Divine intervention or plain good luck, a college tutor's first album is now in the shops as her Christian music career takes off. Women's Editor Christen Pears reports.

FATE works in mysterious ways as Darlington College tutor Jayne Lewis has been finding out. "I couldn't believe it. I got a telephone call saying there was a man from a record company wanting to talk to me. Somehow my demo tape had landed on his desk and he liked it. The remarkable thing was I'd sent it out two years earlier," recalls the 25-year-old.

Now her first album Orange Sky is in the shops, courtesy of Authentic Media, one of the biggest record labels in the Christian world. Better still, it's part of a four album deal and her work is being showcased in America, the spiritual home of Christian popular music.

"It has always been my dream to walk into a record shop and say 'that is my album' and now that's just what I was able to do. And I'm getting texts all the time about the album from people saying it is really good."

But for Jayne, who lives in Houghton-le-Spring, singing just comes perfectly naturally; singing the message of her God, doubly so.

"I wasn't really brought up in the church but then when I was about 11 I made the decision to be a Christian and that was how I was going to live my life. I remember getting upset at being told that we were all sinners and wouldn't be able to enter heaven. Then I read a little booklet written by the pastor at the Bethany Christian Centre which explained the gospel messages really simply. And I understood that this was why Jesus died, for us - it was amazing.

"At the end of the day God is everything to me and I would much rather make real music that I really believe in. I am not doing this because I want to be famous; I just want to sing about what I believe in."

Orange Sky took three months to produce, though Jayne recorded all the lyrics for the 13 tracks in a single day. Ten of the tracks she wrote herself and the album melds Christian messages with popular sound.

Jayne, a music tutor at Darlington College of Technology, says: "At the moment I have two careers. I come to college where I can sing and play then in my spare time I do gigs where I can sing and play - it's class."

A prolific song writer, she has started on the next three albums and her work is being distributed in America where the Christian music scene is huge.

"I think they have done a big sales conference over there and I understand that people liked what they heard," she says. "It is what I have always wanted and I still can't believe it has come true. But then fate works in mysterious ways."

* Orange Sky is available in Christian bookshops or via Jayne's website at www.jaynelewis.co.uk.