From Johannesburg Streets to Standing in Grace - 9th November 2025 Mens Dinner

G'day, thanks for joining the Heights Church Podcast today. We hope you enjoy our message.

If you're in the Sydney area, be sure to join us at the Heights Church at Goldstone

Road, Hornsfield Heights, Summey Australia.

Firstly, I'd like to just thank everyone for turning up tonight as well,

and thank you for joining me on my journey, where I've been very fortunate through

the grace of our Father to be here today.

If it wasn't for Him, I certainly wouldn't be here.

So I'd like to thank you all for joining me for this. I'd also like to say thank you to Mark.

Chris, the elders and the deacons, for allowing this to happen tonight as well,

giving me this opportunity to share with you my journey.

And to Phil Calshaw, thank you very much for the awesome pizzas and those who

were involved. It was awesome.

Should I take the hat off? Is that better? All right. I've never done it without

the hat, but we'll give it a go.

I'd like to start by recognizing the input that God has had in my life and I don't even know it.

When you hear my story, it's only been three years now that I've been walking

the line, that I've been saved with the grace of our God.

Yet when you hear my story, and even sometimes when I've been preparing this

for the past few days and I'm going, no ways!

How did you get there? How is it physically possible for a young boy from the

streets of Johannesburg to get where you got to?

And it wasn't difficult for me to come to the conclusion, well,

how fortunate, how blessed I am that no matter what, God is with me all the way.

So I just want to acknowledge it, that I'm fortunate. I stand here because of

the grace of God, not because of what I've done or who I've met and even taking

photos with King Charles and all the rest. That wasn't my doing.

That was certainly for the grace of God who gave me all that opportunity.

I'm so fortunate. I want to make that my ... That's the essence of my talk tonight.

As you hear how this kid from the streets of Johannesburg was able to reach

leading subject matter expert for Qantas Counterterrorism and all the rest.

You ask yourself, how did this kid do it through the grace of God? And I'm so fortunate.

I'm so blessed that I've been able to get to the point and I've been able to

learn that and recognize that.

And I'm so blessed that he's brought me to the Heights Church.

So let me start by saying that I've known God in my life.

I went to a children's home and religion was certainly forced on us and all the rest as you'll hear.

But I wasn't walking with God, without a doubt. I didn't recognize Him as my Savior.

And I'm so blessed now today that not only that I'm walking in the footsteps

of Jesus and great apostles such as Peter and Matthew and John,

and great men from the Bible, such as Moses and Job, Job being someone I admire so much, and Isaiah.

So, though I've been through all these ups and downs, I recognize now that I

am now, without a doubt, walking in the footsteps of Jesus and these great apostles and men.

It reminds me of Deuteronomy 1, verse 31, where it says, and I better put my

Deuteronomy 1:31

glasses on here. I could make a mess of this, eh?

And in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord carried you as a man,

carried his son in all the way that you went until you came to this place.

As you'll hear that again, I achieved all of this, and I can admit this,

that up until I came to know the Lord as my Savior,

I took all the glory.

It was me, check me out, I've done this, oh wow, you know, I've done this.

And it reminds me so much, that verse of how God has certainly been there all

the way and I didn't recognize it.

And now today I'm so honored and so privileged to give God the glory about it.

So, I actually wanted to play the video or show you the video more to give you

context of how fortunate I was at stages and also the sadness that I brought to myself.

And as you'll hear, God needed to pull me in line because I was certainly out

of control without a doubt.

So my story begins back in apartheid, South Africa. There's no denying that

I'm from South Africa, the accent and the rugby team that I follow.

I was born to a beautiful woman, Dorothy Queen Elizabeth.

Now, Queen Elizabeth was given the name to my mother by my grandmother when

Queen Elizabeth came to visit in South Africa when she was a little girl.

And my grandmother, as you'll hear, was the Tilly Divine of South Africa,

Daisy de Malka. Anyone remember Tilly Devine, the Crime Queen of King's Cross?

Some of us are too young to remember, I understand. Yeah, she's in the 1920s, we'll talk about her.

My grandmother was Tilly Devine in reincarnation.

So, in any case, my grandmother named my mother Dorothy Queen Elizabeth and

stuck with her, but we named her Dot for most of her life.

I just also want to acknowledge and thank the Lord that before my mom passed

away, of several years before she passed away, she did come to know the Lord, and it's such a blessing.

And honor to know that, yeah, she's with him now.

When you consider the pain in what she went through in losing us as her children

and going through what she had to go through and what we had to go through,

it really is, I'm at peace in knowing that my mom is with the Lord.

And she prayed for me for years to come to know the Lord.

And I'm so sorry that I know she knows it now, though. I know she knows it.

So I just wanted to make...

We were six children born from my mom, Dot.

From two six children from two separate fathers my

eldest brother dion and my elder sister

shemaine we from my biological father

bob holt who's actually an australian was in south africa at that time when

they were doing the um they used all the the men to come over and help the industries

and that you know build the industries and that and my other three sisters were from my stepfather.

Phil Funskuer who I recognize today as my father,

also an ex-alcoholic and I thank the Lord as well that he's also saved and he's

actually a mentor of mine today as well so I'm going to be sending him this

video afterwards because he's in church right now but I'm definitely going to

be sending him this church because he also stated he's been praying for us for a very, very long time,

and so Phil and my mom had three other daughters Sharon, Philippa,

and Jamie, and they are in South Africa.

So my story begins first, my mom's side of the family was a very broken down family.

A lot of people can't grasp it. When I say broken, broken to the streets.

My mom also came from the streets, basically lived on the streets.

So it was no wonder that we landed up on the streets.

We spent most of them as a baby, as a little child, up until I think I was about

four years of age on the streets or with family or friends.

And that was my brother and my sister as well. My other three sisters weren't born as yet.

