Prayer vigil held for missing Ontario man

ONTARIO - Angie Henke spends her life helping others, so family and friends are desperate to help her in her own time of need.

The founder of the nonprofit organization Reaching Out was preparing Friday for another sleepless night as she waited for word on her son, Curtis Henke, who is missing. Curtis, a 25-year-old graduate of Ontario High School, ran from the Volunteers of America residential recovery facility and is gripped by a heroin addiction.

About 20 people gathered at Ontario's Marshall Park, where Curtis used to play baseball, for a prayer vigil Friday evening.

"He's a great kid from a great family. A bad thing happened to him," said Peggie Long, who organized the vigil.

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Libby Robinson said she went through school with Curtis and remembers him as the kid who would always say a kind word to stick up for others who were being bullied, or just to brighten someone's day.

She crossed paths with him again when they worked together at Logan's Roadhouse. When he got the job, they bonded instantly because he had just gotten out of rehab at the same facility where Robinson had gone to rehab.

"He was so excited to tell me he had gotten saved and he was clean," Robsinson recalls. "I remember him and I talking all the time at work about the things that helped us stay clean and helped us in our walk with the Lord."

Robinson said there are many people who love Curtis and don't look down on him or condemn him for "decisions that are made as a side effect of the disease."

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"He needs to see how many people are behind him and support him right now," Robinson said. "I know when I was struggling with addiction, I didn't see many people rooting for me. And when I knew people were really rooting for my success, that's when I was able to give it up."

Thresea Jackson, who is now in recovery, said she was one of the first people Angie Henke helped when Henke started Reaching Out out of the back of her car.

Jackson explained the impact drugs can have on every aspect of your life.

"Drugs takes over everything," she said. "It takes over your morals, your values, your friendships, everything. It's not just your body. It literally changes you from the inside out."

Robinson's husband, Brennan, quoted a Bible verse from 1 John 3 and said he wants more people to see addicts in a spirit of love and to demonstrate love to them, not just with words, but with actions.

"That person didn't wake up as a six-year-old boy or girl and say, 'When I grow up, I want to be a heroin addict.' That person had dreams. that person had goals. We need to come alongside them and be there for them," he said.

Long said she challenges the community, in the face of a true epidemic, to set a goal and to work toward it.

"We need, as a community, to let people know: You kick it, you end up in prison or you die," she said. "Those are your only options, and those are pretty frightening."

Long knows the pain of having a loved one who suffers from addiction. Her nephew met Curtis Henke in jail, where they both were incarcerated for drug-related crimes.

"You just pray, 'Please, God, spare my nephew. Spare my son. Spare my friend," she said. "It's just an addiction nobody can understand unless they've been there."

Though he burned bridges and he stole from her, Long never gave up on her nephew. He has been clean for two years.

Angie Henke hopes and prays that it's not too late to save her son from his life-threatening addiction. But if it is, she said, she still wants to spread awareness.

"If we could just save one kid, or save one mom from feeling the pain that I feel," she said. "That's what I want."

cmcnaull@gannett.com

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Twitter: @courtneymcnaull