At 28, Meg Loney — formerly the drummer for folk-rock trio Wildwood Kin — has taken a dramatic new direction in life.
Last year she joined YMCA Exeter, a Christian charity working with young people at risk of homelessness.
Today, Meg devotes herself to supporting some of society’s most vulnerable youth. But her spiritual journey has been far from straightforward and this wasn't at all where she expected to end up - in fact, quite the opposite!
Although she grew up in a churchgoing family, she stopped attending at the age of 13, around the time her parents' marriage was deteriorating.
Initially drugs and truancy were an escape but even these started to feel empty. The lowest point came when she was 17 and had just come out of an extremely unhealthy relationship. It was a dark time when she felt like she couldn't even trust her friends.
“Everyone was just using each other to get money for drugs. I felt like I had hit rock bottom," she said.
But an unexpected turn of events happened when she stumbled across Red Moon Rising by Pete Greig.
“I’ve always loved to read. I’ll read anything,” laughs Meg. “There was a book lying in our house that my Dad was reading. I think I’d run out of anything else to read, so I picked it up and started reading it.
“It was amazing. I started reading about people who were following Jesus, living selfless lives, focused on prayer and experiencing miracles. It was honest. Gritty. God was changing lives. It made me start to believe again that maybe the world can change through God.”
Reading their stories inspired Meg to pick up her old youth Bible again and as she read, she continued to be transformed.
“As I began to read, I found there was life in the Bible and it was relevant,” says Meg. “I began to feel a sense of peace that I just didn’t understand.”
Not long after, Meg joined her dad at a 24/7 prayer meeting. It was a significant moment in her life.
“I remember getting to the 24/7 prayer room and walking in,” says Meg. “People were lying on the floor. Some people were crying. Others were playing tambourines. It looked like the house parties I was used to, but no one was on drugs, instead, there was this overwhelming sense of love and peace.”
A group of elderly women came over to pray for her.
“They had never met me before and there was no way they could have known anything about me,” says Meg.
“But they started prophesying that I would make music that would go out to the nations. Something in my spirit resonated with their words.
“I began to think that if God is speaking to them about my life, he must care about me. That was the start of my return to Jesus.”
Gradually she left behind the party and drug culture from her past, and immersed herself more and more in her faith.
Around that time, she and her cousins formed a band, Wildwood Kin. It started out as a bit of fun but when they landed a record deal, it led to international tours across the UK, Europe and US spanning eight years.
But just when life seemed good, heartbreak came when she learned in 2016, while on tour, that her brother had taken his own life.
“It was incredibly intense and hard,” explains Meg. “I think the music industry is quite unforgiving to grief. I carried on for another four years in the band but began to feel more and more unsettled.”
When the lockdown came in 2020, the restrictions meant she couldn't tour with the band. But in the end, the forced break was exactly what she needed, giving her the space to grieve and process her brother's death.
She also threw herself into a theology degree and she relished the chance to learn with others in community.
In 2021, she moved back in with her dad in Exeter and spent the next two years as a youth worker at St Basil's Church. Her return to her roots was unexpected to say the least.
"I thought God was going to put me somewhere else. Ever since I was 18 I’d been saying to God that he could call me anywhere but Exeter!”
But it was her time with St Basil’s Church that gave her a real heart for vulnerable young people.
“I just felt so sad that there are young people in this world who haven’t been told they’re loved and cared for,” says Meg.
“I would constantly pray that God would bring people to serve these young people. Two months before the job came up at YMCA Exeter I found myself crying every night for young people in Exeter.”
YMCA Exeter provides a supportive, inclusive community where young people can thrive. Meg now serves as a support worker — a role that brings together her passion for ministry and heart for young people.
Despite not being what she planned for her life, she can see God's hand in it.
“When I got the job, I knew it was God’s doing. Pastorally, this role is very similar to a youth worker. But I felt God clearly tell me this would be a stretching time and it definitely is," she says.
“I love how the support here is so people-focused and led by the residents. It’s all about adapting to the needs of residents, listening to them and understanding what interests them.
“When I hear what residents have been through it amazes me to see their resilience and hear them bravely share their stories. You see incredible breakthroughs in young people’s lives as they begin to open up and trust again.”
Meg has experienced both the depths of despair and the transformation of faith in Jesus. She hopes the young people she works with can know that same life-changing power.
“My testimony was finding safety in the Holy Spirit and my hope and prayer is that residents get to experience that too.”
