A SOBER, SAFE HOME TO START OVER

Marilyn Vyzourek and her Gospel Homes for Women — a group of Christian sober living residences — are giving women in Colorado Springs a second chance at life.

COLORADO SPRINGS» Nineteen-year-old Mckaylynn Sporcich awoke last Easter from a medically induced coma, recovering after she took tainted drugs while trying to purchase heroin on the streets.

A year later, she said she feels she’s had a second chance at life: She just got a job at Chick-fil-a and is making plans to go to college. Instead of “bouncing from couch-to-couch,” she’s found a safe place to live at Gospel Homes for Women, a local group of Christian sober living residences.

The organization’s founder, Marilyn Vyzourek, said Sporcich’s transformation and others like it are what motivates her.

“I can think of so many girls that have put their lives back together,” said Vyzourek, who earned the American Red Cross of Southeastern Colorado’s Hometown Hero award in community service. “It’s probably the greatest thing you can see on Earth — on this side of heaven.”

Vyzourek, an ordained minister, has spent much of the past two decades helping women who were homeless or recently released from jail get back on their feet, address drug and alcohol addiction, reunite with their families and form a relationship with God. She estimates she’s served 1,500 women through various programs during that time.

“I didn’t even know her. She let me come into the home and start my life over again,” Sporcich said. “She’s an amazing lady and she’s helped me through a lot. I’m very grateful for her.”

In 2002, seven years after Vyzourek and her husband founded Springs Rescue Mission, she started her first sober living home, Liza’s Place, which was named after a troubled woman she’d been ministering who was murdered. She later opened Hope Home, a special residence for people struggling with mental health problems and substance abuse disorders.

Her organization, formally known as Gospel Shelters for Women, made headlines in 2011 when conservative talk show host Glenn Beck donated $55,000 to make up for a federal grant she lost when she refused to stop requiring Bible studies.

The nonprofit’s Board of Directors took over both homes in 2012 when Vyzourek’s husband was diagnosed with cancer, and the homes closed the following year due to lack of funding, Vyzourek said.

After her husband died, she felt compelled to launch another similar organization in late 2014 because there were no other Christian sober living homes in the area. She opened one house on the city’s east side, and another in southeast Colorado Springs. Between both locations, she now houses 16 women at a time.

Participants, who pay a $450 monthly program fee, are required to hold a job or be looking for one, participate in Bible studies twice a week and daily devotions and be in by curfew. The organization also offers oneon-one mentoring and transportation to and from Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings.