December 5, 2022 • 24 mins
Against police evidence, without a body and on presumptions, Rusty Labuschagne was convicted of drowning a fish poacher during Mugabe’s rule. He served 10 years in Zimbabwe’s prisons, including the notorious Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, where he suffered through the Zim dollar crash, with food shortages, no running water, and people dying around him daily.
He speaks eloquently about being subjected to conditions most people would find unendurable, having to dig deep within himself to find solutions to an unbearable situation. His resilience, ability to face adversity, and pure grit are an unparalleled inspiration.
After years of bitterness and anger, Rusty learned how to forgive those who had caused
his suffering. He found that who you are and the depth of your determination
will get you through life’s darkest moments. Learn how to harness your inner
strength and let go of what you cannot control. Ultimately, it was faith in
God, a positive mental attitude, and lessons in forgiveness, gratitude, and
humility that probably saved his life.
Connect with Rusty at https://beatingchans.com
Guest Bio:
Rusty Labuschagne is a unique premier speaker on the professional circuit. One is immediately struck by his sincerity and humility as he delivers a dramatic account of his transformational experience. Rusty has been through a trauma few have experienced. In 2003, the successful Zimbabwean businessman, who ran a safari outfit, flew his own aircraft, and had a fishing resort on Lake Kariba, was framed by a poacher, the police, and the courts, and wrongfully convicted of drowning a poacher.
He talks and writes about being subjected to conditions most people would find unbearable, having to draw on his inner resources and strengths to endure the unimaginable. In the process, he developed not only a life-saving resilience but also empathy and a keen desire to help his fellow inmates. His faith in God, positive mental attitude, leadership qualities, and lessons in forgiveness, gratitude, and humility bring a personal, transformative, and authentic message of hope and freedom.
In his book and to audiences, Rusty’s message is that everyone is faced with challenges, but it is who you are and the depth of your determination that will get you through life’s darkest moments. He shows how one can harness one’s inner strength and let go of what one cannot control. His talks have a broad audience appeal, from leadership lessons for CEOs and managers to inspiration and staff members’ motivation. They will all feel an impact.
Learn more about Radical Abundance at Radical-Abundance.com
Teresa Janzen is your host. She ignites a passion for abundant living through radical service. Teresa is an international speaker, author, and coach of speakers and writers. Her experience in leadership and global ministry drives her to share inspiring stories with wit and insight. Her candid and personable style is sure to capture the heart of any audience.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Welcome to Radical Abundance.
I'm your host, Teresa Janzenhave you ever felt like the
world is just completely unjust,and have you maybe even been
a victim of that injustice,knowing that God is sovereign
and in control and can even useevil and injustice to bring.
Good purpose is what we'regoing to be talking about today.
(00:27):
Our guest, rusty and SandraLabuschagne have a lot to
say about how God will useanything, even something as
extreme as being imprisonedin a foreign country to
bring about his good purpose.
Rusty and Sandra, welcometo Radical Abundance.
Thank you, Teresa.
Thank you.
Lovely to be on your.
(00:47):
Yeah.
Thank you.
Well, I want to just jumpinto your story and I know
a little bit about it.
Take our listeners back tothat time where the story
begins, the heart of the story.
What happened,therea, I I come from
humble beginnings from acattle launching background
became very successful.
(01:09):
And in 2000 during thelanded version car in Zimbio.
I got to the place where Iwas flying my own aircraft.
I had five safari concessions,a fishing resort on Lake
c Reba, and Zimbabwe.
And life was fantastic.
And I was on a fishing tripat my fishing resort with
(01:30):
some friends and a friendof mine, and I decided to
go tiger fishing on thelake, leaving the other guys
Bre fishing in the river.
And on our way back,we spotted two fish
poachers in a steel boat.
And knowing they were notoriouspoaches, I drove my boat
towards them to scare them off.
And the wake up my boat tiltedtheir boat, causing them to
jump out into the water, whichwas about five, five feet deep.
(01:52):
And there were about threeyards from the shore.
The students scrambled todry land, and my friend and
I, I then washed as theyran way into the bush and
thought nothing more of it.
The following day, thepolice arrived with one of
the poachers and accusedus of drowning the other.
But long story short, I wasframed by the poach of the
police and the courts in anugly politically influenced
(02:15):
conspiracy and sentencedto 15 years in Zimbabwe's
prisons, of which fivewere removed as remission.
My co accused only got a $10fine and not set free because
there was no driving a boat,and that's exactly as it was
stated in the judgment againstpolice evidence without a
body and not presumption.
(02:36):
I was convicted of and served10 years in Zimbabwe's presence.
I can't imagine that Zimbabwe'sprisons are very comfortable.
And so maybe you can give usa, a bit of a picture of that.
But first, this very ideaof knowing that you are
completely in innocent.
In fact, you weredoing the right.
(02:57):
Thing trying to scare offthese poachers and I was,
boy, have you ever been dingedfor doing the right thing?
And that's a pretty bigthing there to spend 10
years in a Zimbabwe prison.
As a result, what were thosenext 10 years like for you?
You arrive at the prison andthe first thing they do is
(03:20):
they make you strip naked.
So when you walk intointo the exercise yard,
you walk in stock.
And everything you wear,read, write, eat, drink.
Hearsay is all controlled.
You have no control of anythingbut the humiliation of me
walking into a prison witha thousand guys stock naked
(03:44):
is something else I should.
I sell 13 yards long by threeyards wide with 78 other guys.
