November 2, 2020
By: Bill Conger
After 16 years as one of the pivotal figures with the Haven of Hope, John Quintero has handed over the business reigns at the agency to mental health counselor Samanthia Curtis, LPC-MHSP. While he has stepped down as Executive Director, he will remain intricately involved on the mission side.
“John has always been the ‘level head’ in leading the organization and keeping the organization moving forward,” says Kay Quintero, who founded the Haven with her husband in 2004.
John Quintero was working a demanding 24/7 job at a plant when he felt the Lord leading him to leave the company, and in short order he and his wife joined the Mission Services Corps starting in the basement of Smithville First Baptist Church.
“I didn’t have a grand plan,” Quintero said. “Somebody else had to have a grand plan.”
His wife, Kay, had been providing counseling through the chapel at the Tennessee Prison for Women.
“Our thoughts were to do the same thing here,” he says. “but down there we didn’t realize we had a captive audience in more ways than one where up here we didn’t have that.”
“Our goal to start off was to help hurting ladies,” Quintero remembers. “It soon became very apparent that there were people hurting besides the ladies. We modified that to help hurting people.”
Over the years the Quintero’s have ministered to the DeKalb County area in a variety of ways including offering support groups, classes, and visits to the Housing Authority communities to give away cool pops.
“John has been a wonderful role model both personally and professionally, says new Haven of Hope Executive Director Samanthia Curtis. “John has a huge heart for helping hurting people and always doing the right thing. He is very genuine with people and doesn’t make them feel like he is looking down on them. I have watched him share God’s love with sincerity through the years. I think that is what Jesus would do. It is what He asks us to do and John does it. He is willing to go the extra mile and really serve people. I feel like this is a God given gift, and I have enjoyed learning from him.”
“Looking at John shows the true meaning of what it is to be a servant of Christ,” says Rita Bell, a friend and former Haven employee. “He and Kay would go out of their way to take people to Nashville for rehabilitation or for recovery. There is no selfishness in them. They are wonderful at glorifying God and furthering his mission.”
Located at 301 West Main Street, the Haven grew from a ministry to also encompass the town’s first ever professional counseling center. Half of the not-for-profit organization serves the community with professional counseling while the other section is devoted to ministerial needs such as connecting people to resources and offering a variety of support groups and classes in anger management and parenting just to name a few.
“I’m proud of the ministry portion that we’ve done,” Quintero says. “We’ve helped people in a lot of different ways get back on their feet.”
A large part of the ministry has also assisted people striving to live a drug free life. Quintero is a team member of the Recovery Court in Smithville and leads a weekly class called “Hurts, Habits, and Hang-ups.”
“His heart is so warm for the drug community that’s recovering,” says longtime Haven volunteer Anne Huebner. “He understands their hopelessness. He understands they’re afraid. He understands they’re taking a step forward, and he encourages.”
“A lot of times people come in that won’t look us in the eye. They sort of have their heads down, and they don’t say very much. To see that head come up, to see their involvement increase, to see smiles on their faces, to have a conversations with them that they start or respond to you is very meaningful to me.”
Quintero says overall it has been a very good journey.
“Maybe the thing I think of the most is being able to see people grow spiritually, grow responsibly and allowing God to change them.”