So it was no wonder with mom also spending most of her life on the streets and

that we were going to grow up on the streets of Johannesburg.

And those were very tough years. I can tell you now, if you've seen my documentary

about One Plus One, and I'll share the story where the streets we lived was Yilbroth,

Yilbrow was like King's Cross, but I can guarantee you 100 times more dangerous

and 100 times more bigger than King's Cross.

That's where we basically came from.

Because my biological father had left my mother, I think I was about one year

of age. My brother's watching this now.

He's going to be correcting me the whole night when I get home. No, you were that old.

He's always telling me. I think I was about one year of age.

Shemaine, who was just younger than me, she

was literally just born three or four months old

and that when my biological father left my mom for

my mom's best friend and so mom couldn't

care for us landed up there you know from the streets and different aunties

and uncles and family when when i say aunties and uncles aunties aunties and

uncles and that i'm not talking about three bedroom houses you know lounge and

all that dead serious We're talking tin shacks,

sand floors as main floors, and that's where we were having to stay.

So it was actually better to stay on the streets than actually live in these

places, without a doubt.

So my mom had to leave us with our grandmother, the so-called Tilly Divine.

South Africa, it was Daisy DeMalco who was the crime queen in Johannesburg at

that stage. Well, Tilly Divine in the 1920s, if you go back,

Tilly Divine was the crime queen of King's Cross. She ran King's Cross.

Now, just to give you a bit of context here, how that all happened,

a lot of people ask, how did a woman do it?

Well, the government decided that men cannot run brothels.

They put that in law.

But what they didn't put in law is women corn run brothels.

So Tilly Devine was in jail and she heard about this. She came up.

Well, the rest is used to go do your research and you'll find out.

Well, she became one of the richest women in Australia.

Well, my grandmother was just as violent.

Tilly Devine had a lot of people killed.

I'm not sure if my grandmother had people killed, but she was a horrible,

horrible person. We were beaten up.

Dionne Shemane and myself were beaten up daily. this

is no exaggerations at all that she

had a dog German Shepherd Alsatian called

Rex I think was Rex I hope Dion's gonna

give me a hard time because I can't remember the names but when

my grandmother wanted to beat us we used to run to the dog and the dog used

to bark and protect us basically you can't see the marks on my hand here but

clearly the skin is very different to the rest to my hand. The skin comes from my rear end.

My late mother-in-law used to say to me, doesn't your hand want to go sit down now and then?

For some, my grandmother, when I say she used to beat us, she beat us so badly that Dion and myself,

we were three, four years of age, we used to get so used to the beatings that

she took, because for some reason she felt she wanted to increase the discipline, she took my hand,

the old coal stoves, and she put my hand on the old

coal stove and she burnt all my skin off my

hand and that's when my aunties and

everyone made a noise in the welfare then

we called it the welfare yeah you call it docs for family

community services today now they got involved and they decided to take us away

from my grandmother and put us in children's homes I need to say though as sad

as this sad as it was at this time it most certainly was God's taking care of us.

My brother, my sister, and myself, because there is no doubt.

If you speak to my brother, because I'm not going to mention much about it,

but Dionne will say, Robert, you should have spoken about it.

You should have said that. You should have said that.

If it wasn't for God taking us out of that home, I would not be here today.

We would have been killed before I was four years of age, no doubt.

That's where we came from.

We were then placed in children's homes. I was at the age of four.

We were placed in multiple children's homes throughout South Africa.

And because of my behaviour as you'll hear, I land up in quite a few juvenile centres as well.

In South Africa, we call it reformatories and Boystown.

Now, Boystown is not like the Boystown you have here. I've done quite a few talks here.

If this is Boystown like in my day, well, then it would have been like a happy camp.

But as you saw in the photos there, the first photos, Airport Children's Home

is where I spent most of my time as a young kid.

I think I was about seven years of age. So we had spent about three years at

different children's homes around South Africa.

And mom used to try to, mom wasn't allowed to see us or come and be with us at all in that.

There were times they would uplift

us out of our beds in the middle of the night and put us on a train.

Now, again, we're talking in my era, hey, not this era. In those days,

train stations were little platforms and you'd be taken by some,

what we used to call GGs, government officials, taken to the station and then put on a train.

And then 12, 18 hours later, you'll find yourself in another state at another children's home.

And a house parent saying, you give Robert a pair of underpants,

you give him a pair of shoes, you give him a shirt, and then my life will start all over again.

I was leading that before I was seven years of age at different children's zones.

But when I was seven, I ended up in Epworth Children's Zone,

which really wasn't bad.

It wasn't bad, but me being this

skinny little redhead kid, I was a little troubled little redhead kid.

My brothers and them hate me telling the story. I I was, I think,

the only redhead Elvis Presley dude.

Every time they had events, I would embarrass my family while dressing up in

bell-bottoms and taking a tennis racket and doing an Elvis Presley song.

How lucky am I that God walked with me? Seriously, I shouldn't be here.

I hated school and I hated authority. And that came more so from the Gigi's.

The behaviour, the treatment of us in those days, children from the children's

home, we weren't liked at all.

So I'll end up wagging school quite a bit. My brother wasn't,

he was very good academically and sports-wise and all the rest,

and he used to give me a hard time because I used to wag school.

But one thing I did love about school, though I didn't attend school much, is I loved my sports.

I did mainly athletics and swimming, did a bit of rugby, but the rugby player

was my brother. I was more the loudmouth spectator.

Hence today, I'm still the loudmouth spectator supporting the Springboks.

Full will be able to tell you that without a doubt.

Because I was so naughty as well, in the children's home, we had a choir.

I was forced to be part of the choir. I can't sing. I've never been able to sing.

But there was a house parent that was running the choir and they thought it

was a good idea if I was in the choir so Auntie Pat could keep an eye on me.

Well, believe me, she kept more than an eye on me. She would give me a hard time.