That each person had13 inches marked out
on the walls in chalk.
That was your space.
We were packed like sods on oursides with legs all crossing
(04:04):
over in the middle, and weall faced the same direction.
When you turned over, it wasall together as cushioning
against the cold concrete floor.
You'd fold two of yourpaper thin, worn out last
wooden blankets severaltimes to fit your 13.
And you'd cover yourselfwith a third blanket.
Your clothes were wrappedaround your toothbrush and
(04:26):
toothpaste, or the headgets stolen, and that was
your pillow from sleeping onthose freezing hot floors.
My hips had bruised blackrings for years and shoulders
still give trouble today.
There are no, there'sno furniture whatsoever
in a prison in Zimbabwe.
There's no beds, tables,chairs, cupboards, nothing.
(04:46):
Not even a mirror.
I didn't see my facefor the first eight.
It's just rows of faultyfolded blankets and hundreds
of world used water bottleson bare concrete floors.
For the first eight years, onlyone set of clothing was allowed.
At any one time,underwear was forbidden.
After six months, you got achange of clothing sometimes.
(05:07):
Other times, after ninemonths living us walking
around in TEUs, there were nobasins or tap in the cells.
Only one set of clothingwas allowed at any one time.
So we had to wash our clothesin the cell toilets at night
wearing a blanket, then hangthem on the walls with smuggled
book staples to draw by thenext morning in 2005, Harari
(05:30):
City ran out of water forthree years while Urbi Maxima
maximum security prison, eachprisoner was allocated only
one plastic cup of water a.
One cup of dirty Orange CityRhino water from nearby dam
catered by farm prisoners.
That was to drink, clean yourteeth, wash your face, bath,
(05:53):
everything for three years.
And that's when Ireally started dying.
In my first six years, Iwatched over 2,200 guys die,
primarily from malnutrition.
It adjourn theZimbabwe dollar crash.
When there was no food outsideof prison, nevermind in there.
(06:13):
Now just remember I wentin prison in 2003 and I
was released in two 13.
So there was azi dollarcrash, there was the world
economic crash in 2008.
So, and the whole world changedtherea from, from the thought
of taking a picture with aphone and sending it to someone
that was like ths in two 13.
(06:37):
I mean, all the socialmedia, everything started
in that time in the fir inin when I was moved to a
medium security prison inAari Central Prison, out of
1,200 of US prisoners at AariCentral Prison, 432 guys died.
That's more than one thirdof us in eight months.
I want to get to some of thelife lessons I learned in.
(06:59):
In my first year, I was full ofanger, hatred, and bitterness.
I mean, you know, when you goin there as an innocent man,
it eats away at you and everylevel, anger, bitterness,
hatred, and, and I lie therefor hours wishing every
terrible thing on each of them.
In turn, the poach, the police,the judge, the ministry and all
who involved in my conviction.
And then one day I was struckby the realization that they'd
(07:23):
all forgotten about me long ago.
Here I was.
Consumed by the unfairness ofit all, and they blissfully
unaware of the, of the evilI watched on them every day.
In the end, I wasonly hurting myself.
I was carrying all thatin my head and beating
myself up for nothing.
The single biggest lesson Ilearned in prison was true
(07:45):
forgiveness, and for me, itwas bigger than anything I
could have achieved on my own.
True forgiveness was inspiredby Almighty and so was letting.
It was a huge weight ofmy shoulders and I learned
to live in the moment fromthen on because the past was
too painful and the futurefull of unkept promises.
(08:07):
So I just dealt with these days.
It was, I learned to havefaith because no amount of
worrying was gonna changewhat I was going through.
If you have anger or resentmenttowards anyone in any way,
it'll eventually destroy.
Because that is whatthose emotions do.
They steal from you.
They steal happinessand freedom.
(08:28):
And many people asked mehow I managed to forgive
them, what they did to me.
And I remember the exactmoment Thereza walking
in that exercise yard.
It was after about a year,and I was tired of all the
anger, hatred, and bitternessthat was draining me daily.
And I remember looking up andI just said to myself, Lord,
take care of them and let meget through this road that's
been put in front of me.
(08:48):
What goes around comes around.
They will get theirjudgment there.
And the amazing thing was there,it was, it wasn't a gradual
process of forgiving, it wasan instant mindset change.
It was, it was aninstant release.
It was like, like I was holdinga secret for years and years.
So worried that peoplewere gonna find out.
(09:09):
And then one day I just decided,I'm gonna tell the guys, it
was like, it's art, it's over.
And it was that, it wasthat mindset change.
It was, it was freeing myself.
It was nothing to do with.
And that's the lessonin forgiveness.
And it's such a, you know,you can forgive, forget,
and move forward, or youcan retain, remember, and
(09:30):
regret the choice is yours.
And if you say, I'll forgive,but I'll never forget,
then you still remember andwill never move forward.
You can't bounce back fromanything unless you forgive
those who you believehave done your wrong.
And only when you forgiveand let go of the past, can
you be fully free to moveforward with your full.
(09:51):
Teresa, one of the other biglessons I learned was gratitude.
You know, we all wanttoo much in our lives and
concentrating on what wehaven't got, instead of being
grateful for what we have.
And for me, giving thanksto God every day goes a
long way for my health.
A beautiful family, alovely home, a soft bed,
running water, and so on.
When there's no food, nowater and people are dying
(10:14):
all around you, you becomegrateful for, for the fact
that you are still breath.
And another day is a blessing.
