Learning to trust again: (Laura Trevelyan).

Laura Trevelyan has no doubt at all that it was the special atmosphere she found at an international conference in Switzerland that changed the course of her life.

`When I was 15,' she recalls, `I fell in love with the theatre and developed an all-consuming desire to act.' Born in Wales, to an English father and an Irish mother, she looks back on a happy childhood spent in various parts of Britain. Her teenage years were difficult. `I didn't want to grow up--I wanted to be a girl, not a woman,' she says. `On stage I could escape my life and be someone else. And of course I wanted to be famous!'

She studied French and Theatre Studies at Glasgow University and `spent far more time acting than studying'. While in Glasgow she was introduced to a family who regularly invited her round for meals. `They had a special quality of care and friendship,' she recalls. `They seemed genuinely interested in me and were always encouraging.' She says she particularly appreciated this because, in the competitive world of student drama, praise was in short supply.

They talked to her about the work of Moral Re-Armament in which they were engaged. It sounded attractive in its scope and outreach. On their recommendation, in the summer of 1992, she set out for the MRA international conference centre in Caux, Switzerland. `The centre looked like the castle in a fairy tale,' she says. `The setting in the beautiful Swiss mountains and the sunny view over a shimmering Lake Geneva gave me a sense of awe and wonder.'

`As soon as I arrived I knew there was something different about the place,' she says. `The participants came from all over the world, and there was a quality in the way they treated each other that was different from anything I had experienced before. They were polite, friendly, respectful, interested, interesting and encouraging--the opposite, in fact, to the sometimes cynical and confusing environment at university.'

The first person she met was a young Burmese. `I was 22 and I didn't even know where Burma was! My ignorance of the world was exposed. Suddenly my dreams of being a famous actress seemed very superficial.' It struck her that she was seeing a working community which was a model for the way the world ought to be.

The session which made the biggest impact was one called `Regions in crisis, regions in recovery' that appeared to have gathered people from crisis situations all over the world. `I listened agog as people from war-torn areas told heart-rending stories of suffering and pain. I remember one Russian woman talking of all she had been through in her country and in her marriage. In spite of everything she had decided to forgive her communist oppressors and her unfaithful husband. I could hardly believe what I was hearing. I had never before encountered such openness, honesty and bravery.' The more she heard the more convinced she became that something vitally important was on offer.

She says she had come to the conference feeling cynical about all relationships, after being taken advantage of. `The experience had left me feeling that it would be the height of stupidity to trust anyone or to believe that anyone loved anyone. Talking with people at Caux convinced me otherwise. I was rescued from going down a path where I would have hurt others (and myself) in an attempt to get even with the world. Caux offered me an alternative life. It had never dawned on me that God could speak to you and have an active role in your daily life--decisions, choices, motives. I felt that I had "arrived"--like coming home.'

She finds it hard to describe exactly what happened to her. `It was almost as if I had been given permission to be myself. There was no longer any need to pretend. I felt I was being given an infinitely precious gift. Some people talk about being "born again" or "seeing the light". I know such language makes some people cringe, but I feel no embarrassment whatsoever. It was both those things and more. My previously token faith came alive. Everything made sense.'

After graduating, she earned the money to travel to Australia to join other young people in an MRA training course in `Effective living'. It was in Australia that she helped launch a youth magazine called Global Express, which she now co-edits from Oxford, her current home. She is still excited about Global Express. It keeps young people all over the world in touch with each other and has proved an effective forum for fresh ideas.

`By the way, you may be wondering what happened to the acting thing,' the journalist queries with a smile. `Well, I can honestly say that I don't care if I never act again. That passion, which used to hurt because I wanted to act so badly, has been replaced by a passion to do God's will.

`And that,' she adds, `is a wonderful thing.'