Former addict helps lead rehab centre

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Some people have to sink pretty low before they allow God to save them. And Ricardo José Cruz, now the associate director of the Casa de Rehabilitación Hombres Nuevos (New Men Rehabilitation Centre), says he is one who reached rock bottom.

n Ricardo José Cruz, Associate Director of the Fundación Casa de Rehabilitación Hombres Nuevos, says that as a drug addict, he ‘knew the word, ‘God’, but not the God of the Word’. Bogotá, Colombia. Photo: UBS/Larry Jerden (COL01DJ-42)

“I was a slave to drugs,” he admits. “I lost all sense of time. I didn’t think. I didn’t feel. I had lost all sense of what life was. I lived in the street, eating whatever I could find, and any money I received I turned into drugs.”

He even reached the point of not knowing who God was. “I knew the word, ‘God,’ but not the God of the Word,” he says. That was when he hit rock bottom.

“One day, when I found myself all alone, I thought the best thing I could do would be to just end my life,” Mr Cruz says. “I tried to fix it so a drug dealer would kill me. I took a large quantity of drugs from him, and instead of selling it and paying for it, I just consumed it. That way, I knew he would kill me.”

At that point a miracle intervened. As he was hiding from his would-be killer, a woman appeared to him and said, “This is not your place. There is someone who wants to do something important with your life.” The frightened addict started crying, escaped the streets, and ended up at the Centre.

“Thanks to the Centre and the love of God in my life, I’ve been rehabilitated for three years,” he smiles. “Now in my heart is a desire to serve God. When Christ arrived in my life, all the darkness and all the lies left. Today I am a free man. My desire now is to serve Christ and extend my hand to those who are consumed by drugs.”