When you line a cell with 78other guys and your breath
is, is not even your owngratitude suddenly has a
different meaning altogether.
Accepting that what I wentthrough cannot be changed
(10:36):
and being grateful for whatit taught me as unlocked my
vision for my future, thehealthiest of all of all
human emotions as gratitude.
Remember that and practice.
Having an attitude ofgratitude is one of the
most impactful habits forfulfilling and healthy life.
After being moved to a farmprison after eight years, I was
(11:00):
moved to to a farm prison, andit was my first evening sitting
around in open fire on oldlogs and bleach cattle skulls,
chatting with old in inmatesin the as a tribe in Zimbabwe.
Just taking me back towhat I loved to deal as
a child, and I remember.
Getting lost in theirinteresting stories and
the beauty of the sunsetand the dancing flames, the
(11:21):
tranquil call of a nachoand the bright stars in the
moon, which I hadn't seenfor eight lonely long years.
I never saw a sunset or sunriseeither for eight years and
now I appreciate the everydaylittle things in life, like
a soft bed, a hot bath, atasty meal, a spontaneous
(11:43):
kettle from my loved.
because those are thethings you miss most when
you have it all taken away.
There are things weknow that rejuvenate us.
For me, it has all been nature.
I am and will forever bea farm boy from Zimbabwe.
Nature's in my blood, touchinga tree, smelling the earth, the
(12:04):
feeling of soil in my hands.
These things bringme restoration.
And for you it might be.
Hang out to friends, dancing,reading a good book or swimming
in the ocean, whatever isgood for you, do more of it.
There are many other lifelessons that I learned there,
(12:27):
but, but I want to touchon an encounter I had with
the Lord that changed mylife completely because the,
the death rate was so bad.
In 2000 and June, 2006,prison headquarters
started allowing relative.
To deliver food totheir loved one daily.
And my darling sister sold abusiness and gather per career
(12:47):
just to feed me for four years.
And I can honestly say thatwithout her, I wouldn't
be sitting here today.
I'm truly blessedto have in my life.
Anyway, she, she came to,I'd been moved to a medium
security prison, which is verydifferent to maximum security.
Maximum security locked up for12, 20 hours a day in a cell.
You only allowed out fourhours in the exercise yard.
(13:09):
Medium security allowedout eight hours.
So it's, it's very different.
She came to the prisonand she said to me, whilst
delivering food one day,do you want an iPod?
So I said, oh, what's an iPod?
She said, it's a thingthat plays music.
So I said, well, how big is it?
And she indicated thissmall flat little thing.
So I said, well, howmany songs does it play?
(13:30):
She said, about a thousand.
I said, no worries.
So where'd you put all the CDs?
There's so much technology inadvance, and Jia is six years.
I've been away.
Anyway, the following day,the Potter arrived under the
salad and about a week later,a cell phone or sneaked in
tune one of those cheap Nokiacell phones with a rechargeable
battery back in 2009.
(13:52):
Everything was goingsmoothly and you couldn't
dream of doing that in amaximum security prison.
This is medium security prison.
After about three months,everything going perfectly,
an envious prisoner reportedme of unexpected search
unbelievably through some quickmaneuvering with onside gods.
Nothing was discovered, butI was sinology confinement
(14:13):
anyway, for two years.
That was unbelievably lonely.
But after experiencing thatprecious little link to
the outside world, I hadto get my phone back and
I did, which was amazing.
I mean, I had wonderfulguards charging batteries.
I had two batteries, andeverything was going perfectly
until after 18 months.
(14:33):
One of the friendly guardsapproached my bowel at five
in the morning, and with theaddress, they're coming for
your phone and there's no wayof getting a phone out of there.
Someone had brought me aprotein powder about a month
before, and I'd never seenit before, and it had to go
through the doctor and security.
It was a big, big story toget it in there, and when I
got it, I opened it, brokea silver seal, tasted it.
(14:55):
When I put the seal back andclosed it, the next time I
opened that seal, it stuck.
So I saved it to have my phone.
So that morning I opened it,broke the seal, took off the
powder out, wrapped the funin plastic, put it in, put
the powder back, put the.
Put the lid on sixo'clock, the guards arrive.
What they do is they makeyou strip naked, then you
jump with your legs openlike you're hiding something.
Then we all walk out stocknaked into the Godard,
(15:18):
and there's 1200 guysand they do the search.
So after the search, I'vecome back into my cell and
everything is upside downeverywhere, but my protein
powder still in good shape.
Five minutes later I'msummoned to the, the security
office and I walk in thereand therefore God standing.
One seated behind adesk and an empty chair.
(15:39):
Now, I hadn't sat in a chairfor seven and a half years and
he says to me, check your seat.
So I sat down, felt good.
He said, do you have agirlfriend called Karen?
So I said, no.
I said, I had one beforeprison called Karen.
He said, okay.
When did you last talk to her?
I said, long ago before prison.
He said, are you sure?
I said, yeah.
Said, handed me a letteraddressed to me from Karen.
(16:01):
So nice talking to you onthe phone the other night.
She sounds so positive.
After some intensequestioning, this Lord just
came to me and I said, no.
Karen was having lunch in andshe met this lady and they soon
realized that they were both hadboyfriends in the same prison.
So the lady said, let me callmy boyfriend, who's a God in
there, and he can call Russand you guys can have a chat,
(16:22):
so I'll use the God's phone.
But out there, couldn't tell'em what the girl's name was.
They didn't.
