The Streets Tried to Claim Him... but God Had Other Plans, with Bobby Bendito (Part 1)

In this episode of Living Testimonies, host Israel Caminero sits down with Christian Hip Hop artist Bobby Bendito, whose journey from struggle to salvation shows the incredible power of God’s grace.

Once lost and broken, Bobby encountered Jesus in a way that completely transformed his heart, his purpose, and his music.

Listen as he shares about his past, his encounter with God, and the moment everything changed.

Don’t miss Part 2, where Bobby goes deeper into how the Lord is using his music to reach others for the Kingdom.

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Ways to connect with Bobby Bendito’s Ministry:

Linktree 

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Transcript

Israel Caminero: 0:04

Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. I'm grateful for your support and for being part of this community. If you've been enjoying the podcast so far, I'd love it if you could take a minute to leave a review. Your feedback helps me reach more people and share these inspiring stories with others. Let's spread the word. Please share this podcast with your friends and family, and if you haven't already, be sure to like and subscribe for new episodes. To stay connected and up to date on all the latest news, updates, and exclusive content, head over to my Facebook page, Living Testimonies. While you're there, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter. The link is on the page. Thanks again for listening, and I'll catch you in the next episode. Welcome to Living Testimonies. I'm your host, Israel Caminero, and I hope everyone that's listening is blessed and doing well. With me today, I have my brother in Christ joining us. He's a man using his gifts to glorify God through Christian hip-hop and testimony. From writing impactful lyrics to sharing his heart for the kingdom, Bobby Bendito has been reaching lives with the message of Christ in a real, raw, and relatable way. Bobby, welcome to the podcast, my brother.

Bobby Bendito: 1:38

God bless you. Thank you for having me, my brother.

Israel Caminero: 1:40

Could you share a little bit about yourself to everyone?

Bobby Bendito: 1:43

My name is Bobby Bendito. Bobby Barrera, go by Bendito has a minister name, artist name. I'm married, got seven kids, grandkids, big family, do Christian rap music, full-time ministry, travel around the country to different outreaches and revivals. And sometimes it's in the church, sometimes it's in the hood, sometimes it's in a park, sometimes it's in a parking lot. So, yeah, that's just a little bit about myself and who I am and where I'm at currently in my life right now.

Israel Caminero: 2:12

And as always, he's here to share his testimony. I can't wait to hear this one. But before he does that, I would like to pray over us and say, Father, we come before you today with hearts full of gratitude. Thank you for the opportunity to gather in your presence and lift up the name of Jesus through this conversation. Lord, we thank you for the gifts of testimony. The way you take broken pieces and turn them into a masterpiece for your glory. I pray over Bobby, his music, his ministry, and his family. Strengthen him in every area of his life and continue to give him boldness to declare your word through his lyrics. Let this episode touch the hearts of those listening, staring faith, hope, and transformation. Holy Spirit, we ask that you guide every word spoken today so that it's not about us, but about you. Use this platform to remind someone that no matter their past, you can rewrite their story for eternity. We give you all the glory, honor, and praise, and we declare that what is shared today will remind someone listening that their story truly is his glory. In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen. Amen. So, Bobby, I've followed you for a while now, and I know you have an interesting testimony, and I want you to share with all the listeners. Can you share a little about your background and how you came to know Christ personally?

Bobby Bendito: 3:33

Yes, um, so I was born and raised in Saginaw, Michigan. Small city, big on crime, big on drugs, big on violence, but it it it's such a small town. So I was born into a family who unfortunately that that was the way of life. It was every man, older man, male figure, male family member, cousin, uncle, even dad, um, involved in drugs, dealing, using, born into a lot of violence. So there was four of my uncles were murdered during my childhood. Um two of them actually before I was born, but then, you know, a couple after. So my family was already in that environment, in that that lifestyle. Grew up, me, two brothers, those three of us, my mom and my dad. Um, they didn't make it too too long in their marriage, you know. I think I was probably about six, maybe seven when they got divorced. But before the the divorce, you know, there was a lot of domestic violence, a lot of drug use, partying. Um, I just remember in my childhood, a lot of nights where all the grown-ups would come home partying and come from the bars and talking about, you know, what what happened that night or who was fighting, or, you know, just all the war stories, and and they're they even got followed home um once. The the first time I heard gunshots in my life, I was probably about eight. Some guys came and, you know, they were chasing, actually chasing my mom, and them out of all people, it was some guys chasing the females, and but that was just still it was it was families though. It was like a family beef. So it was whoever they, I guess whoever they caught or whoever they so they chased my mom and them home, and I remember my mom and them coming in the house, and it was a little frantic, and you know, we were there with babysitters, and and then like a few minutes later I heard some pop, pop, pop, heard some shots, and they start screaming. And I remember one of my older cousins, a female, um, she took me to the bathroom, like put me in a tub. Like I remember being put in the tub, like basically as a shield, as you know, to try to protect us. And so that was the first time I heard in person, like live experience, a drive-by, and it was it was a little scary. So, but it was just, you know, that the violence and the drama was something that unfortunately it was, it was it was common. It was commonplace, you know, shootouts. Again, my three of my dad's brothers got murdered, two of them got shot and killed, one got stabbed and killed. Then my mom's brother, one of her brothers, he got shot and killed. So, you know, just that lifestyle and that pain and hurt and that toxic, I guess there's no other way to say it, you know, for a kid growing up, it was it was a toxic environment, but it was one that we seen as normal. You know, it wasn't really necessarily the TV, it wasn't the movies, it wasn't the the music. You know, I grew up listening to gangster rap music. That's not what exposed me. I was embracing that music because the what we were experiencing as a family and at home, it was it was happening in real time. So you know, me and me and my two brothers, we we grew up, you know, got into gangs at an early age. I started smoking weed when I was like nine years old. That was the first time I ever smoked and um Wow, that's early. Yeah, yeah, it was, man. It was it was way early. It was actually an uncle or somebody, you know, there was a little a shelf in the living room, and I had found, you know, a half a joint, you know, back in the day. They had turned it out and left it in the living room. We found it, you know, and and one of the older guys in the neighborhood had came over one day and boom, there it was. I and after that I just kept doing it. And it was crazy like that in our house, though, man. I remember one time going up, I was standing on the counter. I don't know what I was looking for. I'm assuming that it was some food or something, something, but I got to the top shelf in our cupboard in the kitchen on the top, and I found a plate. And it was a dollar bill on there, so that caught my eye quick, you know? And I grabbed it, I grabbed a dollar bill, and I clearly remember like unfolding it or unrolling it, and like this dust, this powdery, you know, substance came off. And I still remember to this day when my mom got home. I told her, I said, Mom, I found a dollar, I found the covers, and I said, Man, it must have been up there for a while because it has some dust in it. Like it must have been, it must have been really old. And I can't remember exactly what her reaction was, but I know that it was probably just, you know, she just tried to just sweep it away real quick and didn't respond.

