Hear Paul's amazing testimony at St. Patrick's Church in Broughshane

Paul Fitzpatrick never really wanted to end up with a criminal conviction. It just sort of happened. One day he was a happy young boy growing up with his mum, dad and two siblings and the next he had been thrust into the middle of a difficult family situation. When Paul was about five years old, his mum developed severe mental illness and quickly became a shadow of her old self.

She spent a huge amount of time in a mental institution and his dad, not knowing how to deal with his wife’s condition, turned to the bottle. Alcohol eventually took over and Paul and his siblings were often left alone with family friends calling in to see if they were ok.

One of the family friends, Tim*, sexually abused Paul when he was nine years old.

“I couldn’t tell anyone what he did to me,” remembers Paul. “Mum was in hospital and dad was in the pub and not knowing who to turn to, I bottled it all up inside.”

Bottling it all up did more harm than good. Paul became withdrawn and unruly, and by the time he was 11, he had become an expert at stealing, burglary and violence. It wasn’t long before he progressed to more serious crimes.

He was sentenced to three and a half years in youth custody for attempting to murder the man who abused him.

Prison was an eye-opener for the 18-year-old Paul. He had a tough front but the toughness did nothing to mask the emptiness he felt inside. He knew something wasn’t right but he couldn’t put a finger on it. Until the day someone mysteriously signed him up for an evening bible group where Christians from churches would come in and sit with the lads drinking coffee and refreshments. At these evenings there would be about 15 prisoners, the Christian visitors, a Church Army Evangelist named Trevor and the Chaplain Tom. Little by little these meetings began to influence Paul and one day, listening to Trans World Radio, Paul gave his life to God.

It was hard for Paul, getting used to being a follower of Christ especially in a hostile environment with other prisoners, but he learnt how to take things one step at a time. He became an evangelist to other prisoners, telling them about the Jesus who could change their lives.

He said: “My cell was nicknamed the sin-bin. They always seemed to put the hard cases in with me, most found peace in asking Jesus Christ to be their Saviour.

I became the Chaplain’s orderly and together Tom, the Christian visitors and I gave it a good shot at sharing faith with all who listened.”

About two and a half years later, Paul was released from prison and slowly started to rebuild his life. He signed up to train with Church Army and in 1998, after three years of training, he was admitted into the Office of the Evangelist with the Church of England.

“My ministry today is working as the Head of Fundraising for Church Army. I am charged with the responsibility of ensuring some 3m is raised each year to sustain ministries”, he says

“Many have said to me that believing in Jesus is a load of rubbish. All I can say is that my own life is a witness that irrefutably challenges that. After all, God has got a sense of humour – he took me from robbery to fundraising. How about that?”

* Not the real name of the alleged abuser.