Ex-gangster Jayson living life on a prayer
Marlins Rugby League & Sports Club, Manurewa, Wednesday, 6pm.
Four years ago, Jayson Rogers was a fighter, a gangster and a full-time methamphetamine dealer.
Answering the call to head along to a free kickboxing class, he only had one goal in mind.
‘‘To perfect my street fighting skills so I could become more lethal.’’
Rogers, 34, fell into drugs around the age of 12, joined a gang soon after, and got into all types of crime, from breaking into buildings to ‘‘hard core car theft’’.
Things escalated pretty quickly from there and Rogers developed a reputation to uphold.
‘‘I had no intention of changing, which is why I had created such a strong name for myself’’ Koloamatangi-Rogers says. ‘‘The drugs and the gangs... that was going to be my lifestyle for the rest of my life.’’
A lot has changed since 2012 when Rogers went along to that first kickboxing class, which he would later find out was in fact a Christian outreach programme run by Andrew Hoeflich’s Solid Community SA.
The group, or ministry, holds a session twice weekly at the Manurewa Marlins Rugby League & Sports Club, where the group train in kickboxing, pray and discuss topics from domestic violence to financial budgeting.
The meetings became a weekly routine for Rogers while he carried on dealing, until two years later something clicked.
‘‘Something just came over me,’’ he says.
Today marks Rogers and partner and Kristal’s two years of getting clean - as well as 20 years of being a couple.
He and partner Kristal are due to give birth to their seventh child later this year.
Rogers says introducing his children to God had been a culture shock, as he had been the one ‘‘leading them down the path of destruction’’.
Andrew Hoeflich, says he didn’t learn about Jayson’s background until he had been attending the group for several months.
While Rogers is a converted Christian, dedication to the faith isn’t essential, he says.
Kristal said their family life, including her and Rogers’ relationship with her family, has improved in leaps and bounds.
‘‘You couldn’t pay us a million dollars to go back to where we were,’’ Kristal says.