I’m like an onion—many layers—but this season my journey through education best defines me. God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

Born in 1973 to a Sierra Leonean father and Grenadian mother, I grew up in a single-parent home in West London. My early childhood was full of vivid memories—nursery days, simple joys, and a natural love for learning and play.

I moved schools a few times, and from early on I showed both resilience and independence. I loved sports, struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia, and often felt misunderstood in the classroom. My strengths were never fully recognised, and I faced challenges that shaped both my confidence and my character.

Despite setbacks—including academic struggles, school transitions, and personal misunderstandings—I kept going. I eventually discovered my learning difference at 26, which changed everything.

My life shifted when I encountered faith and gave my life to Christ. From there, I returned to education as a mature student, raised two children as a single mother, and overcame significant personal and academic challenges.

I went on to achieve qualifications including GCSEs, a foundation degree, and a BA (Hons) in Early Years Teaching. Today, I work as a Learning Mentor, run my own company, Be One Hope, and am developing a mentoring framework to support young people in finding purpose and direction.

For me, HOPE used to mean Hell On Planet Earth—but now, through God, it means Heaven On Planet Earth.

My framework is built around:

• H – Happiness
• O – Opportunities
• P – Purpose & Positioning
• E – Emotional Literacy

WEBSITE: https://beonehope.org/

Welcome to 12 Minute Converse with Jesus Believers.

God chose first to have a conversation with us, his creation.

Our prayer is that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.

Praise God for you Natasha, it's a great pleasure to connect with you.

What part of the world are you in today?

I'm actually in England, United Kingdom, London, West London.

Now I saw that you have Caribbean roots somewhere in there, right?

Having a Grenadian mother is what I saw, is that correct?

That is correct.

My mom is originally from Grenada, Mount Morris, and I'm very proud of my Grenadian roots.

Did you get to visit Grenada?

I have, yeah.

I visited quite a few times.

I've really grown in love with the island.

I'd love to go out there and do some work, whether it'll be working with the youth and the young people.

I'm always trying to think of ways that I can give back to my community.

Immediately your heart went into giving back to the youth.

Tell me about that.

I'm an early years practitioner and I do youth work, I do mentoring, and I also do early years work and play work.

So whenever I was studying, I was doing my degree and I was going back home to the Caribbean, I just thought it would be so nice if we could bring some of the stuff that we're doing in the UK over to Grenada.

I feel it's important to do as much as you can to give back to your community and your roots.

What developed your heart to be the way it is?

Everything that the Lord's given me the opportunity to do has always been off the back of my passion for community and teaching children their skills and helping them harness it from a young age.

Where did you come into a relationship with Jesus?

I grew up as a Catholic, so unbeknown to me, I always really loved the Lord.

So when I made my first early communion, I remember just having this feeling of, I'm going to get married, I'm getting married to God, and my mum looking at me like I was crazy, like what are you talking about?

However, with that said,

when I was 23 years old, I had a personal encounter with Christ and I'd been reaching

out to him, I'd gone through a very difficult time, and I wasn't in education, I was a single mum,

I had hit rock bottom, and I felt the Holy Spirit just very present in my home, just saying

I'm going to be okay, and everything that I didn't even think of, the Lord just started downloading

all of these things about what it's going to be like in heaven, and I didn't have a clue where

this feeling came from, but I had this strong desire to get baptised, and I went to get baptised

in my own bath, and people in my family thought I was going crazy.

So I went to church, and again the Holy Spirit convicted me, and I used to be addicted to smoking cigarettes, and I left that service after the Pastor doing an altar call and praying, and the desire to smoke just left me, and it was such an obvious thing, like people were like, hasn't Tasha really stopped smoking?

Nobody believed it, and I couldn't explain how this desire left me, and I remember seeing a

couple of my cousins, and I was already testifying to people and giving them the cigarettes, I said

look, I've just come back from church, I don't even want them, and obviously because I wasn't

studying the Bible on a daily basis, and I was just having all these little encounters,

I couldn't quite put my finger on it, and then obviously if you're not in the Word, or you're not

being discipled, or you're not in fellowship, you're going to backslide, aren't you?

So every time I went to church, I'd have another miracle, or I'd hear another service that just really convicted me.

So every time I was in the presence of the Holy Spirit, whether it was in church or out of church, I just got convicted and started studying the Bible.

I met a lady on the street, she looked at me, pushing my buggy, and she invited me to church, and the church that she invited me to had a specific ministry for arts, media, and sports, and they ticked all of the boxes of things that I enjoyed.