So I think if you saw the photo, the second photo was the choir and all the

boys were sitting on the right-hand side and little Rob sitting on the left-hand side.

Even for photoshoots, she wouldn't let me sit near the boys because giving me

a chance and then I'd start some trouble in that.

So unfortunately, church was compulsory as a kid. There was a Baptist church at that time.

Not something I enjoyed at all. I cannot honestly tell you,

and I've been sitting quite a lot of hours going through this and I've tried

to focus in on just any day at church that I smiled while I thought this is cool.

I'm sorry I can't do. I had never ever been told.

That Jesus loves me. Never heard that as a child.

I was fortunate, as I'll share with you now, it was the first time I ever heard that Jesus loves me.

So when I come in here on a Sunday morning and I sit at the back here and I

see Andrew and Chris walking out with the young people, it just touches my heart.

It's so blessing to see the dedication to our children and to the youth here as well.

Because I know if I had been given that opportunity, I'd still be here today,

no doubt, but I think I would have taken a different path without a doubt.

So it is so beautiful to see that. I really do.

In the children's home, we attended outside schools and all that as much.

So I used to wake school a lot and go in the bushes.

I used to spend a lot of time in the bushes, get caught a lot of times,

and then taking the school and we would get the hidings.

I don't if anyone's ever heard of a Schombach, South African Schombach.

It's a thick plastic, solid, solid plastic, thin at the end,

like that thick there. And that's how you would get your hardings.

And being the little redheader as I was and getting hardings almost every day,

my brother can vouch for that, almost every day I've got hardings.

So I invented the Flabberjack.

Flabberjack was inside the tube of a car tire that we cut out in an oval shape.

We cut holes in it and we put that between our backsides and the underpants

and that became like a shock absorber.

It helped, but I still used to get hideings in it.

So I started running away quite a bit.

I was running away. You give me a chance. Actually, it's recorded in South African

history that Dion, Shemaine and myself were the youngest kids to run away from a children's home.

Shemaine was in year one, I was in year two, and I think Dion was year four.

Dion planned the whole thing. The only big mistake he made, he told us we've

got to put our civilian clothes into a suitcase, into our school bags,

leave our books underneath our beds at the children's home.

And when the bell rings in the morning, we must go to the toilets and go get

changed in our civilian clothes and we must meet him down at the soccer fields

and then we're going to go running away.

The only problem is that Dion told me, and in those days we used to wear safari

suits, and if you can remember the old South African safari suits,

well the safari suit was the same colour as my school clothes.

So when we were on the road and we got picked up by this gentleman,

and he asked us, why are we not going to school?

And my brother, being a smart boy, gave him a big story.

And he said, isn't that school you come from? And I don't know,

my brother gave him a good story.

But in any case, we were the youngest kids to run away from a children's home.

Because of my running away, I encountered a lot of times with the GGs.

They would catch me, I think I was about 12 years of age, when a sergeant at

a police station hit me as if I was a punching bag. I'll never forget it,

the way he hit me across the counter.

Fair enough, I had a cigarette in my hand standing in the police station leaning over the counter.

But he hit me so hard and he put me into a police cell with a murderer.

The whole night I had to sit in the cell.

So it only says why I became violent.

Violence has been, as you'll hear, a big part of my life.

I had grown up with anger from a little boy from being burnt and beaten so many times.

So my whole life up until I met the Lord, and that's only three years ago,

my whole life has been full of violence and anger that actually put me in jail

for quite a while, as well as I'll share with you.

I was also smoking at the age of seven, and I was drinking liquor at the age of 12.

Cigarettes was a reward for us as

young kids we would so the children's airport

children's home I think the kids were up there until the age of

17 18 before they went to the army especially the boys I

think the girls stayed a little bit longer so we grew up in this big children's

home I think about 200 kids in the home and all scattered throughout different

houses and that throughout the property so the boys would expect us to steal

stuff from the local supermarkets down the road and everything we stole,

they would pay us with cigarettes,

so I used to get paid quite a lot of cigarettes as a kid.

So I was a full-time smoker at the age of seven and I was drinking heavily at the age of 12.

Dion used to give me quite a bit of hardings for that as well.

What actually happened, I was then separated from Dion and Shemaine at the age of 14.

Because of my running away, because of my smoking cigarettes,

and because of my drinking and my behaviour, I was sent to Boys Town.

And like I say, Boys Town certainly isn't the Boys Town that we have today.

I've done quite a lot of motivational and talks and worked with a lot of the boys now.

Well it's Boys Town and Girls Town. I've done a lot of when I was at Wayside

Chapel, the community educator.

I did a lot of work with them but it's certainly not the Boys Town that I grew

up in. In my day, Boys Town was a stepping stone away from jail.

You come from juvenile centres. I ran away quite a few times,

spent a few months in the juvenile centres and then from there I'll be transferred back to Boys Town.

So I spent quite a lot of times at Boys Town for young, troubled youth.

It was run by the Catholic Church.

It was run by the boys and by the mayor. It had its own mayor,

own councillors and own cops.

So when you cause trouble, you had a points system added. If you did good,

you had points taken off.

And if you were bad, like me, little red-threaded, an old little boy,

you had minus points and you got to a certain amount of minus points.

You had what they had, a cop,

accompany you wherever you went. Even if you went into the toilet,

the door would have to stay open and the cop would be with you.

You went to bed, you slept next to him on the floor in his bed,

and you were supervised like that.

And I spent most of my time at Boys Town under those conditions.

And this, again, I need to reiterate, wasn't because I was just trying to fight back.

I was full of a lot of hatred and a lot of anger.

Dion and myself, my brother's two years older than me, we were just talking

the other day on the phone.

Now, this is the first time, as you hear, my brother and myself,

we fought most of our lives.

Our families, our uncles used to put us up against each other to entertain them

when they used to get drunk and they used to make us box each other and beat

each other up for their entertainment.

