00:00Hello everyone, my name is William Chambers. It's good to be here with you all today.
00:04I ain't got no Bible in my hand today. Today I'm going to talk about something a little different
00:08because I was on TikTok and something hit me a whole lot
00:12because it reminded me of myself. It reminded
00:16me of why I praise God. It reminded me of why I love God so.
00:20I'm going to show y'all a story of a little boy who
00:23was in a situation just like my own. And I love God
00:28so much because God, I'm an anomaly. There's no reason
00:32I should be talking to you guys right now. I should be dead or in
00:36prison. I should be doing like 35 to life. And I'm not going to give y'all no details
00:40because I think the statute of limitations is up, but just in case.
00:44Anyway, long story short, this young man is talking about exactly everything I experienced
00:48but I'm an anomaly and made it out. There were so
00:51many people that I know that did not make it out.
00:55They're dead or in prison or they're still in the streets
01:00risking their life. Lord help us.
01:02You think the streets cared I was 11?
01:05Hell no.
01:08But imagine how hard it was being that little boy.
01:11My name was Robert Sandefur.
01:13They called me yummy.
01:15I died before I made 12 a living.
01:18I should have needed somebody to wake me up for school.
01:20I should have been eating cereal, watching cartoons, chasing an ice cream truck and wondering
01:25what I was getting for Christmas.
01:27I should have had years left to be somebody's baby.
01:30Instead,
01:31I learned guns, gangs, fear and survival.
01:35Before you call me a thug,
01:36look at me!
01:38I was a child.
01:40I didn't come out of my mama knowing how to gangbang.
01:42Somebody taught me that.
01:44Abuse and neglect were already in my story.
01:47My daddy was locked up.
01:48By three, I was awarded a court.
01:50By nine, I had been arrested for armed robbery.
01:52Nine!
01:53I should have been chasing that ice cream truck.
01:56Instead,
01:56I was running from a childhood I never got to have.
01:59That's how the streets find little boys like me.
02:01They find the empty places.
02:03No daddy!
02:05Here come the big homies.
02:06No money!
02:07Here come fast money.
02:09Scared?
02:09Here come a gun.
02:11Lonely?
02:11Here come somebody calling you brother.
02:14And when you're a little boy starving to belong,
02:16you don't always know the difference between somebody loving you and somebody using you.
02:20I thought being feared meant I mattered.
02:23I thought a gang meant I finally had a family.
02:26But family don't throw judging away.
02:29Police were looking for me.
02:30And according to police,
02:32members of my own gang decided I was bringing too much heat.
02:34I gave the streets my childhood.
02:37And when I became inconvenient,
02:38I became disposable.
02:40I was taken under the railroad viaduct
02:42and shot in the back of my head.
02:44Twice.
02:45I was 11.
02:47Where was my street family at?
02:49Where was all that loyalty?
02:50Where was somebody saying,
02:51Nah, that's a baby?
02:53Send that boy home.
02:55Nobody saved little yummy.
02:57So every little boy listening,
02:58The streets don't love you!
03:01They'll call you family while you're useful.
03:03Then your mama could be standing over your little casket screaming your name
03:06while the street's already teaching another child how to replace you.
03:09You dying, everybody post.
03:10Long live, bro.
03:13I want your long live.
03:15I want you to live.
03:16Make 12.
03:18Make 16.
03:19Graduate.
03:20Fall in love.
03:21Have babies.
03:22Become the father you might have needed.
03:25Grow old enough to laugh about the dumb stuff you did when you were young.
03:28I never got that.
03:30I never got 13, 14, 18, 21.
03:34I never what kind of man Robert could have become.
03:37Yummy became famous.
03:39Robert never got to grow up.
03:41And don't make me some gangster hero.
03:44Another child lost her life too.
03:4614-year-old Siobhan Dean.
03:48She had birthdays.
03:49She never got to see.
03:50Her life mattered too.
03:52The streets leave mamas crying on both sides.
03:55So what are you winning?
03:56A block you don't own.
03:58A reputation that can't hug your mama.
04:01A gun that can't love you back.
04:02A prison number.
04:03A funeral shirt.
04:05Flowers dying on your grave.
04:07That's thug life.
04:08Nah.
04:09That's death wearing loyalties clothes.
04:12Kiki.
04:12Thank you for telling my story.
04:15Tell these little boys, yummy, said.
04:17A gun ain't a father.
04:18A gang ain't a family.
04:20A jail cell ain't a bedroom.
04:22A graveyard ain't a playground.
04:24And those dudes saying they'll die for you.
04:26See if they'll live for you.
04:28See if they'll help you graduate.
04:30See if they'll feed you when you're hungry.
04:32See if they'll protect your childhood instead of stealing it.
04:35If you're 11, 12, 13, 14, and somebody trying to turn your pain into street loyalty.
04:41Run.
04:42If home ain't safe.
04:43Tell somebody.
04:45Teach it.
04:46Coach.
04:47Counselor.
04:48Pastor.
04:49Keep telling until somebody listens.
