About Rod...

Basically up until the age of 12 I was Perfect!!! I stole my first car when I was 12 and discovered drinking booze, chasing girlies, and smoking Dope and being influenced heavily by the bike clubs I witnessed riding through Sydney with one member sitting backwards on the bike passing out beer cans to all his mates as they screamed through the suburbs with no helmets and “denim cut offs”. I was expelled from my first High school that I attended which was a bit hap hazard as I started out as the Dux of the form and ended up being expelled??? Don’t know why!

I left home when I was 14 and got a job as a chrome plater and lived in a bungalow out the back of some joint and I was paid $47 per week which covered my rent, food and booze. Around this time I purchased my first road bike a Ex police BSA A65 650 Besa with Ape hangers of course and no rego. I started hanging out with a local bike gang that took me on board as a young mascot.

Things didn’t quite go to plan when I found myself married before I was 17 with my first child on the way, this was disastrous as alcohol was playing a large part and devastating my life, losing jobs, playing up on my wife just in general I was an “A Hole”. Eight years past by and divorce was imminent. Life was basically a turmoil and the following two years I was continually drunk and stoned and out of work. Finding myself living in a squat eating out of garbage cans and no bike. One story comes to mind of me meeting a friend who I had met three times but each time not knowing I met her before, we are still mates today. I got myself together enough to get work and back onto a bike but the alcohol and the drugs were still playing a huge part of my life and I’d now picked up the knickname “Animal”.

That was about 1985 when I finally came to the belief that handing my life over to Jesus was the only way that my life was going to get on track and that it did for some ten years. In this time I had 2 more children and rode with the Longriders CMC for a couple of years then founded CMA South Australia. I was taking the Christian message to Bike Rallies with the CMA as this was and still is my hearts desire and where I believe Jesus wants me to be. I still had some conflict in my life due to the fact that my wife was at home having children and I was out on the road with Christian Riders preaching the gospel. This placed stress on my marriage as well as my Christian Walk not to mention that I was trying to sustain a severe Back Injury which took it’s toll after 5 operations and eventually everything lead from one thing to another becoming addicted to prescription medication which work cover generously paid for.

All the side effects of the medication led to depression, being already depressed recovering from operation after operation I fell into a deeper state of depression than I have ever experienced. This took it’s toll on my family life and then I made the foolish mistake of taking my eyes off of Jesus and going back to living in the world again without living my Christian walk. Needless to say it didn’t take the old devil long to stuff up that relationship and another divorce was upon me, I had sunk that deep into the booze and the drugs again that the devil confused me into believing that ending my life was the only way out of this pain.

I moved to QLD and was followed by my best mate Deb who is now my wife, we lived together not really living for Jesus. We both liked to drink and alcohol was a major factor that was destroying yet another one of my relationships also the fact that we didn’t have Jesus to guide us through the many issues we had brought with us from previous relationships. In the midst of all this we have seven children between us, four from my previous 2 relationships and 3 from Deb’s 2 prior relationships, the age group ranging from 6 years old to 23 year old. This brought added complications to our relationship with everybody fighting for a position in the pecking order within our mixed up families.

After living without Jesus in our lives and all these factors around us I finally decided to re-dedicated my life to the Lord and it wasn’t long after that Deb followed and gave her life to the Lord as well. With attempting to follow a biblical principles for our lives and placing our focus toward God and not ourselves we found some issues disappeared and others we work on daily. We separated and Deb moved into her own flat and we both concentrated on our walks with Jesus as well as having a relationship for the first time which was uncomplicated and clean before God prior to marriage. This was new to both of us and we found ourselves not having the complication of what intimacy brings to a relationship without the blessing of marriage between ourselves and God.

I now spend my days attempting to live life as Jesus would want me to. I am still in the bike scene of course but with Jesus as my pillion, (and Deb of course). I have also joined the Logan Ulysses club and have found them to be a great bunch of people and very respectful of where I am at as a Christian. They are at many rallies we attend and we always encourage them to come to our Bikers church which we hold of a Sunday morning on site. I have been honoured by the president of the Logan Ulysses (Chillidog) and his lady (Scruff) to perform their wedding On New years Eve at Esk with Roscoe as the officiate. Their club has in general accepted both myself and Deb into the Ulysses fold and we continue to make mates the more we se them. I even had the pleasure of being able to buy for them one Christmas the “Aussie Bible” and give them out to them all at a monthly meeting which they were all receptive to.

Somewhere in the near future we are heading off around Australia under the Bikers 4 Christ Banner to take the gospel and the idea of Bikers 4 Christ Fellowship to other like-minded Christian Bikers and catch up with all the other Ulysses branches around Australia, some I will have the opportunity to share what the gospel has done for me in my life.
Adios Amigos Rod.

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