Drugs, jail, then the church

Francis Apanui rides his Harley-Davidson around the country taking the Christian message to gangs. Picture / Alan Gibson

He was "sergeant at arms" for the Mongrel Mob, was "really into cocaine" and spent 10 years in jail for attempted murder.

Today he's a pastor to the gangs.

Francis Apanui, 58, still rides a Harley-Davidson and calls himself "a motorcycle minister". His "church" is on the streets.

For him and for "heaps" of other former gangsters, Christianity has become a way out of the gang culture of drinking and violence that was dramatised in the 1994 movie Once Were Warriors.

Mr Apanui was born into that culture in an Opotiki family where the children were abused. He was jailed for shooting two of his uncles after the rape of his sister. He joined the Mob in Turangi when he came out of prison.

"The gang was a protection to me. I'm their whanau. That was my home, that was my roots and that was my passion," he said.

As sergeant-at-arms he was responsible for the gang's rules and discipline.

"It was hard-out drugs. I was really into cocaine and all that."

But he began to have doubts after seven or eight years when he nearly shot his nephew, who was in the rival Black Power gang.

"I was always wearing helmets so he didn't recognise me," he said. But he was shaken.

Shortly afterwards, a pastor who was "like whanau" to him invited him to a church to hear a performance by some black American musicians.

A little girl aged 6 or 7 went up to him at the service and said, "Jesus loves you".

On the way home to Taneatua, he saw a vision of Jesus in front of him. He asked his niece to take him to church and he became a Christian.

It wasn't easy to get out of the Mob.

"You have to have a good reason to get out of it. The hard part is giving back the colours. You have to talk with the president and the vice-president.

"You say, 'I come here to give this kaupapa [cause] back. I'm becoming a minister.'

"They say, 'Okay, fair enough.' If you have a good reason, they say, 'Okay, we'll let you go'. But they watch you 24/7 and then leave you alone when they know you are clear [of rival gangs]."

Mr Apanui formed "Gangs for Jesus" in 1985 and went with other "Christian Riders" to a gang event at Ngaruawahia's Turangawaewae Marae.

He joined a church, but later left it "to go back to my Maori people".

"The only way you can do that is to get back on to the marae where the people are," he said.

"I was a big fella, nearly 18 stone. I used to do a lot of music. I'd play Eric Clapton and rock'n'roll stuff, and when I had them sitting down I'd say, 'How about a Christian song?"'

With other Christian Riders, he has formed an "Outcast Ministry" which motorcycles around the country visiting gangs.

"I want to save my brothers. Our first job is going out there and being beside them," he said.

"That's how I can go to have a cup of tea with the bros at the pad. They know where I'm coming from.

"The door is always open because it's all my whanau. We'll listen to them, but it's got to be another way. It takes time. It takes patience."

The series

* Last Saturday: Drink and drugs.

* Yesterday: Welfare.

* Today: Gangs.

* Tomorrow: Domestic violence.

* Thursday: Living for today.

* Friday: Neglected children.

* Next Saturday: Cultural identity and the future.