An hour later escorted up tothe Officer George's office.
When you go up there,it's big trouble.
And I walk in thereand they were waiting.
There's like 15 big brassofficers all standing in a half
circle of George behind his bigdesk and my empty chair in the
middle, he says, take a seat.
(16:44):
So I sat down.
He said, if you don't tellme what that girl's name
is, your life and thisprison is gonna change.
I said, officer,I don't know his.
And then the questionstarted, how tall was he?
How old?
What drank?
Where did you make the call?
How long ago didyou make the call?
And I answered as best I could.
And they were gettingfurious cuz they couldn't
nail in anything.
(17:04):
And then the head of the soccersaid to me, do you wanna talk
to docs in charge on your own?
So I said, yes, please.
So they all leave.
I closed it on him andI got on really well.
I said, officer, we'veboth been through hell.
We watched hundreds of guys die.
I've donated endless stuffto the prison service,
soccer balls, volleyball.
Volleyball, net soccer bootsand uni uniforms for the squad.
(17:26):
I said, can't youjust let the song go?
I mean, the guard wasstealing flat out there.
Everyone, the countrywas in a mess.
He said, Russ, I don'tcare about you, but I
want that God's name now.
He was furious.
So I said, officer, Idon't know his name.
I don't know his name.
So he said, okay, okay.
He calls the gods.
He says, put him ondeath row in the dark.
(17:48):
So they escort me overto the condemn section.
They used to hang us inthose days and there were
56 cells 52 had guys waitingto be young, and there
were four four empty cells.
And one of them wascalled the dark cell.
The cells are threemeters, three yards long,
one yard wide, and threeyards tall with a vent.
And the only vent wascovered by a staircase.
(18:08):
So, and the electriclight didn't work, so you
couldn't see anything.
It was pitch.
They made me strip naked, gaveme three worn out, filthy,
last wooden blankets fiveliter, which is a gallon
container, cut off the top asa toilet, same as solitary,
and one liter of water.
And my sory cell wasidentical three yards by
(18:29):
one yard, by three yard.
They locked me in there for23 hours and 45 minutes a day.
So I was allowed out fiveminutes in the morning to
clean my teeth, five minutesat 10 o'clock to have a.
Five minutes at three o'clockto prepare for lockup.
It was cold, lonely, anddark, like being buried alive.
I couldn't even see my hand.
Now I remember walking and justholding the walls and turning
(18:51):
around and walking, doing pressups and carry on walking just
to, just to keep my mind, okay.
After day six there, and Itested my faith all along
and prayed like crazyand nothing happened.
So, so I hadn't prayed for fora long time, but I got on my.
And I prayed to God for helpand I'll never forget the
(19:12):
feeling of like warm waterbeing pulled over me and
a total sense of calmness.
So I sat on the floorleaning against the wall.
Within 30 minutes, I faintlyheard my off dancem mate
shutting from the soccer ground.
Hey Ra, everything'sokay, my mate, don't
worry, everything's okay.
So I jumped up,I said, air fool.
He said, don't worry,Russ, everything's okay.
So I thought, okay, leton the concrete, looking
(19:34):
up at the darkness.
Within 10 minutes tounlock my door gun.
Those bolt, that noise goesright through You chuck me,
my clothes, said the officerGeorge wants to see you.
I get dressed, I go up intothe blinding sun, cross the
court yard up the stair streetoffice, and his exact words
were, he said, hello, Russ.
I said, hello, officer.
He said, have you rememberthe girl's name yet?
(19:56):
I said, no, officer.
He said, I'll, I'lltell you what I'm gonna.
I'm gonna leaveit in God's hands.
You can go back to yourself.
And at the exact moment whenI was praying, the sister
was paying him 200 US dollarsto get me out of there.
And that was a huge turningpoint in my spiritual life.
You know, Abram and, andthen when he came, became a
(20:16):
Abraham, he had to change thetruth sometimes to, to get by.
And my life haschanged unbelievably.
You know, I still didn'tgo home for two and a half.
But I knew that therewas a bigger picture.
I knew somehow inside that therewere bigger plans For me, it,
it was extremely hard to makesense of it all back then, but
I see it so clearly now howthe Lord was working with me.
(20:39):
You know, before BritainI was a, a big fish in a
little pool going nowhere,A little bull wire.
It's a city in Zimbabweand, and I was one of
the big players in there.
And it was allabout me, Theresa.
It was all about my empire andmy money and more and more.
And, and when is enoughenough, you know?
And now I'm a little fishin a whole wide world
(21:02):
making a huge difference.
And it's about others.
It's about other people.
It's not about me anymore.
It's about changing, changingother people's lives and, and
I now have a purpose and thesatisfaction I get from helping.
Far outweighs the millionsI was making before.
And, and the lesson here thereis, is no matter what hardships
(21:23):
you're going through in life,just remember that you're being
prepared for where you're going.
God has a plan for each andevery one of us, and I see
that so clearly in my life now.
Yeah, that is just an amazingstory and I just thank you for
going through that whole thing.
I can't even imagine thatlevel of peace and such
(21:46):
a hard, hard situation.
Sandra, I wanna give you achance before we go, do you have
anything that you wanna say tothe radical abundance audience?
I came from a place where I hadthe career, the big house,
the cars, the material.
And I did have a bit ofpeace, but nothing luck today.
And since I met Rusty, it'sreally a divine appointment
(22:11):
from the Lord because wecame together where we had
nothing and we, you know,I was 53 when I met him,
so it's much later in life.