It's only been the last three years that we've both been saved.

I thank the Lord that my brother saved, so that we can share openly with each

other and support each other.

We were just saying the other day, Dion asked me, Rob, how old were you when mom gave you a hug?

I was here in Australia. I was 37 years of age, the first time I got a hug from my mom.

So I wasn't being naughty because I wanted to be naughty.

I was behaving the way I was behaving because I did not know any other way. And that's the truth.

I support a lot of young people today. I do a lot of talks, like I said,

with Boys Town and all the rest.

I've seen it. The PCYC from Bankstown bring their boys out to me,

and I'll take the boys on my tour and that just to give them an insight.

I see the behaviour and you can clearly detect it when boys haven't,

when children haven't been given that love and that nurture.

This is what happens to them, and I was a product of that behaviour.

So naturally, I ran away quite a few times and spent a lot of time on the streets.

I think I turned 15, I was on the streets, and I made my own Christmas cake out of wood and a stick.

And I sang to myself in the bushes, and I think it was almost two years I'd

been on the run from the government authorities and that as well.

I definitely suffered under the system. Get caught.

Sent to a juvenile center, spent a lot of time in a juvenile center.

Juvenile centers in those days were mini prisons, without a doubt, mini prisons.

You were standing in a queue to go into the mess hall to get your food.

I remember I shared this story so many times, you weren't allowed to smoke.

So we used to stand behind the tables as they pray, and then you sit down.

And I used to take and I used to open the pots of kettle with the tea bags in.

As a little kid, put my hand in there, squeeze the teabag out,

put it down the front of my pants.

When we get back into our dormitories, open the teabag up. Then we had a little

Bible, a little testament, Bibles.

No one ever read it to us. So we should tear the page out, sprinkle the newspaper, the teabags on there.

We should take our toothpaste in the morning. You would stand by your bed and

they would come and you'd stand there with a toothbrush and they'd put the toothpaste on there.

And then they'd make you put in your mouth and I would put it on my tongue and

when they left, I'd take it out, put it onto the little Bible page and spread

it out and we used to, in those days, we used to have palmets on top of the

windows, some of you might remember,

and we used to put our little piece of paper up there,

wait for that to dry in a few days' time, come back,

turn another page out of the Bible and roll ourselves menthol cigarettes in it.

Those are the things that I saw as survival in those days.

Still up until now, never been told that—I don't even think I knew Jesus. I'd heard about God.

But all I'd heard is, if you do this, God's going to punish you.

And that's all I'd ever heard.

Never, ever about love. Never, never.

Didn't know that God and love were connected and love was from God.

Never been told that at all.

So it was also another thing i need to reiterate here as well is that during my running away times,

i i didn't know much about gays but i'd learned about gays out on the streets

didn't like it and grew a massive phobia for gays that we would attack them

we'd rob and steal from them so i grew up hating days.

I also need to reiterate that growing up in apartheid, that racism was basically

a part of our lives, unfortunately.

In my era, we were taught a lot of hate.

I share this story with so many kids today. You're not born with it.

Children and people are not born with a hatred for other people with the colour

of their skin or their sexual preferences.

We were taught this as kids, without a doubt.

On one of my running away sessions, if I can call it that, I met a young girl, I'll never forget her.

If anyone knows boxing, Jimmy Abbott was a South African boxer.

Mike Tyson gave him his last fight, Mike Tyson beat him up very badly that he gave up the boxing.

Well, his cousin was a girl that I met, and I was with her, I was on the run,

and she said to me, Rob, please walk with, come with me to the school camp.

And I'm not a school camp, church camp.

I'm going on a church camp. I said, no, man, what do I want to go on a church

camp? What's this about?

And so I totally refused and I thought I was really a big man.

I was only a 15 year old boy, 14, 15 year old.

And I had this vest on, waistcoat, this is a leather waistcoat that I'd stolen out of a shop somewhere.

That's all I had on pants and everything, but no shirt in it.

And she asked me, are you going to wait for me? And I said, yeah,

of course I'm going to wait for you. And she took her lipstick and she wrote to my chest, I love you.

And in any case, I walked with her to the church and being a little red-eyed,

you know, trying to be the big brave man and everything, and being a smarty pants.

The pastor came out. And I know if you saw that slide where Pastor Willie Dengler

from Mayfield Baptist, He came out, saying allah to everyone.

He said, what's your name? I said, I'm Robert.

Are you coming to this on camp? I said, never. No, seriously? No way.

Come on, man, whatever. And then Hester Abbott started saying something,

I love him, and he asked, what's written on your chest?

And I'll never forget this. I'm an old fellow now.

I'm not that old, but I'll never forget. He asked me, what's written on your chest?

And Hester said, I wrote it. I wrote it. It says, I love you.

And Willie Dangler turned to me and said to me, do you know Jesus loves you?

I was a little baby boy, and I remember that till this very day.

It was the first time in my life I had ever heard that Jesus loves me,

and there's no exaggerations there at all.

It impressed me that I went on the camp.

I was still a naughty boy, unfortunately, on the camp. I didn't lead anyone astray.

Dawn might have kept Hester out of a few of her Bible studies and that,

But I believe that is God's doing, there's no doubt, because from then onwards, though,

I had only attended Mayfair Baptist another two or three times afterwards.

This is the last time I was involved in any church or had any connection with

religion up until a few years.

It just so happened as well that I got caught again, and they wanted to send

me to Tukai. Tokai was a juvenile center that you remandered and kept at until

you were released to go to the army.

So for those who don't know, we had to do military service. We were conscripted to do it two years.

And I was in the children's court in Johannesburg, and I begged them.

They wanted to send me away, and I begged the magistrate. I said to the magistrate,

please, let me go to the military. No, you're still a baby boy.

I think I was only 16 or so.