Israel Caminero: 8:19

Right.

Bobby Bendito: 8:20

So like stuff like that was was happening, you know. We we'd be up late night, like I said, hearing all the, you know, everybody come home from the bar and everybody, you know, the drama, the talking, just all night to the morning, just partying and talking and music, and you know, it was just that was it. So yeah, I started smoking at nine. When I was 11, I met my now wife. I was 11, she was 12, we had our first kid at 14 and 15. I was 14, she was 15, and my son was born, Bobby Jr. I was I was in no way, shape, or form, like equipped, mature enough to be a dad. Um at that time I was I was skipping school, I was heavily smoking, I was gangbanging, breaking in the houses, like everything you could think of um ended up locked up his first couple years. So his first uh two birthdays, I wasn't even there. I was I was locked up in a juvenile camp. So I got out, you know, once I got out of there, caught a couple shooting cases, man. I was 16 and was uh actually looking at being charged as an adult when I was 16 for a shooting case. And when it came time for me to go to court, the witnesses, the guys who I had shot at that were supposed to come testify against me, they didn't show up for court because they had caught a case. While I was locked up awaiting the trial, they had caught some cases and they didn't show up for court, so they were on the run. So man, it was, it was, it was a blessing in disguise to me. I didn't know. Again, let me rewind a little bit. We didn't grow up in the church. I mean, you probably can tell by the way, the things that I said we experienced, but we didn't, we didn't, we didn't, like nobody, you know what I mean? Like nobody in the family. There was no no grandpa pastor, no dad pastor, no uncle pastor, no, you know, there was no church, no Jesus, no prayer, no Bible. We just wasn't, we didn't know who Jesus was. We didn't, we didn't go to church. Um, we did as a kid a couple times, like jump on the bus on Sundays. They would send this this bus through the neighborhood to pick up any kids that wanted to go. And if we did go, it was because we wanted to go get some pizza or we wanted to go do like the fun things they were doing. But it wasn't a regular thing where we was going as a family or going and really actually receiving the word of God and knowing what we were hearing. So yeah, I met my wife 11, 12. We we had our first kid after I got released from that camp after that last case. I came out, you know, me and her, you know, we were we were still together and probably like a about two weeks after I got out, her mom had died in a car accident on Valentine's Day. Tragic accident, man, that happened and just kind of tore my wife up at that age. She was about 17 when that happened. Then her dad, the following year, he died um from alcohol poisoning or liver damage from drinking a lot. And we ended up moving out of my mom's house right around that time. I was about 17. She was about going on 18. No, actually, we were both still, I was 16, she was 17. We moved out of my mom's house, got our own apartment. And when we moved out of my mom's house, by the time I'm 17, she's 18, man. We are on kid number three. So we had three kids. I'm not even 18 years old yet. And I got three kids. We're together. I'm supposed to be graduating around this time, but me and her both had dropped out after her mom had passed away. We were still trying a little bit to go to some schools, but I had got kicked out of the regular school system for like, you know, just the gang fights and all that. And when I try to go back, after I got out of the camp, stayed and let me back. So school was never really a priority in our life or or even within our family. Um, to see somebody graduate when we were growing up was super rare. People dropping out, that was common. It it wasn't like, oh, I can't believe such and such dropped out of school. It was like, I can't believe such and such graduated. For real, for real. It was complete opposite. If somebody graduated or did the right thing, it was like super uncommon. But for everybody to have kids at a young age and be running the streets and doing female or male, like me, immediate family, cousins, whatever, it just, you know, school was never really important. We didn't have no one really pushing us in that direction. Not to say that my mom was super bad. I know it sounds probably like she was, but she was a loving mom. She went through a lot, you know, domestic violence, different things with my dad, and and that's why they ended up getting divorced. So my mom was always, she was a loving mom, but you know, she can only do so much with three boys.

