TWENTY YEARS OF PIPING COCAINE and drinking alcohol for 42-year-old Kumar Deonath has finally come to an end.

His addiction has been cured by Jesus Christ.

His story is not a hard knocks one. He has a wife and two daughters who are still around, and has always had a steady job earning himself US$60 000 to $90 000 per year as a licenced plumber. He also has a home in Canada.

The Hindu, now a resident at the drug rehabilitation centre, Teen Challenge, in Sandford, St Philip, was baptised yesterday at Browne's Beach along with six others from the programme.

Deonath told the SUNDAY SUN he tried three other programmes: two in Brooklyn, New York in the United States and one in Canada.

"They were for 28 days and narcotic anonymous based, and one on feelings. What can you do in 28 days? This is the only one that has worked for me, and it is Christian based," he said.

He did drugs because "something was just missing" in his life.

Deonath said this time he really wanted to quit.

"I was desperate, and being Hindu was not working. I met with a man from the Logos and we talked about various religions and The Bible and I said: 'Give God a chance'."

He said he would not let the devil put him off his goals.

Another Teen Challenge member, 21-year-old Jacob Tenday-Clarke, turned to marijuana in third form at St Lucy Secondary School because of physical abuse at home.

He spent most of his time away from home and a guardian took him to Teen Challenge.

He wanted to leave the St Philip institution a number of times but he thanked God for helping him.

Tenday-Clarke served time in the Boys Industrial School for stealing, and seven days in Glendairy for marijuana.

That is a life he no longer wants.

"I got into lots of trouble at school. I did not make it to Fourth Form but I want to finish my education when I leave Teen Challenge."

He wants to study English, maths, and a foreign language.

The trained mason also knows how to play steel pan, so he is already thinking of ways to earn a living when he returns to society.

"God was in my life from young. I watched the Days Of The Bible and from that I built a love for Christ; and it grows strong in my heart everyday and I can't let it go," he said.

Reverend Steve Moore of the Love Gospel Assembly, who did the baptism, encouraged the seven men and one woman, Cheryl Durant, a member of his church, to get off the chariot and be cleansed by the water and not let the world stop them as the drugs did.