04:51Because little yummy didn't need somebody teaching them how to die like a gangster.
04:55I needed somebody to look underneath all that anger.
04:57All that trouble.
04:59All that hurt.
05:00And say, baby.
05:02You are still worth saving.
05:05My name was Robert Yummy Sandefur.
05:08I was 11.
05:10And maybe the saddest part ain't that I died young.
05:13It's that I had to live grown before I ever got the chance to be little.
05:16The streets made me feel like a man.
05:20Then made sure I never lived long enough to become one.
05:24Woo!
05:30Praise God.
05:31I relate to that young man story so well.
05:34When you don't have a father in your life.
05:36And you in the hood.
05:38The streets raise you.
05:42All of my childhood.
05:43My young childhood.
05:44They was trying to kill me.
05:46The streets was trying to kill me.
05:47If you're raising the streets, you already know.
05:49They're trying to kill you.
05:50They don't love you.
05:53They act like they love you.
05:54I was very close.
05:55I was this close.
05:56Let me give y'all a story.
05:58Maybe two.
05:59I don't.
05:59I'm not.
06:01When I was 12 years old.
06:02And I'm going to keep names out of this.
06:04Because I don't want nobody to say that.
06:06You know, William is talking too much.
06:08So, when I was 12 years old, I used to live on this block.
06:10I'm not even going to tell you the block.
06:11Because that's a problem.
06:13But there was people on this block.
06:15And it was young boys.
06:17I was about 12.
06:19And when you live on a certain block, if somebody's into some drama, you better be in the drama with
06:28them.
06:29Or you get scared of what they're going to do to you.
06:34So, anyway.
06:35There was this young kid.
06:36Let's call his name George.
06:40And George, he had some beef with somebody.
06:44Long story short, he said, we're about to go over to somebody's house.
06:47And he had his shotgun.
06:49Broad daylight.
06:50Walking with a shotgun.
06:51We all like 12, 13, 14 years old.
06:5312, 13, 14.
06:55If anything.
06:56He's walking with a shotgun in broad daylight.
06:58About to shoot at somebody.
06:59This young man is not alive anymore.
07:01He's dead already.
07:02But he's about to go shooting.
07:04And I'm with him.
07:06And I'm only with him.
07:07Not because I'm hard.
07:08But because I'm scared of what they're going to do to me if I don't go with them.
07:11Long story short.
07:14We walk in blocks.
07:16A few blocks.
07:18And I'm scared to death.
07:19Because he's the only one with a shotgun.
07:20I ain't got nothing.
07:21What are we going to do?
07:21If they start shooting at us, I'm a dead man.
07:24And everybody with us is dead.
07:26So, we get to this house.
07:28And I'm only thinking, oh man.
07:30How do I get out of this?
07:34Oh man.
07:35That's all I could think.
07:36But I couldn't tell them that.
07:37Because if I act like, you know.
07:40They're going to think I'm a punk.
07:41And it's going to be a problem.
07:42So, I'm a 12-year-old boy.
07:44Long story short.
07:46We got to the house.
07:48Eventually.
07:49And he went like, where y'all at now with a shotgun?
07:53Nobody was home.
07:58Thank God for Jesus.
08:02And I got other stories like that.
08:04But you're trapped in.
08:05You're almost dang near trapped in gang culture.
08:09Just because you was raised on that block.
08:11I say all that to say, when you guys see me praise God, it's because I'm an anomaly.
08:16I made it out.
08:18I made it out.
08:20Oh, I love God for a reason.
08:23This, I guess, is part of my testimony right here.
08:27People can judge me because I'm a little ghetto.
08:30Yes, I am a little ghetto.
08:31But I want to tell you that God has cleaned me up.
08:34I'm not as ghetto as I once was.
08:36Oh, thank me to God.
08:38Some of y'all can't even tell.
08:39God put me in the military and I hung around white people.
08:42And I learned the white people culture.
08:44And I seen how white people look at black people.
08:46And so, that helped me out.
08:49Oh, Lord.
08:50So, you don't see ghetto.
08:51You don't see street no more.
08:52And if you see little smidges of it, it is what it is.
08:54But, I thank God for Jesus.
08:57This is part of my testimony.
08:59I thank God for Jesus.
09:01Because I wasn't supposed to be here.
09:02It was by his grace that I made it out the streets.
09:05I went to the military.
09:07God had given me some advice by some older men to go into the military.
09:12Saved my life.
09:13Because I was already involved, dabbling and dabbling in drug culture.
09:18Already kind of affiliated with a little bit of street life.
09:21I wasn't a thug, nothing like that.
09:23I wasn't a tough dude, nothing like that.
09:25It was just that my culture, my environment was taking me into a direction that I needed God's intervention.
09:31I thank God for Jesus.
09:33God is awesome.
09:34Praise be unto his name.
09:36God bless you all.
09:37God bless you all.
09:40God bless you all.
09:40God bless you all.
09:44God bless you all.
09:50God bless you all.
09:53God bless you all.
09:56God bless you all.
09:56God bless you all.