So I thought, let me go along, but the fact that she was talking very open and honest about failed relationships, nobody talked like that about what their life was really like.

It was almost like the woman who met Jesus at the well, she kind of told me everything I needed to hear in that moment, and of course I wanted something better for myself and for my children, and the rest was history.

That's amazing.

How many children do you have?

I have three.

I have a 34 year old, he's graduated from university as a single mom, I've got a 30 year old, she's born again filled with the Holy Ghost, she's doing great things, married to a great man of God, and now I have a 13 year old young lad, so I have a big gap.

I did get married, but that's another testimony in another story, but I say all of that to say the Lord restores and he makes all things like you didn't even go for it.

If you had to align yourself with a Bible character, who do you believe would fit?

I love so many characters in the Bible, but it'll be Job and Joseph because of the trials and tribulations, and I could see the blessings of the Lord through through it all, what the enemy meant for evil, the Lord turned it for good, and I know they're male characters, but I also love Esther because I feel like I have been appointed for such a time like this.

Did you ever smoke again?

Do you know what, there was one time where I did get drawn back into smoking, but that was after eight years, and that was when I was aligned with the wrong partner.

So you know, sometimes if you're in a religious environment, you think, oh you need to do this xyz, but really you have to worship in spirit and in truth because you cannot be unevenly yoked.

You need to, and this is really the most important thing, find out what God wants for your life, not what you want, and not what people think you need, because God's got the best plan for you.

Is being someone who smoked and drank the way you did, does it come into the ministry when you're speaking with other children?

Does it give you an edge in that you know where they are or how they feel?

Absolutely, everything that I've been through, God has turned around and used for me to minister to other people.

I'm not on the stage like as a pastor, but in the marketplace, so I've spent 10 years as a pastoral support worker, and I've had so many victories and breakthroughs because of what I've been through.

Let's imagine five years from today, you're listening to this conversation.

What's a message you'd leave for future you?

Continue to be obedient to what the Lord is calling me to do.

Do not be anxious about anything, because as in Jeremiah 29 says, God knows the plans he has for me, plans to give me hope and a future.

Let's tap into HOPE, because that caught my attention.

We have an acronym for HOPE, which is Helping Others Pursue Excellence.

You talked about HOPE moving from hell on planet earth, which I was like, wow, where do you even got, where did you get that, right?

To happiness, opportunities, purpose, and positioning, emotion, literacy.

Please dig into that for me.

I had a business before, and it was called B1 Sports and Games, and I just couldn't understand where this B1 was coming from.

So B1 means B1 with Christ.

If you remain in him, he will remain in you.

If I was to register a company again, I couldn't open it as B1 Sports and Games, I'd have to do it as something else.

So what I did, I registered it as B1 HOPE, because where my mum lives in Grenada, there's a part where she is, it's called HOPE.

So the Lord was really calling me to HOPE, and also the parish of St Andrews.

And I was just like, if we could go back to Grenada and restore what the enemy has stolen from our family, it's going to take a lot of HOPE.

But then I started seeing that the Lord just started to answer our prayers bit by bit and provide people to support us and help us because we were aligned with what he actually wanted.

God has just been restoring my whole family one by one, just been baptised, come to know the Lord.

And I'm not saying that life isn't worth it without its challenges, but we mustn't give up HOPE, because, you know, love, hope and faith, they're ingredients that are all strong pillars, the greatest being love.

Some people think, oh, to give up HOPE, what's the point in trying to be hopeful in a dead situation?

The way the Lord has restored my life and the way he has turned my ashes into beauty, and he continues to do it.

It's just amazing.

Natasha, this has been a great pleasure, my friend.

I appreciate you being so open with us.

I pray that the person that's listening understands that they too can come to Christ and understand the love that he has for them, whether or not their sinner is seemingly the worst thing they've ever done.

I pray that the opening of this conversation allows them to understand that there is hope in their lives.

In closing, is there anything else you'd like to share?

If you don't know the Lord, look at Proverbs 3, verse 5.

I think that was my

my hook and anchor for many, many years before I even started knowing the Bible, and it's just,

you know, it's a proverb, it's trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own

understanding, and it goes on to say in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path

and he will protect you, he will certainly guide you, and he'll speak to you through people, through

dreams, through visions, you'll have so many miracles in your life.

Just trust in him, obey him, and he loves you more than you can ever imagine, and he's got the best plan for you.

Natasha, a pleasure, a treasure.

Thank you for being on What Is Inspired by 12 Minute Conference.