And I begged them, and they said, all right, well, you're going next year because

intake was January and July, and I could only go.

My brother went in the January intake. I was going to go in the July intake.

They didn't know where to send me in the meantime, and I said,

please, let me go get a job. Please let me go get a job.

And they gave me 72 hours to find a job.

If I didn't find the job, I was going to be sent back to the juvenile center.

I walked the streets of Johannesburg and I found a job. I wish my brother was

here. He could verify this for you.

I was one of the first little South African kids to do the white kids to do

the job that It was being done by most elderly black men that was doing security

guards at different posts around South Africa.

I was posted at a thesis farm, at a gate where I had to stand guard.

Six, well, Smith and Weston, six bullets I was given. Never had training,

never touched a gun in my life.

And I was given this gun. And I used to go and do these posts, stand these posts.

Unfortunately, I took it to the next level and I used the firearm on days off

to harass, rob and steal from people as well.

My first connection with firearms next would be not long after that when I was

recruited into the military.

Not long after that, I was recruited just close to my 17th birthday into the military.

And as you've seen, I'm not proud of apartheid, totally disagree with it,

what it stood for and everything.

But I'm truly proud that my brother was first selected into the Parabats,

South African Special Forces.

You can't just get recruited into them.

There's a lot of work to get recruited into them. My brother went in and six

months later, I came in and I also applied, and both of us passed with flying colors.

And I can truly tell you it has contributed to our ability.

Courses at that time. I also learned a lot of my counter-terrorism skills as you'll hear.

I was involved in counter-terrorism skills here in Australia.

That's what brought me here and that's what I was doing here.

Krav Magra, Israeli unarmed self-defense techniques that brought me here.

Involved in athletics in the military as well.

Definitely it was a big part of my time in the military because I loved athletics

and it was the only time that I could really express myself in that as well.

It's true, a lot of us don't talk about our time in the military because,

well, there's a lot of sadness that goes with it, especially when you get to

where I am today and I've got brothers of different color skins and I've got

brothers and sisters of, you know, different sexual choices.

I might not agree on their lifestyle, but this is my family,

These are my loved ones. These are my people.

So we tend to pack that away and deal with that in another way as well.

So like I said, I didn't have much schooling. I came out and I needed a job.

And I went back,

into security. And who did I bump into?

Well, the Rugby Player of 2007, Rugby Player of the Year. Does anyone know who

that was? If you know your rugby? Anyone?

John? Where's John? He was asking the rugby questions early on.

Anyone know who was the Rugby Player of the Year 2007?

Brian Abana. Some of you might know his name.

Fantastic rugby player. Springbok, by the way, just to reiterate that.

Well, his father, Bernie Abana, who ended up being in charge of marketing and

advertising and everything for the South African Springbok rugby team.

For those of you who don't know, Brian Abana is a coloured young boy,

mixed between the white and the black.

So his father ran a supermarket and was targeted many times because his colour

of his skin became their personal bodyguard as well as a security officer.

I actually used to throw the rugby ball to Brian Abana in the morning before

I used to take him to school.

So I might take a bit of credit for the way he played and that.

But as a young boy, I used to, in the loading dock of the supermarket,

we used to wait to take him.

I was the bodyguard. I used to take him to school, him and his sister.

While we waited, we used to play a bit of rugby in the backyard. in the courtyard.

Brian's father, Bernie, saw skills in me and he decided to put me into college

where I studied security risk assessment and got my qualifications.

This is also my first time introduction to high-level security and counterterrorism and firearms.

I performed, like I say, personal bodyguard for them as well.

So I was actually protecting people against my own people.

In those days. So I think it's ironic, but again, God works in very different ways, doesn't he?

I worked in the industry off and on for a number of years.

He also followed my stepfather, who was a plumber, into plumbing for a couple

of years, hoping to gain a trade.

Unfortunately, I got involved in drugs and with the wrong groups and I ran on

the streets for some time using my skills to survive on the streets to steal

and rob from people as I did on the streets of King's Cross as well.

I even landed up with a serious charge of assault at one stage.

They wanted to charge me attempted manslaughter.

I spent a bit of time in jail. Fortunately my mother had spoken to the young

boy's mother and charges were drawn from me.

I'd given a guy a hiding badly, severely, but he also claimed that I'd stolen,

in those days, it was 5,000 Rand, which really isn't much in dollars,

but I didn't steal anything from him.

I just beat him up and my mother was able to convince her to convince him to

withdraw the false claim of theft.

And the magistrate was so upset that the magistrate withdrew the charges from

me and laid charges on this young boy.

So that is my first taste for jail. Little did I know that years later,

I'd spent a bit of time in jail as well.

Because things got out of hand, my mother contacted my biological father,

family who got hold of my biological father in Australia, and he paid for me to come visit him.

He was then the big shot of 3M Australasia.

At that time, very rich man. We travelled on the yacht the east coast of Australia

doing cocaine and drinking a lot.

Got to Hamilton Island. Actually, Bob Holt has helped Keith Williams create Hamilton Island.

Those who don't know Keith Williams, he's the one that bought Hamilton Island

and created it. Well, Bob Holt, my biological father, helped him build it.

Things that I got control there, I gave him a hiding on the island.

Again, my violence came out and anger came out because he wanted me to call

him dad, and he had never been there my whole life, and so I decided to give him my heart in.

I traveled back to Sydney, where I had family in Sydney, and I then,

funny enough, managed, I don't know, some of you might remember the old Addy

Action, the subdivision of Adidas Sports.

Well, some crazy person thought it would be good for me to manage the store.

It wasn't a good idea because I walked away with most of the money.

I returned back to South Africa, and then a friend of mine was starting off

a business, and this is where I believe God's compassion really fell on me.

I turned, I didn't know what to do with myself and a friend turned to me and

said, we're going to start off an armed response business. Some of you have

been so happy to know what I'm talking about.

