Gainesville couple credit their faith in Jesus with addiction recovery journey

Drug court commissioner to speak at May 5 event at Gainesville Church of Christ

Peggy Davis, drug court commissioner for the 31st Circuit Court in Greene County, will be the speaker at a drug epidemic informational  meeting to be held at 6 p.m.  Saturday, May 5, at the Gainesville Church of Christ on Highway 160 about a mile east of the Gainesville square. The program, which is open to everyone. is sponsored by the Ozark County Ministerial Alliance.
Since 2000, Davis has presided over or is presiding over DWI court, adult drug court, family drug court and/or mental health court and veterans court. In her presentations around the region, she talks about the current drug-problem epidemic, how it impacts communities and how communities can overcome the problem and help support families struggling with addiction.
Recognizing that drug addiction is a community problem, Jeff Dotson, pastor of Mission Square Church in Gainesville, urges all residents to attend – along with those struggling with or impacted by someone else’s addiction.

Recovering from addiction
Kenny and Heather Cotter, who participate in Dotson’s recovery program that meets at 6 p.m. each Monday at Mission Square Church, say they plan to attend. Both credit their recovery to their faith – and to good people like Dotson who’ve helped them.
Kenny, 51, grew up in Northern California, the son of a carpenter and an accountant. He said his trouble with drugs began when he “started running with a bad crowd. All my friends seemed to want to do drugs and drink.” He had been an A-B student, but in 9th or 10th grade, he “started cutting classes,” he said. Eventually he dropped out of school during the 1982-83 school year, two years before his expected 1985 graduation. He earned a GED instead.
He struggled with alcohol and drugs and also wrestled with anger issues as he “worked and bummed around,” he said. He spent some time in a California jail, and when he got out, he said, “I got right back into drugs and drinking.”

He and his girlfriend had a son together, and Kenny followed her here when she moved back home to Missouri. Meth became his “drug of choice,” he said, and he not only used it, he made it. He ended up with four DWI convictions in three years.
He also married and divorced – and now has three sons.
Then came the day – Aug. 25, 2011 – when his future changed course. After yet another drug-related incident, that was the day he began serving a four-month sentence in the Howell County Jail. There, he met someone “who read the Bible every day. I got saved in jail and came to Christ in there,” he said. “I owe it all to Jesus. He took away all the cravings.”
When Kenny was released from jail on Dec. 23, 2011, “I didn’t have a place to live. All my stuff that had been in storage was gone. My vehicle had gotten towed, and no one helped me try to get it back, so I lost it. But I believed the Lord would take care of me, and I started over,” he said.
“I walked the streets and went to a few churches. They would put me up in a motel for a bit. I stayed away from my old friends until I knew I was strong enough. I didn’t want to have any part of the drugs anymore. Then I heard about a Willow Springs motel where a guy would help people like me. I hitchhiked up there from West Plains. I stayed there several months, and I got back on my feet. I had an old friend, Vince Shanks, that I had painted houses with for years. He taught me everything about painting. I worked for him and I got me my own little place.”
Kenny took some classes at Missouri State University-West Plains, and then he met Heather through some mutual friends. She had grown up in Illinois and moved to Berryville, Arkansas, when her parents retired there a few years ago.
That’s where Heather picks up the story ...

Addicted to crack cocaine
“I was probably about 14 or 15 when I got into smoking weed,” Heather said. “And then by the time I was 16 or 17, I’d started dabbling with cocaine and stuff like that. By the time I graduated high school, I was drinking quite a bit and using drugs. The crowd I hung out with and the boyfriend I had, that’s just what we did. Ultimately, I got addicted to crack cocaine.”
She had a daughter and a son. The son lived with his father, but she and her daughter lived with one abusive boyfriend after another. At one point, she said, “I took my daughter to a homeless shelter and got straightened out, and I got us a little place to live. But then, within a month, the boyfriend comes knocking at the door. And I just chose to go back down that path.”
 Her addiction got worse, and “all the time I was wanting to figure out how to get high and doing whatever odd jobs and things I could do to get that fix,” she said.
She sent her daughter to live with her parents, and “another four years went by with me living a gutter lifestyle,” she said.
“Finally, I’d burnt all my bridges. No one wanted anything to do with me. I wasn’t trustworthy, wasn’t stable.”
She begged her parents to let her come live with them and her daughter, and her mother finally agreed. By then, Heather had been working in home-healthcare jobs and  had developed back problems. “It took me about four months to get better with my back and to get my life back,” she said. “In those four months I prayed continually and asked the Lord to help me live a better life. And he did. He came into my life like a tidal wave. He’s blessed me and been everything to me.”
She said the Lord sent her to a church in Berryville and “put the most amazing people in my life. They set me up with a little two-room apartment for me and my daughter to live in. Someone loaned me a car.”
She got her CNA certification to be a Certified Nurses Aid and started working in a nursing home. Eventually she found work in Mountain Home and was living in Bull Shoals, Arkansas. “I had a friend, and he and his mom went to Jeff Dotson’s church up here. I came up and met them at the church. I enjoyed the service and kept driving back up here to go to church.”
When the owners of the home she was renting in Bull Shoals put the place up for sale, she said, “I prayed and asked the Lord where to go. And the house that was available that I could afford in a decent-enough neighborhood where I could live with my daughter and our dog just happened to be in Gainesville.”

‘There is a different way’
By then she had met Kenny through their mutual friends. He started going to Mission Square Church with her. And on April 4, 2014, they were married there by Dotson.  Now Kenny works at Bass Cat Boats in Midway, Arkansas, and Heather, who’s taking a break from her CNA jobs, works four days a week at Miller’s Store near Tecumseh.
They both agree it was their faith that helped them overcome their addictions, and they join Dotson in welcoming others to the recovery meetings he hosts at the church every Monday. At those meetings, addicts are told, “There is a different way. God loves you. You don’t need that stuff,” Kenny said.
They appreciate the guidance Dotson provides. “But Jeff’s not the one who helps us stay sober,” Heather said. “The Lord helps us do that. The church, the recovery meetings, they’re open to anyone who wants to walk through the door. It’s a very welcoming environment for everyone. You may walk in a stranger, but you become family once you’re there. That’s just how everyone is: willing to open up and be honest about things we don’t even like to think about happening in our lives. Jeff has been where we’ve been. He doesn’t look down on us. He’s very open and honest.”
“Praise the Lord, he’s wonderful,” Kenny says, agreeing with Heather. It’s not immediately clear whether he means the Lord or Jeff Dotson. Most likely, given his story, Kenny means both.
Sunday services at Mission Square Church in Gainesville include Bible study from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. followed by church serve from 10 to 11 a.m. Wednesday Bible study is from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. And the drug recovery meetings are at 6 p.m. Mondays. For more information, call Dotson at 417-372-1002.