Israel Caminero: 12:58

Right.

Bobby Bendito: 12:59

You know, we and if she did try, we were too consumed by everything we were seeing, and that overshadowed anything right that she tried to tell us, because we, you know, she could be telling us one thing, but what we were seeing is what we wanted. You know, we wanted the money, we wanted to be to be that guy. Like we seen our older family members, you know, with money and this and that. Like that's what we wanted. So anyway, me and my wife, man, so we ended up in our own place. I'm 17, she's 18, we got three kids. And around that time, I started selling crack to make money. And it was, you know, at that age, it was it was it was good money. You know, I I was making easy money, quick money. You know, I can't say that I liked it, you know. I still remember thinking back a lot of times, man, like where I was paranoid, you know, I'm smoking weed, I'm high, I'm young, I got money in my pocket, I'm selling like I it wasn't, it might have looked, you know, from the outside, maybe how it looked, but honestly, though, I there was a lot of times, man, where I was um not really happy, but I was providing, you know. I I really thought since my mom and my dad, you know, divorced and you know, they split up while we were young, and and my dad was always in and out of prison. And um, he's actually doing life right now in prison. Um, but while we were kids, he was in and out of prison. And we would see him every now and then, but it wasn't really, you know, the way it should have been. Um so by me being there for my kids at a young age, I felt almost a sense of accomplishment. Right. You know, like, yeah, I'm selling drugs and and yeah, I'm doing this and I'm living this lifestyle, but hey, I'm here, you know what I'm saying? Like I'm I'm holding it down and I I'm not leaving. I'm I'm providing for them, I'm putting clothes on their back and food on the table. And and not only that, but had a lot of people that uh would always compliment us, you know. Like now looking back, I'm sure that probably added to it or was a little ego boost for me because people, you know, would be like, man, hey man, I'm proud of you, man, and proud of you and your wife. And my wife's name Sherry, like, man, you and Sherry are so young, and and you guys, man, hey, to be, you know, holding it down the way you are and and taking care of the kids. And you know, but I'm a full-blown, full-time 17, 18-year-old drug dealer, and I'm getting compliments. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's the type of people we were around. You know, we weren't around no one, like, hey man, what are you doing? And you should, you know, trying to give us warnings, you know, it was complete opposite. So I was getting these pats on the back, and and and I was deceived. I really was deceived because I'm thinking, man, well, at least I'm taking it a step up from what my dad with us, he left, he wasn't there, so hey, I'm here, you know, how can this be wrong?

Israel Caminero: 15:39

Right. You were providing, you know, and you were there when your dad wasn't, you were trying to fill that void that wasn't there for you.

