I grew up in a broken Cleveland housing project, chasing the father who left me—only to find out he was a storm I couldn’t calm. I swore I’d never be like him, but pain has a way of slipping past our vows. I numbed myself with drugs, chased fast money, and became the very thing I promised I wouldn’t—poisoning people, destroying homes, and losing every piece of who I was.
By 16, I was facing 45 years in prison for armed robbery, trapped in a solitary cell when my brother was murdered, and so full of rage and grief that I was willing to burn the world down. But God met me in that cell—not through a sermon, but through a fellow inmate who flicked candy under my door every day and whispered prayers through steel bars.
That simple act of grace cracked something open in me. I didn’t do 45 years—just four and a half. I walked out different, with a fire to tell my story, tour the country, and once in a while return to prisons—not as an inmate, but as a messenger of hope. That fire grew into a movement—raw, unpolished, but dripping with the Spirit—for anyone who’s ever felt too far gone.
The ones carrying scars you can’t see and regrets they can’t shake. Doubters and dreamers who've lost their way. The church kids who walked out and outsiders who never walked in. I now spend my life sliding candy under every locked door I can find—creating sacred spaces for second chances, breathing hope into weary lungs, and watching Jesus turn ashes into the kind of beauty that only heaven can explain.
Patrick lives with his beautiful wife, Sarah in Hamilton, Ohio with their four children.
He also serves as an associate pastor at City Hill Church in Fairfield, Ohio. For more
info on City Hill, log on to: www.cityhill.cc