It was never how she dreamt she would be spending her 46th birthday; sitting in a little house in Belfast with two transvestites, sharing a meal and laughing alot.  And as they partied together Jacqui knew there was nowhere else she’d rather be.

The encounter came about through Jacqui Robb’s work with Hope Ministries.  The Monkstown woman, along with a small group of friends, are regular visitors to the night-time streets of Belfast.  They befriend the prostitutes, spend time with them and along the way come across young people struggling deeply with their sexuality.

On the night of her birthday Jacqui says she knew that God wanted her to spend it with these two young transvestite men.  Knowing that they were struggling financially she bought them a mircrowave and when they opened the door and saw the gift, the tears started to fall…

“They’d been rejected by the church,” explains Jacqui, “but that microwave spoke volumes to them.”

And that night was to be a special one.

“We had dinner together,” says Jacqui, “and then they danced for us, we sang for them and to top it off they gave me a ‘tranny’ make-over!”

Then came the questions, the prayer requests, the hurts, the fears, the heart conversations.  ”How could anyone ever love us?” these young guys wondered. “We’ve always been told God hates gay people, yet you’re saying that He loves us?”

Jacqui looked into their faces and saw their longing for validation and Love.  She stared into their eyes and saw their Creator gaze back at her.