With No Natural Parents, God Raised Him to Manhood
By Robert L. Cummings Sr.

I have never seen my biological father; I was told recently that he was dead. Well, what am I supposed to say to that? In addition, I never spent a day with my biological mother until 40 years old. I grew up in an environment of nothing but violence and drugs. I never had the opportunity to play sports as a child. No one in the household ever, and I mean ever, helped me with my homework. Therefore, I never developed study habits, and this was a challenge for me throughout my school life and the early part of my military career.

When I entered high school I was a very disturbed young man. I truly believe it was lack of guidance and love. Still, I do not want you to think that the household I lived in was not a home, because I was fed, clothed, and sheltered. Nevertheless, tell you the truth, I never ever want a child to experience what I had to experience.

My stepbrother introduced me drugs (red devils) at the tender age of eleven years old. The family was infested with drug appetites, which caused one of my stepbrothers to kill the other, my stepmother to stab my stepfather, and the death of a step-niece, who overdosed. Today, all both my stepparents and my stepbrothers are dead. This is too much for a young man to experience before the age of eighteen years old, but I finally made it to Gardena High School and graduated in 1973. I spent one year at Los Angeles Harbor College, where I studied law enforcement. Can you believe it that I wanted to be a vice officer and destroy the drug appetite? Well, that desire did not last long, especially when I joined the U.S. Army on June 19, 1974.

I became what I hated, a young man with a drug appetite, which lasted eight years. I cannot lie and say I did not like the way drugs made me feel. Nevertheless, I also cannot lie about the loss of memory and hallucinations I experienced day and night. I lost my virginity at a young age and my sexual life was just crazy. I really do not want to talk about that part of my life. I only talk about it when the Spirit of God prompts me to. Allow me to simply say I have a strong anointing to deal with perverse sexual behavior in youth. I do not remember being exposed to godly men that would teach, train, and direct young men in a lifestyle that would be pleasing to God. Please understand I cannot look at the past because it will short-circuit my future.

I married Cherl D. Fortson on Saturday, March 14, 1981, at Twins Palm Chapel in Lynwood, California. Cherl had two children – Antoine, 6, and Rashawn, 2 – when I met her, but I had no children that I knew of. Married life did not change me. I still was a foolish young man. Nevertheless, Cherl knew how to pray.

On Wednesday night, September 16, 1981, I had a visitor enter my room and he spoke these words: “Get up and throw your dope away!” The voice spoke again, “Get up and throw your dope away!” I remember getting my dope box out and looking at the $50 worth of drugs I had just bought and putting them in the toilet. Someone would say, “Are you crazy, or high, or something?” I do not know. You tell me. Was I?

My wife was concerned about me and began to call for me, but I did not answer. She came looking for me and found me crying beside the bed. I was totally delivered in one night from drugs and sexually perverse activities. That was 24 years ago. Praise His Name!

In April 1982 we joined Crenshaw Christian Center and we received the right hand of fellowship on September 13, 1982. In 1984, I answered the call of God on my life. Before I answered the call, I had already begun to minister in prisons and juvenile institutions throughout California and Nevada. My first assignments at CCC included personal ministries worker, Sunday School teacher, drug and alcohol counselor and teen helps ministry worker. I volunteered in those areas for twelve years. Also, Missionary Dr. Patricia Bailey and Minister Brenda Daniel mentored me for the next three years. I got hired at CCC on August 16, 1993, and I am enjoying ministry.

I had a life-changing experience when I twice participated in the “Jamaica for Jesus” mission trips sponsored by the church. God began to give me a vision. I was promoted to teen coordinator, organizing Special Youth Program, Teaching Chapel for Frederick K. C. Price III School and Teen Workshops called Who I’m I and Where Did I Come From?, Spiritual Autopsy, Understanding Family Relationships, and Are you Ready for the Casket?” Many youth have not been the same since experiencing these life-changing workshops.

I served in the U.S. Army for 26 years, retiring on November 4, 2000. While in the military, I continued in what I loved most as a child, watching Bruce Lee movies and the study of Shotokan Karate. I became a U.S. Master Fitness Trainer and was given the assignment of overseeing the strength and conditioning of five hundred troops for four years. I sporadically continued to train in karate until 1994 when vision came for a program designed for the Youth of tomorrow. This program was birthed in 2000 at St. Andrews Park, and today we are at Crenshaw Christian Center in the Billy Blanks Youth Activity Center. What a god we serve!

This program is designed to develop the spirit, soul, and body of youth, ages five to nineteen years old, in fitness, aerobics, physiology, kinesiology, and Shoto-Bo karate. The program also assists our communities with overweight children and with character building through discipline. Today, we have more than one hundred students in our program.

I want to thank God Almighty for my wife Cherl for praying for me and hanging with me through out all my shortcomings. We have been married for 24 years and we have four children, Antoine 33, Rashawn, 29, Robert Jr. 21, and Christopher 17. If you do not want success, joy, peace, and strength in your life, do not hang around Minister Robert L. Cummings. He is very contagious.