So there's always hope whenyou think that it's the
end and your life is overand you lose everything.
When you've got the Lordin your life and you trust
him, he always restores.
(22:33):
He's always there.
He really is.
It's just been a wonderfuljourney the last six years.
Rusty and I have had so manyexperiences with, with the
Lord and what he's done for us.
Just small things, andit's not about us anymore.
It's not about buildingour life and our empire.
It's really about.
(22:54):
Helping people, you know,the Lord's given us that
heart that whatever hewants us to do, we wanna
do for him.
After hearing this story,there aren't going to be
many people complainingabout their lot in life.
This is such a testimonybecause, you know, I could
easily say Rusty and Sandra,you are amazing people, but you
(23:15):
were absolutely right that thistype of forgiveness and finding
gratitude in these circum.
It is not humanly possible.
And so the glory goes to Godbecause he gave that to you
out of his grace and mercy, andnow you've shared it with us.
So thank you for being onradical abundance today.
(23:38):
We definitely haveseen an abundance of
God's grace and mercy.
And the our time is up.
I'm sorry to say.
And Rusty, and I wish youa radically abundant day.
Thank you so much, therea.
Thank you Therea.
Thank you Jesus.
Welcome to Radical Abundance.
I'm your host, Teresa Janzenhave you ever felt like the
world is just completely unjust,and have you maybe even been
a victim of that injustice,knowing that God is sovereign
and in control and can even useevil and injustice to bring.
Good purpose is what we'regoing to be talking about today.
(00:27):
Our guest, rusty and SandraLabuschagne have a lot to
say about how God will useanything, even something as
extreme as being imprisonedin a foreign country to
bring about his good purpose.
Rusty and Sandra, welcometo Radical Abundance.
Thank you, Teresa.
Thank you.
Lovely to be on your.
(00:47):
Yeah.
Thank you.
Well, I want to just jumpinto your story and I know
a little bit about it.
Take our listeners back tothat time where the story
begins, the heart of the story.
What happened,therea, I I come from
humble beginnings from acattle launching background
became very successful.
(01:09):
And in 2000 during thelanded version car in Zimbio.
I got to the place where Iwas flying my own aircraft.
I had five safari concessions,a fishing resort on Lake
c Reba, and Zimbabwe.
And life was fantastic.
And I was on a fishing tripat my fishing resort with
(01:30):
some friends and a friendof mine, and I decided to
go tiger fishing on thelake, leaving the other guys
Bre fishing in the river.
And on our way back,we spotted two fish
poachers in a steel boat.
And knowing they were notoriouspoaches, I drove my boat
towards them to scare them off.
And the wake up my boat tiltedtheir boat, causing them to
jump out into the water, whichwas about five, five feet deep.
(01:52):
And there were about threeyards from the shore.
The students scrambled todry land, and my friend and
I, I then washed as theyran way into the bush and
thought nothing more of it.
The following day, thepolice arrived with one of
the poachers and accusedus of drowning the other.
But long story short, I wasframed by the poach of the
police and the courts in anugly politically influenced
(02:15):
conspiracy and sentencedto 15 years in Zimbabwe's
prisons, of which fivewere removed as remission.
My co accused only got a $10fine and not set free because
there was no driving a boat,and that's exactly as it was
stated in the judgment againstpolice evidence without a
body and not presumption.
(02:36):
I was convicted of and served10 years in Zimbabwe's presence.
I can't imagine that Zimbabwe'sprisons are very comfortable.
And so maybe you can give usa, a bit of a picture of that.
But first, this very ideaof knowing that you are
completely in innocent.
In fact, you weredoing the right.
(02:57):
Thing trying to scare offthese poachers and I was,
boy, have you ever been dingedfor doing the right thing?
And that's a pretty bigthing there to spend 10
years in a Zimbabwe prison.
As a result, what were thosenext 10 years like for you?
You arrive at the prison andthe first thing they do is
(03:20):
they make you strip naked.
So when you walk intointo the exercise yard,
you walk in stock.
And everything you wear,read, write, eat, drink.
Hearsay is all controlled.
You have no control of anythingbut the humiliation of me
walking into a prison witha thousand guys stock naked
(03:44):
is something else I should.
I sell 13 yards long by threeyards wide with 78 other guys.
That each person had13 inches marked out
on the walls in chalk.
That was your space.
We were packed like sods on oursides with legs all crossing
(04:04):
over in the middle, and weall faced the same direction.
When you turned over, it wasall together as cushioning
against the cold concrete floor.
You'd fold two of yourpaper thin, worn out last
wooden blankets severaltimes to fit your 13.
And you'd cover yourselfwith a third blanket.
Your clothes were wrappedaround your toothbrush and
(04:26):
toothpaste, or the headgets stolen, and that was
your pillow from sleeping onthose freezing hot floors.
My hips had bruised blackrings for years and shoulders
still give trouble today.
There are no, there'sno furniture whatsoever
in a prison in Zimbabwe.
There's no beds, tables,chairs, cupboards, nothing.
(04:46):
Not even a mirror.
I didn't see my facefor the first eight.
It's just rows of faultyfolded blankets and hundreds
of world used water bottleson bare concrete floors.
For the first eight years, onlyone set of clothing was allowed.
At any one time,underwear was forbidden.
After six months, you got achange of clothing sometimes.
(05:07):
Other times, after ninemonths living us walking
around in TEUs, there were nobasins or tap in the cells.
Only one set of clothingwas allowed at any one time.
