We are Jim & Donna Cooley of Redwater, Texas.  In 2002 we were commissioned as missionaries by the North American Mission Board.  In addition, we are certified faith-based chemical dependency counselors and Jim is licensed to preach as commissioned by First Baptist Church of Redwater, Texas.  The Lord Jesus Christ called us to this ministry after miraculous life saving events of our own. 

Our testimony begins many years earlier.  In 1972, two young people who think they have all of the answers meet and marry.  In truth, they are the perfect example of a co-dependent couple.  Though a very hard worker, Jim drinks and abuses drugs. A well meaning and determined survivor, Donna thinks she will help Jim fix anything in his life that needs fixing

Children soon arrive and so do prison sentences for Jim.  Donna hangs in there believing that, in spite of a present that includes family photos in prison, one day this will be a bad memory.  Someday life will have meaning and purpose.

After Donna’s many attempts to “fix” their lives, she realizes divorce is inevitable.  In 1982, Donna leaves home with two little boys and moves to Texas to divorce and start a new life.  Jim continues his destructive lifestyle and goes to prison for a third time.

In spite of all their efforts, they find themselves back in the co-dependent web.  Again they are reunited in North Carolina, again Jim is “rehabilitated” from drug and alcohol abuse, there is a family relocation (to Texas) and the couple is remarried. .  Donna remembers this era as “the train wreck of 1987.”  Yet God is not done with them and Donna has a breakthrough. Her return to Christ in 1988 signals a change for Donna. She makes a commitment to live for Him no matter what. However the same is not true for Jim.  In October of 1993, Jim “walks the aisle” during a revival at First Baptist Church Redwater.  As much he wants to change, by January he is using again.  Sadly in 1994, the marriage again ends in divorce.

This time, with a determination and passion to live for the Lord, Donna is moving on.  She at last realizes that, not only can she not fix Jim, but she has a big enough job dealing with her own mess.  Donna feared that, this time, Jim surely would self-destruct.  So she began to prepare for the news of his death and rehearse how she would react.  Donna lets go of Jim and allows God to deal solely with him. 

Jim came to the end of himself one morning in 1995.  After an extended period of cocaine use he awakes to the realization that he is in a real mess.  He does not know how long he has been in the parked car sitting in his sister’s front yard, nor does he know how he managed to get there.  His arms hurt so bad from shooting up that he can hardly raise them. His clothes are covered in vomit.  And to top it all off, he can’t escape the most compelling feeling that he is about four hours from Hell.  Taking in the spectacle of the person he had become, Jim came to his senses and said, “This is not me.”

Disgusted, distraught, and convinced that he’s run out of chances, right there in the car he cried out to the Lord in desperation and said, “God, if you are really real I need some help because I am about to die.”

In that moment God heard Jim and told him to, “Get up, clean up, get something to eat and go to rehab.”  Jim was reluctant to do this since rehab had never helped before, but he felt somehow this time would be different.  With this new hope he did just what he felt God had told him to do.  For reasons he still can’t explain, on his way out the door that day he reached for his mother’s bible to carry with him.  His mother struggled all her adult life with alcohol addiction.  She died in 1977 of chromic liver disease.  She never lived to see her son get the victory over his addiction.  Jim was a 4th generation addict and a 4^th generation convict about to get a new start.

While Jim was in the state-run 28-day rehab, a man he did not know handed him a pamphlet from a men’s faith-based rehab.  Something told him that he was to transition there after the 28-day program.  He pleaded with his counselor to help him.  Persuaded that Jim was serious, she contacted Bethel Colony of Mercy in Lenoir, North Carolina almost weekly until the day of his release.  Each time she received the same response: “There is a waiting list and no beds are available.”

Jim was so sure that Bethel Colony was the next place to go!  He just could not believe that there was no room for him.  Graduation day came and went.  As he packed his duffle bag to leave, Jim chucked his mother’s Bible in last.  Pulling the drawstring tight, a frustrated man told God, “I have done my part.  I have done what You asked me to do.  Now I don’t know what to believe.”  Struggling in vain to hang on to hope, the thoughts of the last month played over and over in his mind. “Were the last 30 days and my encounter with the Lord was just a figment of my imagination?”

Soon his sister arrived to pick him up. As they walked across the parking lot, he could feel his mouth begin to water as he visualized being high before dark.  Interrupting his thoughts, his sister asked, “What was the name of that place you wanted to go to in Lenoir, North Carolina?”  Jim replied, “Bethel Colony of Mercy.” 

“Well, they called just as I was walking out the door and said to bring you straight there.  They opened up an emergency bed for you.”

Jim fell to his knees right where he stood.  He knew at that moment that God was who He said He was and the recent events were not figments of his imagination.  Everything was going to be alright!

When Jim arrived at Bethel Colony of Mercy several hours later, the first thing he did was kneel before the chapel’s altar and thank God for seeing him through to that point.  God had made a way where there seemed to be no way.

Fast forward to the year 1996.  Picture another wedding, a new marriage.  This time Donna and Jim are both looking to Christ as their Lord.  They decide to make Redwater their home.  But there are still the hangers-on of the old life to deal with.  As old friends learn that Jim is back in town, they begin to telephone or show up at the house unannounced. 

The Jim they encounter is a different Jim.  Every time he receives a visit or phone call, he does not respond as he did in the past.  There would be no joining in.  Eventually and one by one, they stop coming by.  Occasionally they still get a late night phone call from an “old buddy” on the other end of the line who, when reminded that Jim is now clean and sober asks, “How are you doing it, man?  How are you staying sober?”  Each time the answer is the same:  “It is Jesus, man, Jesus.” 

In 1998, it began to burn in Jim’s heart to help those who are like he once was. The seed of a calling was planted in Jim, and with much effort, little encouragement and against all odds, in 2002, the ministry of The Damascus Home of Redwater, Inc. was formed.  Ten years, two rehabs and two transitional houses later, our passion and burning desire to help those lost and crushed by chemical dependency is just as strong as when it began.  Many lives have crossed our paths.  We earnestly hope we have been faithful to share the saving grace of Jesus Christ and quick to let all know that He is the One responsible for the hope that burns within us.  Our sons are grown and married, know the Savior, each has families of his own.  They are the first Cooley boys in four generations to live clean and sober lives, the first without a prison record.  And our lives do have meaning and purpose.

We do not have prestige, money or popularity. We are not very educated people and probably an unlikely couple to take on the tasks described above.  Yes, very unlikely.

In conclusion, we believe our lives demonstrate two important biblical truths.  First, God is sure to get the glory when it is obvious that Donna and Jim Cooley could not possibly be able to do what has been done.  Second, when Jesus Christ saves someone who knows what it is like to grope in darkness and hopelessness, when those saved taste the supernatural redeeming power of deliverance, they just have to tell somebody. 

To God be the Glory!

 Jim and Donna Cooley

Jim & Donna Cooley