

Fatima: The catalyst

Ann-Marie’s fight began with an encounter that forced her face-to-face with unimaginable suffering. In 2005, she and her team found Fatima, a 10-year-old girl, alone and seven months pregnant following a rape by militia in the scrubland of West Darfur.

They rushed her to a clinic where a caesarean section saved her life. As Fatima recovered, Ann-Marie learned more about the devastating health complications that followed her FGM experience at age five. Fatima’s desperate circumstances echoed the biblical words, “for such a time as this,” from Esther 4:14. Her story was Ann-Marie’s Esther moment, serving as the launchpad for a mission to free girls from FGM and the forced marriages that often follow.

Hannah and Grace: changing a community’s mind

Just 10 and 12 years old, Hannah and Grace shifted an entire community’s view on FGM. 

When famine struck Kenya, their families relocated to a new settlement. The move allowed the girls to start attending school, where they learned about FGM practice’s illegality and severe health consequences.

The girls immediately planned to run away, seeking refuge with relatives. They bravely refused to return home until they were guaranteed safety from FGM. Their courage forced the community chiefs to meet, who guaranteed the girls would be heard. Hannah and Grace addressed the entire community, which, convinced by their testimony, decided then and there to never perform FGM again. No girl younger than them in their community has been cut since.

Mary: breaking the cycle

Mary’s life shows how devastating cycles of harmful practices can be stopped. As a teenager, her mother convinced her that FGM was a harmless procedure that would bring glory and respect. Mary eagerly awaited her turn to be cut, but her eagerness turned to terror. She spent a full month recovering.

Married at 19, Mary began to understand the full extent of the lies she’d been told when she required surgical intervention to safely deliver her first child. Eventually, her husband abandoned her and their three children. Through this ordeal, Mary came to understand that her value existed far beyond her relative worth to a man.

Now an anti-FGM activist, Mary helps run alternative rite of passage ceremonies, replacing the harmful practice with a celebration of womanhood.

Lydia: lasting educational impact

Anti-FGM efforts are often hindered by cultural taboos and a lack of open discussion about female sexuality. Recognising this knowledge gap, Lydia, a British teacher, volunteered her summer to help educate educators in Uganda.

While running safeguarding workshops in rural southwestern Uganda, Lydia made a startling discovery: only one in 20 teachers had any knowledge of FGM. Lydia trained them on how to recognise girls who had been subjected to the practice and prevent potential complications. A year later, she returned to find the teachers had successfully implemented improved school policies and safety measures. 

Her dedicated work was later scaled up into a nationwide programme promoting girls’ education and preventing female students from dropping out of school after puberty.

Global impact: from New York to Kenya 

Ann-Marie and the 28 Too Many team haven’t just changed individual lives; they’ve shifted global policy and fostered grassroots change across continents.

The UN: securing the Sustainable Development Goal

In 2012, Ann-Marie set her sights on a monumental task: ensuring FGM was included in the final document of a major gathering in New York at the full Commission on the Status of Women with over 10,000 attendees. Her team worked relentlessly: holding seminars, asking questions at key events, addressing world leaders and handing literature to dignitaries. After seven days of non-stop work, she got the result she wanted.

“Those three small letters FGM are now in the document, and therefore in the Sustainable Development Goals,” Ann-Marie says. “This is one of my greatest achievements.” 

Her work secured its place in Sustainable Development Goal 5.3: ‘Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.’

West Africa: outreach and media

In 2015, the 28 Too Many team traveled across West Africa, delivering critical reports and findings. In Senegal, Ann-Marie delivered four talks a day, including a training session to 30 women in a remote village, translated live. The rapid pace continued in Gambia, where they recorded an interview with a newspaper. The next day, the entire story, featuring their work, was printed word-for-word on pages 2 and 3 of the national newspaper. In Mali, they successfully met with UNICEF, who agreed to host the first NGO gathering in the region, providing a critical platform for stagnant anti-FGM efforts.

Kenya: teaching healthcare through cricket 

In a unique partnership opportunity, 28 Too Many collaborated with Cricket Without Boundaries (CWB) in the Central Maasai area of Kenya. CWB uses cricket coaching to deliver vital health messages, and Ann-Marie was invited to deliver FGM training to both the CWB team and the local communities.

Upon arrival, seeking permission from the stern-looking Elders was the critical first step – a refusal meant being sent home. After explaining their mission, Ann-Marie paused and asked, “I don’t even know if I have permission to speak of FGM and sexual matters in public or in mixed company.”

The Chief immediately stomped his stick on the ground and declared with a single, powerful word: “You have permission!”

With clearance secured, they delivered FGM awareness sessions to over 3,000 people across schools and community forums. They trained 25 local adults – including teachers, youth workers, and health professionals – to become ongoing FGM and cricket coaches. 

The project culminated in a celebratory day led by the Maasai Cricket Warriors, where the community publicly committed to ending FGM and pledged to carry this anti-FGM message into neighbouring villages, ensuring the movement was self-sustaining.

Ann-Marie Wilson’s journey is a powerful testament to how a single person can spark profound global change. Her achievements, the lasting change she and her team have impacted across the world, didn’t come from a place of status, power or genius, just the simple, radical act of daring to ask, “Who will help?”

It shows that when you align yourself with God’s mission, anything is possible.

If you want to follow Ann-Marie’s work, you can sign up to her updates.

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