So we had to wash our clothesin the cell toilets at night
wearing a blanket, then hangthem on the walls with smuggled
book staples to draw by thenext morning in 2005, Harari
(05:30):
City ran out of water forthree years while Urbi Maxima
maximum security prison, eachprisoner was allocated only
one plastic cup of water a.
One cup of dirty Orange CityRhino water from nearby dam
catered by farm prisoners.
That was to drink, clean yourteeth, wash your face, bath,
(05:53):
everything for three years.
And that's when Ireally started dying.
In my first six years, Iwatched over 2,200 guys die,
primarily from malnutrition.
It adjourn theZimbabwe dollar crash.
When there was no food outsideof prison, nevermind in there.
(06:13):
Now just remember I wentin prison in 2003 and I
was released in two 13.
So there was azi dollarcrash, there was the world
economic crash in 2008.
So, and the whole world changedtherea from, from the thought
of taking a picture with aphone and sending it to someone
that was like ths in two 13.
(06:37):
I mean, all the socialmedia, everything started
in that time in the fir inin when I was moved to a
medium security prison inAari Central Prison, out of
1,200 of US prisoners at AariCentral Prison, 432 guys died.
That's more than one thirdof us in eight months.
I want to get to some of thelife lessons I learned in.
(06:59):
In my first year, I was full ofanger, hatred, and bitterness.
I mean, you know, when you goin there as an innocent man,
it eats away at you and everylevel, anger, bitterness,
hatred, and, and I lie therefor hours wishing every
terrible thing on each of them.
In turn, the poach, the police,the judge, the ministry and all
who involved in my conviction.
And then one day I was struckby the realization that they'd
(07:23):
all forgotten about me long ago.
Here I was.
Consumed by the unfairness ofit all, and they blissfully
unaware of the, of the evilI watched on them every day.
In the end, I wasonly hurting myself.
I was carrying all thatin my head and beating
myself up for nothing.
The single biggest lesson Ilearned in prison was true
(07:45):
forgiveness, and for me, itwas bigger than anything I
could have achieved on my own.
True forgiveness was inspiredby Almighty and so was letting.
It was a huge weight ofmy shoulders and I learned
to live in the moment fromthen on because the past was
too painful and the futurefull of unkept promises.
(08:07):
So I just dealt with these days.
It was, I learned to havefaith because no amount of
worrying was gonna changewhat I was going through.
If you have anger or resentmenttowards anyone in any way,
it'll eventually destroy.
Because that is whatthose emotions do.
They steal from you.
They steal happinessand freedom.
(08:28):
And many people asked mehow I managed to forgive
them, what they did to me.
And I remember the exactmoment Thereza walking
in that exercise yard.
It was after about a year,and I was tired of all the
anger, hatred, and bitternessthat was draining me daily.
And I remember looking up andI just said to myself, Lord,
take care of them and let meget through this road that's
been put in front of me.
(08:48):
What goes around comes around.
They will get theirjudgment there.
And the amazing thing was there,it was, it wasn't a gradual
process of forgiving, it wasan instant mindset change.
It was, it was aninstant release.
It was like, like I was holdinga secret for years and years.
So worried that peoplewere gonna find out.
(09:09):
And then one day I just decided,I'm gonna tell the guys, it
was like, it's art, it's over.
And it was that, it wasthat mindset change.
It was, it was freeing myself.
It was nothing to do with.
And that's the lessonin forgiveness.
And it's such a, you know,you can forgive, forget,
and move forward, or youcan retain, remember, and
(09:30):
regret the choice is yours.
And if you say, I'll forgive,but I'll never forget,
then you still remember andwill never move forward.
You can't bounce back fromanything unless you forgive
those who you believehave done your wrong.
And only when you forgiveand let go of the past, can
you be fully free to moveforward with your full.
(09:51):
Teresa, one of the other biglessons I learned was gratitude.
You know, we all wanttoo much in our lives and
concentrating on what wehaven't got, instead of being
grateful for what we have.
And for me, giving thanksto God every day goes a
long way for my health.
A beautiful family, alovely home, a soft bed,
running water, and so on.
When there's no food, nowater and people are dying
(10:14):
all around you, you becomegrateful for, for the fact
that you are still breath.
And another day is a blessing.
When you line a cell with 78other guys and your breath
is, is not even your owngratitude suddenly has a
different meaning altogether.
Accepting that what I wentthrough cannot be changed
(10:36):
and being grateful for whatit taught me as unlocked my
vision for my future, thehealthiest of all of all
human emotions as gratitude.
Remember that and practice.
Having an attitude ofgratitude is one of the
most impactful habits forfulfilling and healthy life.
After being moved to a farmprison after eight years, I was
(11:00):
moved to to a farm prison, andit was my first evening sitting
around in open fire on oldlogs and bleach cattle skulls,
chatting with old in inmatesin the as a tribe in Zimbabwe.
Just taking me back towhat I loved to deal as
a child, and I remember.
Getting lost in theirinteresting stories and
the beauty of the sunsetand the dancing flames, the
(11:21):
tranquil call of a nachoand the bright stars in the
moon, which I hadn't seenfor eight lonely long years.
I never saw a sunset or sunriseeither for eight years and
now I appreciate the everydaylittle things in life, like
a soft bed, a hot bath, atasty meal, a spontaneous
(11:43):
kettle from my loved.
because those are thethings you miss most when
you have it all taken away.
There are things weknow that rejuvenate us.