Bobby Bendito: 15:46

Yep. Yep, yep. So I felt like, you know, hey, so we know we it it was that that life, man, went on for years. Like, when I say I started selling crack at 17 on my 18th birthday was the first time I ever tried cocaine, uh powder cocaine. I never I never smoked crack. Like when I was selling the crack, I didn't I didn't do that. My dad was, though. I didn't know that until uh a little bit, until I got a little bit older. But my dad had dealt with a crack addiction for a long time. That's what eventually ended up leading him to where he's at now doing life. I didn't know when I was a kid. I do remember every now and then when we get with him, and I seen some stuff going on in the kitchen that I was like, he ain't making food, so what is he making? But I just didn't know. In the 80s, you know, that was all pretty much new to America, so like I didn't know. But for me, I I did start using my 18th birthday, man. It was the first time I ever tried powder cocaine. Um, and it was an uncle, which is crazy because he would always ask, you know, that the older guys would always be doing that, but I was like, nah, man. Like I used to look at them like, man, y'all tripping. Like, I'll smoke and I'll drink, but man, I'll never do that. Like I always used to say that. Like, man, I'll never do that. I'm straight. Like, that's y'all go ahead. I'm, you know, and I was, you know, the crazy thing is, so when I when I started selling, I had the biggest, probably the biggest connect that was in our town. So I had like I was selling to my uncles, you know what I'm saying? I was selling to my, to even some of my aunts. I was selling to all my cousins. Like, I was selling to like I was the one. I was 18 years old and I had this connection, and everybody would come to me or come to my house, and we would be at the party house. You know, yeah, I had three kids, but there you go again with that deception. I I don't even realize the toxicity that I was creating in my own home that was basically repeating, not basically, literally repeating what I had gone through as a kid. The parties, the all-night parties, and hearing all the grown-ups. And I was so blinded to it, man, because the money was coming and you know, I thought I was thought I was the man. And so I started selling at 18, full-time powder, using it, selling it, and that's what I did for the next 21 years of my life. I had maybe a job here or there, you know what I'm saying? Just because a friend knew a friend or knew somebody, and hey man, come, but it nothing that was permanent or nothing that lasted even for months. It was always just a quick little, you know, because when you're in the streets, there's always that mentality to where, like, okay, man, I'm getting money. You know, maybe I should get a little job on the side just to make it look like I'm, you know, I'm doing something. Yeah, you know, but it was not, it was a dishwasher job. So how am I wearing all these Jordans at 18? I'm buying Jordans every time they come out, and I got all these, you know, these nice clothes on, and da-da-da-da-da. So it was all just, it was all deception, man, from the enemy. So when I started at 18, um, yeah, man, that that that was it. You know, I was, I was, the devil got me. He got me. He pulled me in. Um, I started using on my 18th birthday, and I didn't stop. Not only was I selling for the next 21 years of my life, but I was also using the cocaine that I was selling, I was using it the whole time for 21 straight years of my life. You know, we're in Saginaw at this time. That's where I was born and raised. That's where my wife was born. That's where six of my seven kids were born. But over the years, you know, we we ended up back into the violence. You know, I was in the violence, man. I was in the streets, you know. I I know what a what a bullet feels like, you know, when I was when I was 16. Um we had we had a beef going on, and you know, one guy gets killed, and then this happens, and then the back and forth, and we got caught, you know, in the streets one day, and they they shot the car up probably about 20 times, and I got hit in my stomach. Thank God it wasn't a full, full penetrating shot, but it was enough for me to be to be scared and and pretty much crying out for my life because the whole car got shot up. My cousin's sitting next to me, his hand gets the top of his hand gets blew off, and and I'm sitting there, and all I feel is my stomach burning, and I'm panicking, you know, like I'm panicking and telling them like, man, get The hospital. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I remember I was, I was really, I was really scared, man, because I never felt nothing like that. So so through the years, you know, we had our gang violence, we had fights and shootouts, and but it slowed down. It slowed down for a while, man, until like 2008, you know, and this is years later. I'm fast forwarding a life full of drug dealing, life full of drug raids. I experienced what it is to get the door kicked in early in the morning. You know, somebody comes and buys from me, somebody goes and buys for my brother, who who was living at my mom's at the time, not too far down the street. And, you know, there was a whole undercover investigation that went on. And, you know, they raided both of our houses at the same time, kicked in the doors early morning. So we're in jail. And, you know, we we get caught with a little bit of stuff, not much. So for years, all of this was going on, but we kind of got away from the violence, you know. We got away, we we kind of grew up a little bit, you know, and everybody either was dead or in prison or whatever, you know, settled down with their own families, and it turned into just making money, you know. We kind of left all the violence alone, but we ended up getting pulled back into it in 2008. My brother got jumped, he's two years older than me. He got jumped real bad, and it just turned into a whole big old feud that lasted for like two years. A lot of things happened, a lot of people got hurt, shot, and houses got shot up, and cars got blew up, and you know, just a lot of stuff, man. Like it was it was bad. I remember having a few guys, well, well, more than a few, you know, we'd we'd party, we'd still be sniffing powder and and drinking, and everybody got guns, and we're kind of waiting on a daily basis, like standing guard, waiting to see what happens. Is somebody gonna come shoot the house up tonight? I would have my kids, you know, sleep in the basement. I w I I wasn't comfortable with them sleeping in their bedroom, so I would take them down in the basement and like, hey, you guys come down here. I'm, you know, I'm putting on a movie, you know, I'm I'm gonna put on, you know, trying to just not really tell them, like, look, I don't want you to get shot. I would just play it off, you know, play it off, and you know, you guys come chill down here for the night and we'll get some pizza or something, and we'll put on a movie and you guys come chill down here. Meanwhile, whole time I'm upstairs with a bunch of guys high off cocaine, on edge, waiting for somebody to come through, all got guns, all loaded, all ready to shoot, ready, you know, back door, front door, outside in the cars, parked across the street. Like we, it was just, it was, it was a horrible season of life for me, man. Like, I mean, bad, bad. I was still hustling, I was still providing, but I was using heavy, I was paranoid. I had my boy at this time, he was he was like three years old, four years old, and he's he's sleeping with me and his mom. And I got like a gun on the wall, like a like a rifle, or or I got a a handgun on the head, like uh, the nightstand, camera in the window that had good audio, so we could hear every car that pulled up. It was just like a nightmare. But it was something that that we were just in, you know. We was just that was just that was the life.

Israel Caminero: 22:58

And that was the life, right?

