Feature #1: Min. Travis Ellis

I met Min. Ellis at a Gospel Benefit Concert for my non-profit ScholarCHIPS. He told me is story and I transcribed it. To hear his story in real life in his own words is amazing, and also to read it is amazing, so I wanted to share! 

Min. Travis Kevin “P.T” Ellis was born January 9, 1989 in Southeast Washington, DC.  Min. Ellis is a youth advocate, life-skills and juvenile rehabilitation coach, entrepreneur and Christian Hip-Hop artist. What is even more amazing about this young man than his many talents and service activities is his personal story that led him to where he is today.       

Growing up in the inner city, being raised by a single-mother, Ellis found himself as a troubled youth quickly immersing himself into a life of drugs and crime. By the age of 17, Ellis was diagnosed with a persistent vegetative state (PVS) in which the human brain suffers severe damage to the point of wakeful unconsciousness. He was then referred to a psychiatric ward. Ellis remained in the psychiatric ward for over a year and that is where he met Bishop Dwayne E. Stewart Sr., of The Gospel Truth Life Changing Ministries, who began to minister the Gospel to Ellis in his brain-dead state. Miraculously, when Ellis decided to give his life to Christ, his consciousness returned and from that point on, he never looked back. 

Ellis knew he had a unique story and a responsibility to give back and uplift the youth within his community. Ellis received his ministerial license April 21, 2008 under Bishop Stewart. Min. Ellis specializes in urban outreach, teaching Sunday school classes and Youth and Young Adult Ministry classes. In addition, Min. Ellis teaches classes as an instructor for the non-profit Living Classrooms, an organization founded in 1895 that provides at-risk youth in DC, Maryland and Virginia with hands-on education and job training. 

He also serves as the student development coordinator for the Fresh Start Program, a sub-program under Living Classrooms, that targets youth ages 14-17 who have been involved in the juvenile justice system, providing them with individualized vocational, life-skills, leadership and self-esteem development training.  Ellis is also founder of two robotics teams called Fresh T.E.C.H (stands for Technology, Engineering Carpentry, and Higher-Learning) at Living Classrooms for young men ages 16-19 and is a mentor for the Renaissance Boys Program at Septima Clark Public Charter School in Southeast DC.

 Ellis coaches basketball via the DeLoren Foundation and coaches at numerous recreational centers throughout the DMV area. He is a co-founder of The Hood Proud Foundation, with Franklin Dent and Nicole Rudd, which also provides life coaching, tutoring and mentoring for at-risk inner-city minorities of all ages. Most notably, Min. Ellis is founder of the record label and entertainment company Team G.U.C.C.I. (God Uses Chosen Children as Instruments) Entertainment LLC (2013), a mission he began in 2008 to spread the Gospel through various forms of entertainment (i.e. stageplays, liturgical/hip-hop dance, and Christian rap).  G.U.C.C.I. Ent. LLC travels to various churches and community venues all over the country in states such as Philadelphia, New York, Delaware, North Carolina, Atlanta, Florida, California and Texas. Ellis received his Bachelor of Science from WestWood College in 2010. Ellis is married to India Shonté Ellis and they are the parents of a three-year-old son named Josiah Travis Ellis.

AMAZING RIGHT?