For me, it has all been nature.
I am and will forever bea farm boy from Zimbabwe.
Nature's in my blood, touchinga tree, smelling the earth, the
(12:04):
feeling of soil in my hands.
These things bringme restoration.
And for you it might be.
Hang out to friends, dancing,reading a good book or swimming
in the ocean, whatever isgood for you, do more of it.
There are many other lifelessons that I learned there,
(12:27):
but, but I want to touchon an encounter I had with
the Lord that changed mylife completely because the,
the death rate was so bad.
In 2000 and June, 2006,prison headquarters
started allowing relative.
To deliver food totheir loved one daily.
And my darling sister sold abusiness and gather per career
(12:47):
just to feed me for four years.
And I can honestly say thatwithout her, I wouldn't
be sitting here today.
I'm truly blessedto have in my life.
Anyway, she, she came to,I'd been moved to a medium
security prison, which is verydifferent to maximum security.
Maximum security locked up for12, 20 hours a day in a cell.
You only allowed out fourhours in the exercise yard.
(13:09):
Medium security allowedout eight hours.
So it's, it's very different.
She came to the prisonand she said to me, whilst
delivering food one day,do you want an iPod?
So I said, oh, what's an iPod?
She said, it's a thingthat plays music.
So I said, well, how big is it?
And she indicated thissmall flat little thing.
So I said, well, howmany songs does it play?
(13:30):
She said, about a thousand.
I said, no worries.
So where'd you put all the CDs?
There's so much technology inadvance, and Jia is six years.
I've been away.
Anyway, the following day,the Potter arrived under the
salad and about a week later,a cell phone or sneaked in
tune one of those cheap Nokiacell phones with a rechargeable
battery back in 2009.
(13:52):
Everything was goingsmoothly and you couldn't
dream of doing that in amaximum security prison.
This is medium security prison.
After about three months,everything going perfectly,
an envious prisoner reportedme of unexpected search
unbelievably through some quickmaneuvering with onside gods.
Nothing was discovered, butI was sinology confinement
(14:13):
anyway, for two years.
That was unbelievably lonely.
But after experiencing thatprecious little link to
the outside world, I hadto get my phone back and
I did, which was amazing.
I mean, I had wonderfulguards charging batteries.
I had two batteries, andeverything was going perfectly
until after 18 months.
(14:33):
One of the friendly guardsapproached my bowel at five
in the morning, and with theaddress, they're coming for
your phone and there's no wayof getting a phone out of there.
Someone had brought me aprotein powder about a month
before, and I'd never seenit before, and it had to go
through the doctor and security.
It was a big, big story toget it in there, and when I
got it, I opened it, brokea silver seal, tasted it.
(14:55):
When I put the seal back andclosed it, the next time I
opened that seal, it stuck.
So I saved it to have my phone.
So that morning I opened it,broke the seal, took off the
powder out, wrapped the funin plastic, put it in, put
the powder back, put the.
Put the lid on sixo'clock, the guards arrive.
What they do is they makeyou strip naked, then you
jump with your legs openlike you're hiding something.
Then we all walk out stocknaked into the Godard,
(15:18):
and there's 1200 guysand they do the search.
So after the search, I'vecome back into my cell and
everything is upside downeverywhere, but my protein
powder still in good shape.
Five minutes later I'msummoned to the, the security
office and I walk in thereand therefore God standing.
One seated behind adesk and an empty chair.
(15:39):
Now, I hadn't sat in a chairfor seven and a half years and
he says to me, check your seat.
So I sat down, felt good.
He said, do you have agirlfriend called Karen?
So I said, no.
I said, I had one beforeprison called Karen.
He said, okay.
When did you last talk to her?
I said, long ago before prison.
He said, are you sure?
I said, yeah.
Said, handed me a letteraddressed to me from Karen.
(16:01):
So nice talking to you onthe phone the other night.
She sounds so positive.
After some intensequestioning, this Lord just
came to me and I said, no.
Karen was having lunch in andshe met this lady and they soon
realized that they were both hadboyfriends in the same prison.
So the lady said, let me callmy boyfriend, who's a God in
there, and he can call Russand you guys can have a chat,
(16:22):
so I'll use the God's phone.
But out there, couldn't tell'em what the girl's name was.
They didn't.
An hour later escorted up tothe Officer George's office.
When you go up there,it's big trouble.
And I walk in thereand they were waiting.
There's like 15 big brassofficers all standing in a half
circle of George behind his bigdesk and my empty chair in the
middle, he says, take a seat.
(16:44):
So I sat down.
He said, if you don't tellme what that girl's name
is, your life and thisprison is gonna change.
I said, officer,I don't know his.
And then the questionstarted, how tall was he?
How old?
What drank?
Where did you make the call?
How long ago didyou make the call?
And I answered as best I could.
And they were gettingfurious cuz they couldn't
nail in anything.
(17:04):
And then the head of the soccersaid to me, do you wanna talk
to docs in charge on your own?
So I said, yes, please.
So they all leave.
I closed it on him andI got on really well.
I said, officer, we'veboth been through hell.
We watched hundreds of guys die.
I've donated endless stuffto the prison service,
soccer balls, volleyball.
Volleyball, net soccer bootsand uni uniforms for the squad.
(17:26):
I said, can't youjust let the song go?
I mean, the guard wasstealing flat out there.
Everyone, the countrywas in a mess.
He said, Russ, I don'tcare about you, but I
want that God's name now.
He was furious.
So I said, officer, Idon't know his name.