Bobby Bendito: 23:00

Yeah. But during that time, though, it started to bother me so much, though, man. Like, I knew I didn't want that because here I am putting my kids in the basement, and then it took me back to when I was a kid. I remember when our house got shot up and my cousin was putting us in the bathtub and trying to, you know, trying to keep us protected from the the gunshots that were coming into our house. And and now here I am all these years later, and I got kids and I'm putting them in the basement, and I'm worried about their safety. And it was just, it was, and and it wasn't only just precaution, like our houses, like they actually one night we were gone. My daughter, who actually is a worship leader for our ministry now, and she travels with me. Um, my daughter Sierra, she travels with us or with me full-time, like throughout the year. When she was a kid, she got into like this pop music and we started recording and we recorded a song together, and it got real popular, and you know, she started to do different events and fairs and carnivals and even some Sweet 16s, some private events. So, but the very first time that she got booked for this fair up here in Michigan, we ended up going right, but when she first got booked, it was for one day, a specific date. Um, but then the lady, I was looking at the website and I'm like, well, they got a kids' day going on, and that wasn't the day that she was scheduled for. I'm like, it makes sense that she would do the kids' day. So I reached back out to the lady and I'm like, hey, I see that you guys are doing this kids' day, and you are doing like giveaways and bikes and all that. Would it be possible to move Sierra to that day so that she can perform on that day? Because I'm sure there'll be more kids there, and it just would be right. And she's like, Yeah, no problem. So we switched the day around. So the day that we ended up going, we stayed overnight at a hotel, and while we were gone, man, my house got shot up. Probably like 30 holes, man, like talking like like assault rifle, like holes through the front door. They went through the living room, through the walls, through the kitchen cupboards, my bedroom, even upstairs. There was holes through the walls upstairs in my bedroom. Thank God, you know, no nobody was home. The house was empty. But just the night before, though, we were all there, you know, getting ready. We're all getting ready for this event. And, you know, we're up late and the kids are running around and everything, man. And it was like the very next night when we were over there at this fair, somebody calls me the day after it happened. We're actually driving back home. We're on the highway, and somebody called me, like, hey man, is your house good? I'm like, what you mean? He's like, I don't know, man. There are dudes out here talking, you know, because it was the guys that we were beefing with. They're they're already putting the word out there and they're talking to females and saying this and that and bragging about what they did. So he got back to somebody and he's like, I don't know, man. They're talking about, you know, something about your house, something, something. So I had called somebody who was in Saginaw at the time. I said, go over there and check out my house. And he went. He said, Yeah, bro. And I said, Is it bad? He was like, Oh, yeah, it's bad. So I didn't know, but when we got there, shh, man, hoes everywhere. If we would have been there, man, like, it would not have been good. Like, it would not have been good. So praise God. And you know, yeah, so like I look back now on things like that, not not not even realizing at the time how God was, how he was over us. Even though in in my sin and I was living that lifestyle, I think about it and think, like, man, that was no accident that we weren't there. That was intentional on God's part. Even though I wasn't serving God, I wasn't, I wasn't honoring God, I wasn't living a life that was pleasing to God, but yet he still covered us and protected us. So that stuff was going on for a couple years.

Israel Caminero: 26:45

God got a purpose for you.

Bobby Bendito: 26:47

Yeah, yeah. So, like, man, I'm laying there one night. I'm laying there one night in the middle of this two-year beef that we had going on, man. Um, and I'm just thinking, like, I can't, I can't do this no more. You know, I I had got jumped one time too during Christmas time. I'm at the mall with my wife and my daughter, one of my daughters, and you know, the dudes are there that we're beefing with, and I'm, you know, I start with big mouth, you know. I always had a big mouth. I thank God I got a mouth now for the Lord, but I had a, I had a, I had a I had a I had a bad mouth, man, you know, and we run into these dudes at the mall, and you know, so I I start clowning a little bit, and they said something, I said something. Next thing you know, I got jumped, you know, and my wife's right there, she really can't do much. But my daughter, my oldest daughter, she was probably only like about 14 at the time. She tried to help. So anyway, you know, I ended up in jail. I got jumped, but I ended up in jail, and it was I went like on the 23rd of December, so there was no courts open on Christmas Eve or Christmas. It was bad, man. I felt so bad, man, because I left my kids out there, you know, because like the holidays and presents and all that, you know what I'm saying? When you're lost in the streets, you know, that's all you're thinking about. You ain't thinking about Jesus' birth or thinking about we're gonna go to church or thinking about nothing like that. It was just all like, man, I gotta be there. It's like everybody's birthday on Christmas, and I I'm supposed to be there, but I ended up in jail that Christmas and lumped up, you know. They lumped they lumped me up, you know, and it was it was bad. But you know, so that was just back and forth, shooting, jumping, people, people getting shot, people, houses getting blew up, cars getting blew up. Like literally, when I say like houses and cars, it was really that, it was bad. You were in a war zone out there. Yeah, yeah. So man, one night I was laying there and and and it was really just it just got to the point to where I just I couldn't take it no more. And I literally like heard a voice in my mind telling me the only way this is gonna stop is if you get up and you and you move your family away. You know, I don't know nothing about the Holy Spirit. I don't know nothing about like I again, we you know, we weren't spiritually inclined at all or spiritually involved with no kind of church or no if there was ever prayer around that time, it was prayer, but it was like prayer that like I was getting myself into a situation and then praying and asking God to, you know, which which hey now I I know the God that we serve, but at that time it was like I didn't know this voice that was telling me, I didn't know. I just heard if you want it to stop, the only way it's gonna stop. You have to get up and physically, geographically move your family. Not wave the white flag, not put your arms up and surrender and tell the guys out there on the streets that you want to change because you can't take it no more, because ain't nobody on the streets trying to hear that. Ain't nobody on the streets trying to hear that you want peace. Like, I could say that. I could be tired for my family, I can be tired of what I'm going through, but that don't mean that that everyone else is gonna be okay with that, you know. Like if I just because I'm ready to retreat don't mean that they will be. And it really wasn't even, to be honest, man, as crazy as it may sound, it wasn't even so much, it ain't even so much the violence or that I was scared to get shot or I was scared to, it was like the feds start getting involved. You know what I'm saying? Like the the cops, and and we started hearing things from people who were kind of, you know, you know, they were they were they were pretty reliable sources, and they started to say, hey, what man, they're talking about they got a whole investigation, and they're talking about some Rico law and da-da-da-da-da. Cause so I rapped back then. I started rapping when I was, I don't know, probably like 20. I didn't start early. The first time I ever recorded at a studio, I was probably like 21. So we were doing this street rap, you know, rapping about drugs and hustling and shooting and just all that nonsense, you know. So through these years, while we're beefing with these dudes, we're also making songs and we're also doing shows. And I, man, at that time I was opening up for like Lil Wayne and Lil Boosie, like all these other, you know, these artists that were big at that time, they were in their kind of like in their prime. And so we had this rap group called the Mob Style Hustlers, and we would go to all these different shows and these events, and promoters would reach out to us because we would come deep. Promoters like when you got a lot of people because that's what they want. You know, they want they want people in the door.