The policing force is in such a bad state that crime is so much out of control.

That they created these armed response groups in South Africa,

private security groups that would respond to armed robberies,

housebreakers, murders, and all the rest.

Well, my friend's business was the very first one in South Africa.

7th century security, and we started off in Johannesburg, protecting rich people's

homes and doing personal protection as well,

responding to different criminal

activities, which only increased my anger and my violence very much.

Unfortunately, the role gave me authority, as I believed, to behave in the sad way that I behaved.

I was involved in counterterrorism assessments and following other security

measurements and business activities at private events and businesses as well.

During this time, I met my ex-wife, Annie, and sadly, yeah, it was what,

six years we were only married for, but during the six years, we separated 12 times.

I was engaged to another woman when I met Annie, and she fell pregnant from

the first night that we actually met, so I was responsible to take,

take responsibility of my actions

and be the father. I didn't know how to be a dad. I never had a dad.

So, I kept running back to my ex-girlfriend and did crazy stuff.

The marriage was doomed from the beginning. We were married in court.

My brother, my family wasn't there. They refused to be there because nobody

would acknowledge this marriage. Didn't agree to it at all.

So, none of my family would attend this marriage. I don't believe that this

marriage was sanctioned by God at all. I'm not sure.

I've always said I don't think so because of my behaviour and how I carried on.

It then so happened that I got an opportunity to work in Australia.

And yeah, I truly believe that God was now going to start working in my life.

That took many years still for me to acknowledge.

This certainly was a gift from God when I was brought out to Australia in 1997

without my family, without my children.

Conducting security and risk assessments for the Olympics, implemented the first

soft skin cash in transit in Australia.

Some people might not know what that is. Up until the Olympics,

we only had armor guard vehicles doing cash in transit and businesses in Australia.

Well, for the Olympics, we couldn't have armored vehicles in the city,

what they would call, if you were riding in those days, we had a blue circle,

which was the last marathon of the Olympics.

Well, that was also the border of the city line.

No big trucks or vehicles could enter the city at that time.

So none of these armored vehicles would come into the city and collect cash

from the different businesses.

So it was my role to put a program together where we had people, as you'd call couriers,

dressed you know like taylor's dress just

casual as put a backpack on going

to mcdonald's pick up three hundred thousand dollars in

the backpack take it a few kilometers meet a soft skin vehicle which was just

an ordinary vehicle and the vehicle will then drive outside of the city limits

and meet the armored vehicle we would then take it to our depots in land cove

or smithfield that was a big one of my biggest tasks that i had to do for the

olympics which we created Hence,

we had the safest Olympics and the best Olympics ever, without a doubt.

During this time as well, I was running around with a lot of women,

certainly not doing the right thing at all.

My ex-wife and daughters immigrated to Australia. Truly, I've got it yet.

God, this is a gift from God, I know.

I didn't see it. I didn't know it. I actually thought it was a hindrance,

to be honest, at the time.

I was going to intervene with my plans and what I was doing.

So I reconnected with my ex. We never got married. We lived together.

Unfortunately, I never taught my daughters anything about God as well.

Nothing. Never took them to church.

Never prayed. Never taught them how to pray at all.

Again, it's not a cop-out, but I had never been taught. So, I didn't know how

to teach my children at all as well.

I was living a life that I believe I created, this great success with the Olympics coming out here.

I made everyone believe, whoa, look at me, look at me, look at me.

This is my doing. I did all of this, and actually I know now that it was God

who was giving me that chance.

It was just because of my failure to understand and recognize.

Who and what he was doing in my life at that time. After the Olympics,

I created Seminier Security Services with CHUB International Security Services.

Also another gift from God, unbelievable. Could never believe that this could ever happen.

With this, I was counter assessment projects around Australia,

doing cash in transit assessments as well for different companies,

doing assessment for them, implementing different procedures in place.

Presenting security packages to corporate businesses across Australia,

training Office of the Sheriff, one of my biggest projects I had.

We trained the Office of the Sheriff employees in self-defense,

Israeli unarmed combat, to protect the courts and when they used to go out on arrest.

9-11 happened, and I was then asked to put together with another organization

called Heart International. Some of you might have heard of them,

one of the world's greatest security forces, private security forces.

We put together a counter-terrorism package, which we sold to different airlines.

We'll attempt it to, and the first airline to buy it was Qantas.

For 12 months, I went into a contract with Qantas Group Security,

my business and myself, and Heart International.

And this is a true blessing from God because you don't get into Qantas.

And I think Mr. David Rowe can tell you about this. You don't get into Qantas

or work with Qantas if you don't know your thing. You've got to know your thing.

So I went in a 12-month contract with them, trained all their security instructors,

all ex-military and police officials.

In counter-terrorism measures and how to deal with explosive material on board aircraft.

Not how to detonate explosive material on an aircraft, but how to relocate it

on an aircraft, to put in what we call a least risk bomb location,

allow the thing to blow up, but still have survivors and allow the aircraft to land.

We ran that package. After 12 months, Qantas asked me if I would be willing

to run the program and be the LSME, Leading Subject Matter Expert.

For the next few years, I took up the role. I traveled the world.

Again, I must reiterate, I put it here. Only God could do this to a boy from

the kids' side of Johannesburg.

I can tell you now, there's no ways. I had no doing of this.

This is God's doing, I can promise you. He did this for me, hey.

Took me, I travelled the world, training in different, every port that Qantas

flew in and out of, all their small airlines, we had to train their instructors

and their staff in it as well.

Sadly during this time, because it was all about me, it was look at what I can do, girls look at me.

I've been told I've got to move up. Yes, I've got to rush to this quickly, folks.

I took it all that it was me, and I got back into the drugs and the liquor.

And it took over my life. Sadly, I lost it all.

I landed up on the streets of King's Cross. Now, I'm just going to fast forward.

