Corey was a 15-year-old who was hanging out with the wrong crowd. His parents didn’t know what to do, so they enrolled him at the House of Hope, a boarding school ministry in Traverse City, Michigan, that reconciles troubled teens with their families.
“His life was a shipwreck,” says House of Hope President Harry Round. “His relationship with his parents was broken.”
But when Corey got his hands on a 1978 CJ 7 Jeep in the House of Hope’s automotive restoration program, his life began to turn around. “The act of working with his hands and seeing something restored that was beaten up, abused and neglected became a corollary with his life,” Round explains.
Not only did Corey repair his life through fixing up the Jeep, but he discovered a passion for auto restoration. “He was a natural mechanic,” Round says. “He took very quickly to it.” After Corey graduated from the House of Hope, he purchased a 1967 Blazer and completely restored it himself.
Now Corey’s working in an automotive shop in Kansas City, Missouri. His salary from the shop pays his tuition for ministry school. And he’s engaged to be married.
Corey is one of more than 100 students who have found meaning through the automotive restoration program at the House of Hope. “This program has touched 115 students—and the...