Israel Caminero: 31:19

Right.

Bobby Bendito: 31:19

And so anytime they brought like a big artist to like Saginaw or Flint, like they would reach out to us and we would come with a lot of people, and we would get a lot of people there, and we would be doing these shows, and some half the time them shows we we got it, we it would end up turning into a fight or big bar big bar fights, and you know, just just I'm talking straight chaos. Like we we those chosen those shows are peaceful.

Israel Caminero: 31:44

What are you talking about?

Bobby Bendito: 31:46

No, hey, you're rapping about uh what you're doing to people or what you will do to people, or how much money you got, how much money you got, and everyone in there is is is drinking and intoxicating themselves and then going in the bathroom and doing lines, and you know, so that the whole, yeah, the whole environment was just bad. Like we would go out feeling good at the beginning of the night. Everybody's hyped up and all the ladies got their hair done and their makeup, and all the guys got on their fits, and everybody's da-da-da-da-da. And it's all next thing you know, boom, one thing happened, and next thing you know, there's shots fired, there's there's there's heads busted open, and there's cops, and there's this and that, and we'd end up back at the house. Yep. Exactly how it was when I was a kid. When I would hear all the grown-ups come in the house, and all the grown-ups would be coming, and they're drunk, and they're talking loud and they're repeating themselves a hundred times, and they're telling the story about who hit who and how it started. And man, here we are. Same thing. You know, even one of my daughters shared with me recently, my daughter Mariah, she's the one who shoots all the videos, and she's, you know, she's handy with the camera. She told me recently, like, man, dad, like when I was little, I remember every time you guys would go out. She said, I could never just be at home. And she was little at this time, bro. She's like seven, six, seven at this time. And she's like, I always had so many butterflies in my stomach, and I was always so scared every time you guys left. She said, because I was always just thinking, like, something's gonna happen, and something's something bad's gonna happen, and somebody's in the call, and just she said, I would be there literally, like waiting just to hear the phone ring and knowing that something bad just happened. Like she shared that with me, and it's like, man, like I didn't even know that. You know what I'm saying? Like, I never I I was always thinking for some dumb reason that I was shielding them from it, you know? Right. I knew they heard about it. I knew we would go to hotels when our house got shot up, or we would this or that, or whatever. Like, I knew they knew, but just being part of that being deceived and part of being in them strongholds is like, oh, as long as I don't smoke around them, or as long as I hide my drugs, or as long as I take my friends in the basement when they come over, man, my kids will never know, you know, but they ain't dumb. You know, kids, kids ain't dumb. They they listen, they see, they hear, and and they know what's going on. So yeah, she shared that with me um recently. And um, so yeah, man, while this is all going on back to when I was laying in the bed, I heard a voice say, you have to get up and move. So I talked to my wife. She's my wife now, but we weren't married all these years, though. I'll get to that. So we were, you know, we were just talking, and and we had a friend. We had one friend in Grand Rapids, which is in also in Michigan, but it's on the other side of the state. So Saginaw, Flint, Detroit, they're all by on like the east side of Michigan. Um, but Grand Rapids is completely on the other side over by Lake Michigan. And it it I was familiar with it because we would go there and we would record our music because the guy who was producing all of our beats, that's where he lived at. And we were in the same gang, you know what I'm saying? And he he had moved over there. So I knew we had one option. Because growing up in a city like Saginaw, that's all we knew. Like it was there was no traveling, there was no vacation, family vacations, or there was no, there was really nothing outside of Saginaw. Like that was our whole world, that was our whole life. So to even think about moving was a huge step, let alone actually going through with a move, just talking about it, just thinking about it, was something everybody really couldn't believe. Like everybody's like, you're moving, bro. And I'm like, Yeah, man, I'm like, I'm out. And they're like, for real? I'm like, yeah, like I'm like, we're looking, we're over there looking for a house, man. And at first we couldn't find one. Um, so I looked at my wife one day and I'm like, dang, man, maybe this, maybe this ain't the move. But both of us knew deep down inside, like, nah, we don't want to stay here because it had got to the points where the cops were kicking indoors and they were pulling us over on the street and taking me, my wife, my kids, all of us out, making us sit on the street, the curb, interrogating us. Like, it got it got so bad. So we looked at each other and said, Well, maybe this ain't it. You know, if we can't find a house, what are we gonna do? Man, and then she ended up getting a call from this lady, and and it was a nice house. And so we ended up moving. We moved from Saginaw. This was in shoot, this was 15 years ago, 2010. We moved from Saginaw to Grand Rapids, started a new life. No guns, no carrying, no guns, no shootouts. Ever since I left Saginaw, I've never carried a gun since then. That part of my life stayed. The drug dealing, the drug use, that came with me.