You can actually see the story if you go to YouTube. You can see it online.

I separated from my wife and my children. I became a drug addict and alcoholic

on the streets of King's Cross.

Within four months, I was a fully-blown alcoholic and drug addict on the streets

of King's Cross, running on the streets, selling drugs for a well-known gang.

Doing sad things. I had sadly also attempted suicide in my car because I first

had my car before I actually slept on the steps.

I was hospitalised at St. Vincent's Hospital for two weeks and then I was placed

into Carriage's mental health unit.

If you don't know, in 1848 when they opened it was called Lunatic and Idiotic

House and most of their patients were ex-cops.

No doubt I survived of course lost my car,

and I was discharged out of characters after three months back out on the streets,

no doubt God was with me and looking over me he never left me as it says in

Hebrew 13 5 to 9 never will I leave you never will I forsake you and I'll never

never forget those words I went back into homelessness things actually got worse

I'm going to fast forward this quickly See?

I used to start going to Wayside Chapel, for those of you who don't know,

in Kings Cross, to get a shower.

Initially, it was a shower and to steal from the op shop so I could sell stuff for drugs and liquor.

But the more I went there, the more I sat down and had conversations with people

who were not meeting the alcoholic or the drug addict, but meeting the person.

And it was this response to me and this treatment of me that made me one day

put up my hand and say, I want to make a change.

They wanted to put me into rehabs and detox places. And I said,

no, I want to go live in the bushes in the Blue Mountains.

If you remember the psychologist saying to me, what's wrong with you? This ain't Africa.

We've got lovely buildings and beds, but I want to go live in Hazelbrook in

the Blue Mountains in a small tent for three months in the middle of winter.

And I used to take the train every three days back to King's Cross to get a

shower, to get a feed, to have conversations.

And I started this very first, those who don't know, we've got a program in

Australia called the SMART program, which was designed in Australia for drug

addicts and alcoholics.

I was the very first student on their program, I joined their program.

I went on to detox, cleaned myself up, came back to King's Cross to never have a place to stay.

I stayed on the street for another two weeks until I was able to give accommodation

at Haymarket Foundation's homeless shelter.

From there, a multimillionaire approached Graham Long at Wayside and asked,

he wants to help somebody. Now, he has a miracle.

You're not going to find in any books or movies.

This multimillionaire said to Graham Long, the CEO, I want to help somebody

who wants to help themselves.

And because I was volunteering at Wayside and helping them out and that,

Graham put up my name and this guy said to Graham Long, will you tell Robert

to go and find himself an apartment anywhere in Australia?

If it's Double Bay, let it be. Who wants to go live in Double Bay, hey?

And tell him to find an apartment. I will pay for his apartment 12 months in advance rent.

Not only did he put up the $19,000 for my rent for 12 months,

he paid for all my furniture brand new.

I remember him saying to Graeme, Graeme told me, and he said to Graeme,

and you make sure Rob gets the biggest TV he can find because he needs to watch

them big Springbok boys. I remember that very clearly.

I started volunteering at Wayside every day, got work, got employed with Capital

Safety Group, a high safety wind turbines.

Wind turbines were new in Australia then.

We were training all the operators in emergency management rescue how to descend

out of there in emergency situation.

Sadly, I lost my employment because I threatened to assault my manager.

I went back to Wayside, volunteered, and was volunteering even at that time every weekend.

Got a second job, Trimovac emergency management, unbelievable,

with Centrelink Medicare.

I was given my own airplane, my own pilot, and flown to every nook and cranny

of this country, training all Centrelink and Medicare staff.

If you've got family who've worked there, they might know the Code Grey, Code Black training.

Well, I was a trainer to help them in self-defense and training there as well.

Unfortunately, I attended assault a colleague, so I lost my job there as well.

Went back to Wayside, called Graham Long and said, I've lost my job again.

He didn't turn around to me and say, what are you doing? What's wrong with you?

You've had the best jobs.

He said, come back here to Wayside. I went to Wayside for the next seven months.

No one forced me to look for a job. I said, you can come here every day,

we'll help you with your rent and everything, whatever you needed,

but you need to start dealing with your actual cause of your issues.

And got me into Australia's leading psychologist, which I work with quite often as well.

I then joined Wayside Chapel full-time eventually, created my own tour where

I took people on the streets of King's Cross, was made the community educator.

I got the job to run my own social justice program, educate kids on how to support homeless people.

Sadly, I got into a fight. I'll just fast forward this. I went to jail.

I've done a bit of time in jail as of recent.

I found I wasn't allowed in King's Cross, so I was invited to come and live

out this way by beautiful friends, Mike and Margot, who gave me a place.

I was very lonely actually. I didn't know anyone.

And I was directed by the mental health unit because I felt I was in a bad shape

and they directed me to Dom's place.

Another place where God definitely led me. Dance place, a homeless shelter down

the road. If you're ever in the area, pop in, come say hi to us.

I came there first to meet people and connect with people. And I land up volunteering

with them, clean the place up, started a working group fixing bicycles for underprivileged

children and creating social events, pool comms and all the rest.

Because of my assault charge, I had to go to jail. So I was sent to jail for nine months.

During that time of jail. Well, sorry, my first time in jail,

sorry, my first seven months I was in waiting trial is when I found the Lord.

July of 2022. I'll never forget it. I'll never forget it that day.

Someone had spoken about the Lord, spoken about Jesus in jail.

And the first time I wanted to listen and I listened to this guy and he said

to me, you're right. And I said, yeah, not someone like me.

He said, no, any one of us here, God will forgive us. God loves us.

I went into my cell, I'll never forget, in my bunk in my little cell,

and I prayed to God and I asked God to please forgive me.

I didn't get out of jail though. I still had to wait another couple of months to get out of jail.

Came out of jail, went to Dom's place, did my thing.

I knew I had a home, I knew I had a community in the area.

