The motor mechanic who started repairing livesBy Larry Jerden, UBS Photojournalist BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Harvey Alfredo Leon Higuera never intended to open a drug rehabilitation centre – he planned to open a car repair workshop. He duly acquired the premises and bought the equipment. But the night before it was to open, he found he had some overnight visitors. Today, five years after allowing them to spend ‘just one night’ in the midst of his mechanics equipment, the would-be entrepreneur heads a Christian ministry helping some 200 men and women in six facilities across Colombia. Now, Mr Higuera and his team have help from the Colombian Bible Society and Opportunity 21 as well. “Everything was a miracle,” Mr Higuera declares. “My desire was not to create a foundation but an automotive centre.” His “mistake”, he says, was to invite local people to come and see his new business: he always considered the building as a gift from God, and he wanted to share it. They agreed to come – but then they didn’t want to leave. “We said, ‘OK, you can stay one night and in the morning we will give you breakfast,’” says Mr Higuera. “‘And then you must leave.’ “We had all the electronics and mechanical equipment ready in place. The young workers were to start on Saturday, and we invited them to come on Friday night and take a bath, get a night’s sleep, then wake up and eat breakfast.” But it wasn’t just the young workers who arrived: the earnest Christian businessman found his place overrun by women, children and dogs as well. “We expected 20 men,” he recalls. “In all, 150 people arrived. Then people started to wash their clothes and make up beds... and we prepared breakfast. “But after breakfast, they settled in. We were deciding what to do, but by then it was 1pm and they were asking for lunch! So we prepared some food, they ate it, and then lay on the floor, waiting for their clothes to dry. Soon it was 7pm, and they did not want to leave! They asked us if we were Christians, and I said yes. They asked me to read the Bible, so I did. Then they started worshipping God and singing. It was 10pm before they finished. They said if they could sleep here that night, they would leave in the morning.”
With what sounds like incredible patience, Mr Higuera and his helpers prepared another breakfast… lunch… and… dinner. Refused to go“More people came,” he says. “We told them they couldn’t stay, but they refused to go. We told them that this was a workshop and they said, ‘Well, let us stay on the second floor.’ I agreed, but prayed to God and said, ‘One week and then they go.’” The next morning the crowd did leave... only to return. This time they brought cooking utensils and began setting up house. Mr Higuera’s next tactic was to prepare a fixed timetable. If there was a timetable, he thought, they would not want to stay. But they accepted all the ‘house rules’. And he noticed another change: they began calling him ‘pastor’. “Why do you call me ‘pastor’?” he asked. “I am not a pastor, I just want to run my car repair business.” “No,” came the reply, “we have prayed about this place [the upper floor]. God has given it to us. We are also praying that your mechanics centre will be our place.” At that, an increasingly frustrated Mr Higuera went to see his pastor and told him of the problems he was having in reclaiming his premises. “There will be no repair centre here,” his pastor told him. “There will be a foundation. You won’t need mechanics. You will be with the street people. You will be part of the foundation and you will help them get the things they really need.” So Mr Higuera gave in and formed the Casa de Rehabilitación Hombres Nuevos (New Men Rehabilitation Centre). ‘God was calling me’“I knew that God was calling me to work with the street people,” he explains. “So I put away my car repair equipment and begin working with them. Before I realised it, a year had passed. I discovered that I loved seeing hearts renewed by the Word of God, and God doing his work in their lives.” But even then, Mr Higuera did not completely give up his earlier dream of repairing motor cars.
“For that first year I fought with God,” he recalls. “I kept telling him, ‘This is not for me!’ But now five years have passed, and I have six houses serving 200 people and a television programme reaching many more.” The foundation ministers to street people with alcohol problems, sexual problems and other kinds of behavioural problems. “They are here because they want to be,” he says. “If they want to leave, they can go. Sometimes we move individuals to facilities in other towns to get them away from their old environments.” The treatments seem to work. All the leaders in the foundation must be people who have themselves been rescued and helped by it. Ricardo José Cruz, director of the Hombres Nuevos facility in Bogotá, is a prime example. “Thanks to the foundation and the love of God in my life, I’ve been rehabilitated for three years,” Mr Cruz says. “Now I have the desire in my heart to serve God, because I was a victim of drugs.” The Colombian Bible Society is eager to help and has entered into a relationship with Hombres Nuevos to try to make that possible. Valuable “Our first contact with the Society
was a month ago, when they brought us the first materials,” Mr
Higuera says. “As a result, we look forward to working with them
in the future.” At the moment, under the auspices of |