Israel Caminero: 36:35

Okay.

Bobby Bendito: 36:35

Yeah, yeah. I didn't I didn't leave that alone because initially, when I first moved to Grand Rapids, I was going back and forth, you know, every probably twice a week. I'm still on the road and I'm going back to Saginaw and I'm doing this and doing that, trying to hold on to whatever was left of not the violence, but just, you know, the money. I still needed to make some money. And we moved to Grand Rapids, we didn't know nobody. Right, bills don't go away. Yeah, yeah, man. Everybody was depressed, man, for like the whole first year. Everybody was depressed, my kids, my wife, even me, a little bit. But honestly, though, the crazy thing is, I felt a sense of freedom because nobody knew me. The cops didn't know me. I didn't have any enemies over here. I was just a regular old dude over here, you know, like in Saginaw. I didn't take my kids, you know, we used to do stuff, you know, but there was times we would even go to Chuck E. Cheese and people, everybody started fighting. So it was like, bro, we really can't do much over here. So, like, when I moved to when we moved to Grand Rapids, man, I had a different sense of peace. Even though my kids hated it because all of their cousins and all of their friends and everybody's back in Saginaw. I, on the other hand, deep down inside, was like, man, this I kind of like this. You know, like I can go somewhere. I don't got to look over my shoulder. You know, I was able to take my boy at that time when we moved here, he was he was five years old, you know, and I was able to take him to a park. Something that's simple, right? Yeah, something that simple that a lot of people, you know, that we, you know, would be like, well, what's the big deal about that? But like I was actually able to walk. Not drive, but just walk across the street and walk up the sidewalk and him playing on the playground and and whatever. Like it was that we didn't do that in Saginaw. Like we couldn't just go to no park over there and just be out just carefree with our kids because the lifestyle we were living, it wasn't like that. So to be able to do that here, it actually felt good, man. But I was still hustling, I was still using, and we went through a lot of rough seasons, went through some some ups and downs from 2010 to 2017. But in this process, man, after the first year in 2011, I had a a friend, husband and wife, who we knew from back in the day in Saginaw, but they had uh moved to Grand Rapids and they were into the church. They knew we moved over there. And so they had got a hold of us. They're like, hey, can we come? We want to stop by the house. Is that okay? We we want to stop by the house and come see you guys. I'm like, yeah, that's cool. So I gave them my address, you know, and they pulled up. And man, she came into the kitchen and she's like, you know, we're talking and stuff, but she's like, Before we leave, can I pray for you guys? I'm like, yeah, that's cool. We're in the kitchen and she starts praying, man, and speaking all these prophetic words, which I didn't know. I didn't know what a prophetic word was. I didn't know what visions were, I didn't know what anointing was. I didn't know what a calling was. I didn't know that God had a purpose for me. But she's saying all these things that are almost like kind of like a foreign language to me. Like, but I felt the conviction and I felt the passion. I felt that her words they carried weight. I felt that she was believing what she was saying.

Israel Caminero: 39:56

Right.