I don't know his name.
So he said, okay, okay.
He calls the gods.
He says, put him ondeath row in the dark.
(17:48):
So they escort me overto the condemn section.
They used to hang us inthose days and there were
56 cells 52 had guys waitingto be young, and there
were four four empty cells.
And one of them wascalled the dark cell.
The cells are threemeters, three yards long,
one yard wide, and threeyards tall with a vent.
And the only vent wascovered by a staircase.
(18:08):
So, and the electriclight didn't work, so you
couldn't see anything.
It was pitch.
They made me strip naked, gaveme three worn out, filthy,
last wooden blankets fiveliter, which is a gallon
container, cut off the top asa toilet, same as solitary,
and one liter of water.
And my sory cell wasidentical three yards by
(18:29):
one yard, by three yard.
They locked me in there for23 hours and 45 minutes a day.
So I was allowed out fiveminutes in the morning to
clean my teeth, five minutesat 10 o'clock to have a.
Five minutes at three o'clockto prepare for lockup.
It was cold, lonely, anddark, like being buried alive.
I couldn't even see my hand.
Now I remember walking and justholding the walls and turning
(18:51):
around and walking, doing pressups and carry on walking just
to, just to keep my mind, okay.
After day six there, and Itested my faith all along
and prayed like crazyand nothing happened.
So, so I hadn't prayed for fora long time, but I got on my.
And I prayed to God for helpand I'll never forget the
(19:12):
feeling of like warm waterbeing pulled over me and
a total sense of calmness.
So I sat on the floorleaning against the wall.
Within 30 minutes, I faintlyheard my off dancem mate
shutting from the soccer ground.
Hey Ra, everything'sokay, my mate, don't
worry, everything's okay.
So I jumped up,I said, air fool.
He said, don't worry,Russ, everything's okay.
So I thought, okay, leton the concrete, looking
(19:34):
up at the darkness.
Within 10 minutes tounlock my door gun.
Those bolt, that noise goesright through You chuck me,
my clothes, said the officerGeorge wants to see you.
I get dressed, I go up intothe blinding sun, cross the
court yard up the stair streetoffice, and his exact words
were, he said, hello, Russ.
I said, hello, officer.
He said, have you rememberthe girl's name yet?
(19:56):
I said, no, officer.
He said, I'll, I'lltell you what I'm gonna.
I'm gonna leaveit in God's hands.
You can go back to yourself.
And at the exact moment whenI was praying, the sister
was paying him 200 US dollarsto get me out of there.
And that was a huge turningpoint in my spiritual life.
You know, Abram and, andthen when he came, became a
(20:16):
Abraham, he had to change thetruth sometimes to, to get by.
And my life haschanged unbelievably.
You know, I still didn'tgo home for two and a half.
But I knew that therewas a bigger picture.
I knew somehow inside that therewere bigger plans For me, it,
it was extremely hard to makesense of it all back then, but
I see it so clearly now howthe Lord was working with me.
(20:39):
You know, before BritainI was a, a big fish in a
little pool going nowhere,A little bull wire.
It's a city in Zimbabweand, and I was one of
the big players in there.
And it was allabout me, Theresa.
It was all about my empire andmy money and more and more.
And, and when is enoughenough, you know?
And now I'm a little fishin a whole wide world
(21:02):
making a huge difference.
And it's about others.
It's about other people.
It's not about me anymore.
It's about changing, changingother people's lives and, and
I now have a purpose and thesatisfaction I get from helping.
Far outweighs the millionsI was making before.
And, and the lesson here thereis, is no matter what hardships
(21:23):
you're going through in life,just remember that you're being
prepared for where you're going.
God has a plan for each andevery one of us, and I see
that so clearly in my life now.
Yeah, that is just an amazingstory and I just thank you for
going through that whole thing.
I can't even imagine thatlevel of peace and such
(21:46):
a hard, hard situation.
Sandra, I wanna give you achance before we go, do you have
anything that you wanna say tothe radical abundance audience?
I came from a place where I hadthe career, the big house,
the cars, the material.
And I did have a bit ofpeace, but nothing luck today.
And since I met Rusty, it'sreally a divine appointment
(22:11):
from the Lord because wecame together where we had
nothing and we, you know,I was 53 when I met him,
so it's much later in life.
So there's always hope whenyou think that it's the
end and your life is overand you lose everything.
When you've got the Lordin your life and you trust
him, he always restores.
(22:33):
He's always there.
He really is.
It's just been a wonderfuljourney the last six years.
Rusty and I have had so manyexperiences with, with the
Lord and what he's done for us.
Just small things, andit's not about us anymore.
It's not about buildingour life and our empire.
It's really about.
(22:54):
Helping people, you know,the Lord's given us that
heart that whatever hewants us to do, we wanna
do for him.
After hearing this story,there aren't going to be
many people complainingabout their lot in life.
This is such a testimonybecause, you know, I could
easily say Rusty and Sandra,you are amazing people, but you
(23:15):
were absolutely right that thistype of forgiveness and finding
gratitude in these circum.
It is not humanly possible.
And so the glory goes to Godbecause he gave that to you
out of his grace and mercy, andnow you've shared it with us.
So thank you for being onradical abundance today.
(23:38):
We definitely haveseen an abundance of
God's grace and mercy.
And the our time is up.
I'm sorry to say.
And Rusty, and I wish youa radically abundant day.
Thank you so much, therea.
Thank you Therea.
Thank you Jesus.
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