Randle Bond
11 September 2024
The Reverend Randle Bond was in his PJs having a lazy morning with his children, when he heard a knock on the door. It was a pair of fugitives, seeking to hide from the law.
Oh … and there was a TV crew! Andy and Deb Dunt were taking part in reality TV show Hunted, in which Australians try to outsmart a team of trackers, including former army and police investigators.
With the help of Mr Bond’s father, Andy and Deb were able to hide until the last minute before their extraction. Deb didn’t quite make it, but Andy swam to a victory worth thousands.
With my pastor hat on, I would call our church a total God set up for Andy and Deb Dunt in their Hunted journey.
The connection couldn’t have worked out better. My church was meant to be a potential first place to stay that their main contact Josh had set up. I was actually never meant to see them.
A friend who used to work here was their first contact. He knew them from Adelaide and described them as a great Christian couple. I said yes and Josh was sorted with the key. At the last minute he had to go interstate for a funeral. But they had the details and we had some food in the fridge ready to go. When they didn’t turn up in the first couple of days, I assumed they’d been caught. We took the food out of the fridge, removed the hidden key and went back to life as normal.
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Sixteen days later there was knock on my door. I looked out the window and was surprised to see cameras. Immediately I realised who it must be. I was having a lazy morning with the kids in my PJs. No way was I going out in them for a TV appearance! After a quick switch I met them out the front and set them up to stay the night in the church. It was a safe place to take refuge: multiple exits, easy visibility of what was going on outside and a potential network of people who love to help.
Immediately Andy and Deb began to hatch a plan for how to get to the finish. They weren’t expecting anything from us and had saved up money to pay for a ride to the finish. When they mentioned the general vicinity of the evacuation point and the potential timing, I wasn’t going to be able to get them the whole way. I was booked in to visit a 104-year-old man and it was an important visit that I didn’t want to reschedule.
My wife Katie, who’d come to discover the excitement, chimed in “Your Dad lives over that way”. They were a little concerned about him being over 70 and the finish being stressful. I reassured them that rally driving was his retirement hobby (those tyre squeals you heard may have been real). So we put in a call, he took a couple of hours to get back to me. I was surprised he was actually in Melbourne! He happened to be available and when we talked timing he had an appointment in Elsternwick (half-way) the next morning. It was a perfect handoff. I could still make my appointment.
Then the most amazing fact, which they didn’t let on at the time, was Dad lived just two minutes along the foreshore from the finish! None of this would have happened if Andy and Deb visited us first, or only met their mate Josh. What an amazing set up! It almost sounds scripted …
Andy and Deb operated with such kindness and poise in the face of what must have been a hugely anxious time. As we pulled up in Elsternwick, Andy took a moment to share his appreciation for the work of the church and the help it brings to those in need. He gave us the money they’d saved to get them to the finish to help us with the work we do in the community.
As they went off to the finish, I went back to life as normal. I visited the 104-year-old and shared a special moment with him and his wife, reassuring him of hope in the face of death. He died one week later.
And the final miracle: somehow my kids managed to keep a secret for five months!
So with my pastor-priest-vicar-shepherd-prophet-evangelist hat back on, I would say life is a complete set up by God, not just found in a church by people with titles, but available to anyone willing to lend their ear and follow. He can work even in the lives of those on the run! But if you’re actually on the run from the law, he probably also has a better path.
The Reverend Randle Bond is minister of St Barnabas’ Balwyn.
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