Bobby Bendito: 39:56

And I felt it because she's like, and God got a plan. And there's something about you and your family. Every time I seen you guys, even back in Saginaw, there was always this light around you. There was always this glow around your family everywhere you went, everywhere you guys went. Like every time we seen you, there was just always something. And she's speaking all these things and she's praying and she's going in. And in my mind, like I'm listening and I'm hearing her, but it's like, bro, I'm full-blown addict at this point, you know? Drug dealer. You know, I was maintaining, but I was still an addict regardless. You know what I'm saying? Like I probably try to make myself believe that I wasn't, but I was, because I did powder like every day. And so I'm listening to her say all these things and while she's praying, and I and I did feel it. I felt it. I don't know that I believed it at the time, but I felt what she was saying. It felt good to hear that, but again, you know, I'm I'm I'm hearing one thing, but I'm living a whole nother way. Right. So after that, things started to happen. Like God started to speak. You know, sometimes they were just little subtle things, or sometimes it was like somebody walked up to my daughter one time and like she's across the street at the park and she's um on the basketball court. There were some younger, two younger white guys. Uh maybe they was, I mean, I'm assuming they were out evangelizing, or they popped up and she was like, it was kind of odd. Like they, she said, but they walked up to me on the court and they said, Hey, my daughter had on a red t-shirt while she was over there shooting. They said, God wanted us to tell the person that we see with the red shirt on that he sees you, he sees your family, he wants you and your family to know that he loves you and that he's watching over you. And just like they they basically prophesied to her and spoke some things into her. So she comes back home from the park and she's like, Man, these dudes just came up to me and they told me this. And told me, I'm looking at Sherry and I'm like, dang, after getting that prayer in the kitchen, you know, it was like when when those things start to happen more than once, you know, and it's like it was a buildup of things. So around that time, my mom had called. She's still in Saginaw, but she had called and she's like, hey, well, I want to go see uh this lady named Joyce Meyer. You know, and at that time my wife kind of was a little familiar, but not really with who she was. But my mom's like, she's coming to speak at a church in Grand Rapids, and I want to come. I was gonna see if you guys wanted to go too. So we're like, yeah, cool, we'll go. So we pull up to this church, and it's a big old church, man. Big old, like, it looks like a like a big old college campus. I'm like, dang, this is a church. Like they got churches like this. Like I didn't know. You know, it was like a mega church. And so we go, we see Joyce Meyer, my mom, everything. My mom leaves. But when we were there, I'm like, man, we should come back here. Like, because you know, I'm like, dang, this is a big old church. And it just, you know, something felt right. Like something felt right about it. And I'm like, maybe we should come back. Eventually, we did go back. We would have never knew about that church had my mom never called talking about let's go see Joyce Meyer. We were in a whole city we didn't even know about. You know, it was just the way God aligns things. So we ended up going back. We started going, man, that same year on Easter Sunday. I was up. It would have been a Saturday night, really, but it was late. So it was already Sunday morning, but it was probably like three or four in the morning. And I'm up, man, and I'm, you know, regular routine, high, everybody's sleeping. I keep going into the bathroom every now and then to sniff a line. I'm laying in my bed, right? And through my window, there's this church that's on the other side of the block. You could see the steeple, the cross, and all that. Like you could see it through my bedroom window, because there's only a parking lot in between our house and the church. It's just an empty parking lot. So you could see directly out my window, straight the church, the building, the cross. So I would look at it. You know, I it wasn't the first night that I looked at it. Like I would look at it through my window and, you know, at night. And that night, while I'm laying there, I'm high, man, heart beating, racing, same thing, you know, day in and day out, scared, thinking I'm gonna overdose. But then the next day, I completely forget what happened the night before and I'm back doing it again. Yeah, you know, um, but that night, man, I'm laying there and this face, bro, appeared on the wall. Like, not when I say face, like if I go look at myself in the mirror right now and I see what what color my eyebrows are, and I see, you know, it wasn't like that. Like I see like a like a skin color or a hair color, or like if me and you was face to face right now, we're looking, it wasn't a face like that, but when you know what like you know what the shape, the outline, the image of a head and and a face, it was right, it just like it just like appeared on the wall. And so like I'm looking at it, and I can tell where the eyes are at, I can tell where the chin's at, the beard, everything. Like I couldn't see again, like it wasn't detail, but it was the image of a head, a man, face, hair, eyes. Like I couldn't see like the details. And so it's raining outside too, right? So this face is there on my wall, and I'm looking at it like, man, am I tripping? In my mind, I'm thinking, am I tripping? But in my spirit, I'm like, I'm not tripping. Because I know that everything, the little stuff that's been happening leading up to this, the prayers, the this, the that, the, you know, we've been going here and there to church, and we've been hearing things, and I've been hearing things from the Lord, and I'm like, I know I'm not crazy. So I'm looking, and so it's raining outside, right? So the light that's coming through my window, the rain, so this is a this is a natural explanation. Now I know now that it's it was way more than that, but I'm saying at the time, it was like it's raining outside, there's this rain trickling down the window, but the face, the vision of the face that's on my wall, there was literally like there was tears coming from the eyes. And I'm looking at the window, and then I'm looking back at the wall, and I'm like, but it hit me though. Like it literally hit me, bro. Like right from the area where the eyes were on this face that's on my wall, was tears, literally, like just dripping one after another. Wow. Yeah, it's the reflection, it's the reflection that's coming through the window, but the vision of the face was already there. You know what I'm saying? But then I'm looking, and bro, it hit me. Like it hit me instantly in my spirit that the Lord was weeping for me. Like weeping, not not in a cell, but weeping with me. Like, because I wasn't in the best condition at this time, you know what I'm saying? Like I it was been that way for some years. Like, yeah, I was this dude and this thug and this whatever gangbanger, drug dealer, guns, whatever, money, right? But I was in a place for a while, you know what I'm saying? Like, I wasn't like super happy, you know what I'm saying? So my spirit, man, I didn't know it, but my spirit man was weeping. And even my physical man, even the physical man, I even had weeped through the years just over the stuff he was going through and just disappointing my wife and my kids and worrying and this and that and da-da-da-da-da. I'm moving to a new city. But it hit me like I never felt something like this in my life before, man. And I'm looking at the wall, and I sat there and looked, literally, didn't get up, didn't go to the bathroom, didn't go sniff no more lines. I'm laying there for like three or four hours, and it did not move, and it did not go away. And I was crying too. Like I was crying too. I was laying in my bed and I was crying too. When I seen, then I felt it when I felt like that it's the Lord just is appearing to me and he's weeping. He's he's weeping for my condition, he's weeping for the life that I'm living, he's weeping for me, like that he loves me, that he cares, like, so I'm crying too. Next day, bro, you know, I I tell my wife, I share it with her, and I and I get this revelation that the devil's trying to kill me, the devil's trying to get me to overdose, the devil's trying to destroy me, the devil's trying to diss, and I'm telling her, and I'm you would think though, did I change the very next day? Did I wake up a whole new man? Did I wake up? Nah. I'm not gonna lie, it hit me, but I didn't stop though. Like I didn't stop hustling, I didn't stop using, but I did, we did start to go to church tomorrow.

Israel Caminero: 49:12

Wow, Bobby's journey is already so powerful, and we're only halfway through his story. There's still so much more to hear about how God showed up in the hardest moments. To make sure we have time to share everything, we're going to pause here and continue in part two. Trust me, you won't want to miss the rest of Bobby's testimony. Be sure to subscribe or follow so you catch part two coming in two weeks.