Mike and Heidi Palombi
A story of salvation and redemption…
Mike Palombi is Founder and CEO of Prisoner of Hope Ministries, Inc., a non-profit organization created to impact the lives of men and women serving time in prison through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Mike is an ex-offender whose time in prison led to a supernatural encounter with Jesus Christ, where he heard the audible voice of God ask him, "How's it feel, tough guy?!" Those words became the title of his memoir, "How's It Feel, Tough Guy?: From Prisoner of Pride to Prisoner of Hope" which is in hundreds of prisons across America. It received 1st Place recognition in The Christian Writers Awards, in the category of Counseling/Recovery and is currently in over 400 prisons and county jails nationwide. They are hoping to complete the audio book in 2024. Together with his wife, Heidi, they use the book as a vehicle to bring a message of hope to those most others deem to be hopeless.
Mike and Heidi, have been ministering together in prisons and recovery centers since 2013. They were Celebrate Recovery ministry leaders from 2014-2021. Mike was ordained as an Evangelist/Teacher in August of 2022.
Every year they travel the country for 3 months bringing the Gospel to prisons, recovery centers, Teen Challenges and Celebrate Recovery meetings. Since COVID, they have begun zooming weekly with male inmates in Virginia and Mississippi, and they are working on adding Kentucky and even a weekly zoom meeting with death row inmates.
Mike and Heidi have 3 grown children, 4 grandchildren and they are expecting their first great granddaughter this June! They reside in Manchester, New Jersey and are leaders at El Bethel International Ministries Church in Port Jervis, NY.
Mike regularly speaks at men’s groups, churches, recovery events, drug treatment facilities, prisons and jails. Mike and Heidi are members and leaders at El Bethel International Ministries Church, Inc. in Port Jervis, NY.
From the author…
“You should write a book, Mike!”
For years, people who heard my story of redemption and restoration–earned through decades of getting smacked upside my head, both literally and figuratively–told me that they wanted to see my story in print. But all I’d ever done about writing a book is stand in defense against why I couldn’t write one. To me, writing a book was just another opportunity to fail. And I’d failed enough in my life, thank you very much.
What was keeping me from giving my testimony in a book? Let’s just say that the greatest enemy of accomplishment is the fear of failure. But I finally set aside that fear, took a leap of faith, and put my story on paper.
The task of writing this memoir required me to live in what I call, “The Uncomfortable Zone,” the place where transparency and vulnerability prevail–the place where being a tough guy doesn’t cut it. I had to take a hard look into the dark corners of my life that was so thorough and so deep, it hurt–bad–and then it healed and restored my life.
In the end, that leap of faith made me an author, so that now I can share my story with people all around the world.
–Mike Palombi