The pastor had a prophecy for the Bontragers' boy. When he was a baby, his parents took him to the pastor to be prayed over.
Evan said his faith has played a role in his recovery. Beaty/Denverite Evan Bontrager stands in the cafeteria at the Denver Rescue Mission's The Crossing facility in the city's Northeast Park hill neighborhod. “It’s just a very, very tough thing for them and their families.” Kevin J. “It's just a day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute struggle for these guys,” Ellie said. They say they pray he will stay the course. But they’ve maintained cautious optimism. The Bontragers were thrilled when their son decided to join the New Life Program. “I would drive five hours to find something that he, you know, left behind and collect it and store at our house, again, waiting for him to… get back out of prison and start over again.” “We would try to minimize the damage though,” Warren said. His parents, Ellie and Warren Bontrager, quickly realized that bailing him out or giving him money and a place to stay enabled his drug and alcohol use. He tried every drug he could get his hands on and struggled to keep a job. He spent weeks and sometimes months without a place to stay. He dropped out of college the following year and would couch surf, or find somewhere cheap to rent. “Eventually it was like, ‘oh, this is, because you're trying to get outside the feelings that you're feeling,’” he said. He slowly realized he felt like he needed drugs and alcohol to get through the days. That escalated to him using multiple drugs, including heroin. In 2008 when he went to college, he started drinking. He grew up in Limon, which he said was boring as a teenager, and was in trouble for shoplifting and vandalism in high school. He’d been drinking and using drugs since college at that point. “I wouldn't be sleeping in a frat house if I wasn't, you know, on drugs or in a dire situation.” “Oh, it was so embarrassing,” he recalled. He was sleeping in an abandoned frat house. “But really it's about relationships and letting people in and connection.”īontrager joined the program after being arrested for breaking and entering in Fort Collins last June. Like it's all about your willpower,” said Jonathan Soweidy, director of residential programs at the Mission. “I think people think you can beat addiction on your own. The results speak for themselves: 86 percent of graduates are sober and housed one year after completing the program. Despite those troubles, men are graduating from the program in recovery and housed. The COVID pandemic forced the program to downsize, and in February of 2021 the buildings where the program is housed flooded from burst pipes, which resulted in fewer participants when the men had to move to a nearby hotel. In 2020, the number was nearly twice that at 62 graduates.
He credits his ongoing recovery to the New Life Program at the Denver Rescue Mission, a project that since 1994 has been helping men struggling with substance abuse issues and homelessness get back on their feet. “I was just like, I'm here right now and things are good,” he said. This year, 32-year-old Bontrager had big milestones to celebrate: seven months of being sober and reconnecting with his family.Īfter years of missing family gatherings because of his drug and alcohol addiction from his family, he was finally back among his loved ones.
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He looked around the table feeling full of gratitude, he said.įor many, the start and end of a year means setting goals and celebrating accomplishments. Christmas carols played in the background as his family sampled the chocolate and told jokes. He sipped sparkling water, which he loves. He bought a box from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and wanted to make sure everyone tried them. On Christmas Day, Evan Bontrager sat at his sister’s dinner table cutting chocolates for his family to share.
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