Went into jail, did my time in jail for nine months. At that time,

Dom's was coming to visit me.

But it brings me to this, Ephesians 2 verse 8 and 9.

Ephesians 2:8

However I know these are the works of God, God wants me to be involved in, as I'm reminded.

My involvement at Dom's Place and where I am today isn't because of my works.

I know it's because of the works of God.

But because that's where God wants me.

It is my role and my responsibility to represent my brothers and sisters out there.

And He's given me the gift to be able to talk and to be able to share with people.

And as he said in 1 Peter 4, each of you should use whatever gift you have to

receive to serve others as a faithful steward of God and the grace in its various

forms. And this is what I'm doing today.

I did find a church in 2022 when I came out of my bale. I won't say where it was. I found a church.

I went looking all over, found this church, was baptized there,

but then sadly went to jail.

When I came out, I just felt, well, I couldn't go there. So I needed a church,

and man, did I search for a church.

I did everything I could to find a church.

I accidentally came across the Heights, and I remember the day of the Sunday I walked in here.

Chris, you were preaching, and what a powerful message.

What a powerful message that day, and God said to me, welcome home. You're at your place.

23rd of March, you go back in your diary, you'll see you were preaching that

day. I'll never forget it, eh?

And God sent me, yeah, you are, and I decide this is the connection engagement.

Sadly, I didn't believe that I was good enough to be here. I didn't believe

that God loved me as much as he loved all of you and that I was equal to you.

So after every sermon, I would run out of here. Took me quite a few months.

To recognize and say, no, no, you're right. I remember telling one of our lovely

ladies from our group the other night, because she asked me,

he used to run out, I said, yeah, because I didn't believe that I deserved this.

I didn't believe because I've never known anything like this in my whole life.

I'm not deserving of this. I'm bad. These people don't deserve someone like me.

And so I used to leave here, I remember Janelle touched me, and it was just so unbelievable.

I do believe that I am. I do believe I'm in the community where God wants me.

I just want to say thank you to Mark and Susan. I was telling Peter about this. Sorry, Phil about this.

Mark and Susan are my very first pastor and wife team that I've had in my whole

life, and I'm 60 years of age.

I'm so sorry that you're leaving because I can't thank you enough for your love

and guidance and the time that you've taken out to talk to me.

And last but not least, I need to say thank you, I really need to say thank you to a bunch of people.

From my connect group who have taught me so much.

I stand here with the confidence of knowing that I have a future ahead of me

and that God walks with me because of my connect group.

Tony Edwards, an amazing mentor, beautiful man.

His wife, Jen Edwards, beautiful host, awesome, feeds us with lovely food.

Fullen Josh from Kelshaw, I cannot thank you enough for your patience and kindness.

Full and Janelle are unbelievable people. Andrew and Michelle, thank you so much.

David, David Rea, an amazing human and an amazing mentor. I can't get enough of him.

He is giving me this reading material and I need to finish up with that saying,

you know, God, I just read this morning and it said, it's called,

if you haven't read it, it's called insights.

And it says, God is not finished with us. We are all on a journey.

And I keep getting that message from David. I want to say thank you as well

to Susan Gersmeyer and Laws for the opportunity.

And more so, thank you all very much for your time, giving me this opportunity

and allowing me to be part of your community. Thank you.

Rob, there's one thing for sure is that God has guided your steps.

The other thing is how could you get so many security jobs when you've been

in jail for so many times?

That in itself blows my mind. Look, isn't it funny?

People say often, what a great blessing, and then they name people around.

For you to come to our congregation, you have been an amazing blessing to us.

We're the ones who are blessed by you coming here.

And you might feel as though you've been blessed and it's a privilege to just be part of a journey.

But when you walked in and you walked out so often, the amount of times I ran

out that door and you were gone on your bike, I thought one day we've got to catch him.

And we did. And so praise God that that happened and praise God that you've

been part of our congregation and you're really part of our family and you found

a home, a spiritual home here. So let me pray for you.

Lord, I thank you for Rob and I thank you, Lord, for his journey.

We really have no idea. We've just touched it tonight.

We have no concept, really, of what he went through.

But Lord, as you say in Psalm 139, you have known every day that has been and

every day that will be in Rob's life.

And you have searched him, and you have revealed him to himself,

and you have revealed yourself to him and he's given his life to you.

So I pray, Lord, that you would guide and direct his life now and I pray,

Lord, that you would bind Satan in every single way that he would not fall back

into any place that he should not go.

But rather, you would guide his steps and direct his steps and that you would

surround him with your angels so that he would walk in a way that honors you and glorifies you.

So we pray, Lord, that every person that he comes across, Lord,

he might be the same blessing as he has been to us tonight and us here at the Heights.

And I pray, Lord, that you would multiply the blessings upon him,

open up doors so very clearly so he would walk through them and he would be

your voice into this community and the communities that he touches.

So I pray all this, Lord, in your holy name. Amen.

Thanks for coming out, guys. I've got this card for Rob, and thank you, Rob, for coming along.

I believe this is the last one for the year. Is that right?

Thanks, Phil Kelshaw and the team for putting these on over the time.

Big round of applause for Ben.

Spent all night cooking that pizza and hey, so next year,

keep this space open and no doubt the same connections that you've been found

out about this as you'll find out about the next things that are going on and moving into the future.

Hey, I'm not going to be here, but let me say that very rarely do you get this

many blokes gathering together on a consistent basis in any church that I've been at.

We had men's meetings in the church where there was about 500,

600 people, and it was not this size.

Great job of coming here. It is fantastic to meet as blokes,

even though the women are all online looking.

It's fantastic they can do that too. So bless you and your families.

And as you go and you finish the inter, go into this next week,

I pray that God blesses you and keeps you and has his face shine upon you so

that whatever you do, you might live and walk with him.

Amen. Amen. Thank you.