Pastor Mick used to be a violent criminal (Picture: Getty/Supplied)

‘This light started shining and it hit me in the face,’ says ex-drug dealer, Mick Fleming. ‘I couldn’t see for about 10 or 15 seconds… that was the beginning of something for me.’

For years, Mick, from Burnley, had lived a life a crime. Guns, knives, drugs and violence were a part of daily life. He was homeless and estranged from his family.

But this experience – an epiphany of sorts – was the catalyst for a new chapter. Mick got sober and began to explore his faith. Now, the one-time ‘angry, frustrated’ Mick, who describes his younger self as ‘like a terrorist’, is an Anglican Bishop, who goes by Pastor Mick.

He says he realised he could use what he had ‘for service, instead of to destroy.’

As a child, Mick, now 57, says he was a ‘nice, quiet, mummy’s boy’. But at the tender age of 11, he endured a sequence of horrifying events that changed the course of his life. He was raped by a stranger and then, less than 24 hours later, his 20-year-old sister died due to asthma-related complications. ‘It just destroyed me really,’ he says.

Mick began using drugs to numb the pain, ending up in a spiral of addiction and crime.

Mick was just 11 when he endured a traumatic chain of events (Picture: Supplied)

‘I progressed from using my fists to using knives to using guns, to doing all this stuff that destroys not just other people, but destroys you as well,’ he recounted.

Mick had the first of his four children aged 17, who says he ‘put through hell’ with his erratic lifestyle, while his family had abandoned him due to his behaviour.

He explained: ‘It came to a point where everybody just said, “you’ve got to cut him off”. It was obvious where I was going; I was either going get killed, kill myself, or die through taking drugs, so they decided to protect themselves.’

Mick has been arrested for murder, armed robbery and countless firearm offences.

Mick was a career criminal (Picture: Supplied)

But Mick was in his early 40s when he saw that blinding light that changed everything. Mick had gone to collect a debt – he was often called upon to clear drug debts from people who owed money to dangerous people. If Mick was involved, someone was about to get badly hurt.

He said: ‘I was smoking crack and drinking like I always did, and I was waiting for this guy to come out of a gym. I had a gun in a carrier bag.

‘When he came out, I jumped out of the car but he turned around, and he had these two little girls with him.

‘My heart was so cold I still would have done something in front of the kids – I wouldn’t have hurt the kids, but I wouldn’t have cared if they’d seen it.

‘But then, this light started shining off their hands. I couldn’t see for about 10 or 15 seconds, and as they walked past, I started shaking and sweating. I was sick.’

He became estranged from his family and children (Picture: Supplied)

Mick had no idea what had just happened to him, so he drove away, and went to have a drink.

‘Normally, when you’re an alcoholic, you drink the vodka and you get a few seconds or minutes or relief, but I didn’t get that,’ he said. ‘So, I smoked some crack but that didn’t work either. This was the first time in my life where there was no relief whatsoever coming from the drink or the drugs.’

And then, despite not believing in God, Mick turned to a high power.

He recalled: ‘I prayed, saying, “if you’re real God you better help me out because I don’t know what to do.”‘

Then, desperate, Mick attempted to take his own life, but the gun didn’t go off.

He started sobbing uncontrollably, hardly unable to register his tears as it had been so long since he’d cried.

‘I felt like something was changing inside. And I didn’t know exactly what it was, just that I felt a little bit of hope.

‘Before I put the gun away, I put it into the soil and pulled the trigger – this time, it fired.’

Following this, Mick got sober and began to explore his faith.

But, when he first got clean, he came face to face with the man who’d attacked him as a child.

‘I was living in a hostel. I was determined not to drink or to use drugs but it was really hard, so I started helping people who were like me, getting them into AA and NA,’ said Mick.

‘I found a guy who was drunk in a McDonald’s, bought him a burger and a brew and helped him. But what I never told him was that he was the man that raped me.

‘When I arranged to meet him the second day I thought “I’m going to kill him”. But I started hearing this voice within me saying “why are you living in his sin?”. I’d gone into the toilet with the knife up my sleeve, but I dropped it down, put it in my pocket and washed my face.

Mick dealt with addiction (Picture: Supplied)

‘I had no love for him, but I realised that forgiveness wasn’t saying “it’s alright”, it was saying “I’m not going to live in what you’ve done to me for the rest of my life”.

To become a minister, Mick got a degree in theology from the University of Manchester. It was tough – he had problems with reading and writing, but tutors helped him get a diagnosis of dyslexia, dyspraxia and a visual processing disorder called Irlen Syndrome. After this he excelled.

From there he was ordained within The International Christian Church Network. When he was given the option of either taking on an existing ministry (a paid position) or starting his own from the ground up, he chose the latter.

Mick said: ‘I only had £10, so I went out on the street and sat on the floor where somebody was begging.

‘I started off chatting to one lad about his addiction, and within two weeks I had 80 people out there.’

He turned his life around, and got a degree in theology (Picture: Supplied)

He borrowed money to get £20 together to hire a community centre, and this became Church on the Street, an organisation that combines faith with proactive community action on the streets.

They help and support people affected by homelessness, addiction and poverty, with initiatives including an NHS-staffed clinic serving people with medical needs on the street, a food bank, clothing bank, hot showers, addiction recovery groups, mental health support and more. People of all faiths are welcome at services.

Mick said: ‘We’ve led people from serious attempts to kill themselves, helped them mentally, emotionally, physically.

‘Seeing people getting their children back is so heartwarming, and then people coming in with hungry children, to be able to feed them and support them, is what I remember most.’

Mick was ordained as a Bishop this year (Picture: Supplied)

During the festive season, Church on the Street is even more in demand. Alongside worship, he will host a community dinner today and a service on Christmas Day, all while keeping essential services open throughout.

Mick, who authored a book detailing his experiences called Blown Away: From Drug Dealer to Life Bringer, said: ‘I’ve got relationships with all my children. And it’s taken us time, but it’s really good.

‘My story is really about how you go through the pain so that so that you can sort of come over the other side and help other people.’

And through his journey from criminal to Bishop (he was ordained this year), he knows a thing or two about the true spirit of Christmas.

Now his organisation Church on the Streets combines faith with community action (Picture: Supplied)

‘The Christmas period is about forgiveness,’ said Mick.

‘There’s a word, “Emmanuel” which means “God with us”. It’s about God living amongst His people, and understanding that forgiveness is something that isn’t me – it’s bigger than anything I could ever be.’

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Mick was a violent criminal, until he had an epiphany.