Coty will never forget the blizzard that came roaring through the Midwest around a year ago . . . because it helped change his life forever.
“It was just really cold, and I couldn’t get a fire started. I was very, very desperate,” he remembers.
He’d been desperate for a long time. Coty was a heavy drug user for many years, something that stemmed from seeing drug use all around him growing up. While running with a dangerous crowd, he’d been stabbed and shot and was literally afraid for his life—all while facing “extreme homelessness.”
“I was staying in abandoned houses, eating out of dumpsters. It was desperation, starvation, hopelessness,” he says, looking back on those hard years. “It was just a very dark time.”
But that blizzard in early 2025 ended up being a beacon of light in his life. As a last resort, he checked himself into a psych ward. And that’s where he learned about Hope Ministries—about the safe shelter and opportunities for guidance and transformation just waiting for him.
These days, Coty’s life looks so different! He’s ten months sober and excited about his future. Last fall, he earned his high school equivalency diploma. He’s reconnected with his daughters. And he was even able to get his teeth replaced.
“I have morals and standards I’ve set for myself now. I have goals. I don’t live to get high anymore. By the grace of God, I don’t ever want to go back to where I was before. I feel like I’m alive again!”
Coty
For the first time in his life, Coty knows that god is by his side. “I was taught to rely on myself. No one and no god is going to come help you,” he recalls. “But I’m a child of God now. There’s been several occasions when I could’ve easily been killed. Looking back on it now, I’m extremely grateful that God never leaves us. And I think He has more for me.”
One of Coty’s goals is to pay off his debts and raise his credit score. He’s planning to enroll at DMACC to learn a trade—he’s considering HVAC, automotive or welding—while working a part-time job.
“I never though I’d be able to start over like this,” he says. “You can be so far down. You can feel like you’re the lowest of the low. And then your’e dreaming of college and a house and a trade. It’s just a whole new life!”
