Welcome to Freedom House!
Freedom House Mission Bible Training Center, a branch of Mission Teens, Inc. is a non-profit, non-denominational organization with a Christ-centered, discipleship program for people who are 18 years or older, who suffer from drug, alcohol or emotional problems.
Freedom House MBTC does not receive any government or denominational funding. We are totally dependent on God to move upon the hearts of people to supply our needs. If you feel led to donate to this ministry, please hit the button below.
If you or someone you know is wanting to change their life and get into the center call 573-371-2020 and ask to speak to the overseer.
CODY AIRHART
Sat, Mar 14th, 2026
2026 Graduation Banquet
My name is Tim Lacey. I am 63 years old, from a small town in Southeast Missouri. In my late fifties, decades of drinking had taken its toll on me. I found myself
morally and spiritually bankrupt. I was alone and hopeless. I had been in several rehabs over the years, that taught me that I was an alcoholic, and I would always
be an alcoholic. I came to a critical point in my life, after my mom’s passing and I knew something had to change. A close friend told me about Freedom...
TIM LACY- May 2024
My name is Kenna Cashion. I am 32 years old. I was raised by a stay-at-home mom and a truck driver dad. I was always called a “miracle” baby. I was the first child of their marriage and came later in their lives. We always thought our family looked a little like the Brady bunch. My mom had 4 children from a previous marriage and so did my dad. Being a “miracle” baby, they had given me to the Lord in their hearts before I was even born. The enemy has always been out to get me...
JULY 2021- Kenna Cashion
My name is Melissa Jones. I am 46 years old. My life has never been what some call “normal”. My dad was in prison until I was around 12 years old. Then when he came home, he was a drug dealer which was my introduction to cocaine, meth, marijuana and even the needle. By the time I was 15, I was injecting cocaine and meth daily and had dropped out of school. My dad ended up back in prison which left me with my mom who basically could not control me. I ran...
JANUARY 2017- Melissa Jones
JULY 2020- Chasity Zimmerman
My name is Cody Ishmael. I am 24 years old and from the Jonesboro, Arkansas area. I have 4 younger sisters and a 4-year-old son. Growing up, I lived with my memaw because both of my parents suffered from addiction. She always took me to church and made sure I read my Bible. I was very sheltered and hated the very thought of drugs and alcohol. When I was a teenager, my dad came home from Federal prison and moved schools. My addiction started off mainly because I was just trying to...
OCTOBER 2019- Cody Ishmael
My name is Mike Shepherd. I’m 64 years old and from St. Louis, MO. As a kid I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be a professional
soccer player, and I played a lot. When I got to high school I got hurt and my dream ended. I had difficultly handling this and resented the other guys who got to
play. I felt “less than” because I wasn’t playing, but my grades remained good. I started drinking when I was a junior. This took away any shyness or social ...
MIKE SHEPHERD- September 2024
My name is Kenna Chenoa Cashion. I am…a child of God. I could tell you about how I was married with kids or how I was teased as a kid, how my family was poor and broken or even how I was abused but all of these things are so small but necessary parts of my life. See I am now a 34-year-old divorced mother of 3 whom after being married and without a husband and home of my own, struggling to become a single parent lost my way, myself, my children and my life. No, I didn’t die physically but...
DECEMBER 2023- Kenna Cashion
My name is Courtney Shipley. I am 28 years old. I was born in Southern California to loving parents and grew up in church. Since I grew up in a good home and never struggled with drugs, I really didn’t think I had a testimony for a long time. Yes, my life felt lonely and empty, but I had no idea why. I was married to my high school sweetheart, we owned a home, we both drove brand new cars, and we both had respectable jobs that paid well. On the outside, my life lacked nothing. Yet, week...
NOVEMBER 2020- Courtney Shipley
Hi, my name is Chrisy Ginn. I am 50 years old and from St. Louis, Missouri. I was very depressed at a young age. I remember crying every day at school and feeling very despondent. This feeling has lasted most of my life – BUT GOD! I began to self-medicate in high school and this continued until the time I came to Freedom House. When I was 42 years old, I added methamphetamines to the “medication” and my life spiraled out of control. I found myself homeless and broke and felt...
AUGUST 2022- Chrisy Ginn
Hi there! My name is Susan Flanagan. I am a 42 year old mother of 3 boys and I was born in Blytheville, Arkansas. My father left when I was 2 years old, so my mother raised me and my brother and sister by herself. We were very poor. I remember that my mom moved us around a lot because she was an alcoholic and we went through several “stepdads.” Because my mom wasn’t very responsible, I felt the need to become more responsible. I was just a little girl and I was...
DECEMBER 2022- Susan Flanagan
My name is Brian Nix. I am 45 years old and was raised in Birmingham,...
JUNE 2021- Brian Nix
My name is Kimberly Tomlinson. I was born and raised in Pocahontas, Tennessee. The Lord blessed me with a great family that taught me about Jesus at a young age. I received salvation when I was young and even though I took the wrong path for a while, I know that Jesus was with me keeping me safe the entire time. In high school, I started hanging out with what I thought were the “cool kids”. I can remember just riding around and getting drunk and high with them. ...
JUNE 2022- Kimberly Tomlinson
My name is Whitney Burnette. I am 29 years old from Wynne,...
JANUARY 2022- Whitney Burnette
My name is Robert Jones. I am 36 years old from Jackson, MS. My life has been hard from the very start. I was born with a hole in my heart and 2 ruptured hernias in my abdomen; I am told that during this time, I contracted scarlet fever. I was a very sick baby. I survived this only to be abandoned by my father at age 2, and I was physically and sexually assaulted by someone close to me until age 8. My mother re-married during this time to a man who would adopt me, but again I...
JUNE 2016- Robert Jones
Hello I am Kimberly Townsend (Kimmy). I am 54 years old and was born in St. Louis, Missouri. I am a proud mom of 2 very special men, Mathew Alan Trudell age 36 years old and his oldest brother(who is now with the Lord) Mack Andrew Trudell Jr.(1985-2004). Alcoholism and addiction have been a big part of my life since birth. My parents were both alcoholics and although I was never physically abused by either of them, my childhood consisted of watching them constantly verbally and physically...
APRIL 2023- Kimmie Towsend
My name is Tanner McCormick. I’m 22 years old from Kennett, Missouri. I am the oldest of 3 siblings. My mother was addicted to pain pills, but she tried the best she could. She blacked out a lot, so I basically raised my younger brother and sister until I was 11 years old. My mother got a boyfriend and I became very bitter. When I was 13, I went to live with my father who I had only met once before in my life. This turned out to be a bad decision. I started drinking and...
FEBUARY 2019- Tanner Mc.Cormick
My name is Jerrod Hollis. I’m 37 years old from Jonesboro, Arkansas. I grew up with a fear of failure. I always felt the need to be “perfect” and have carried that my whole life. I thank God that now I understand that we all fall short, and Jesus loves us anyway. When I was 14 years old, I started using pain pills to help these feelings of failure. The pills made me not feel any emotion and I just became numb to the whole world. They helped me not feel or care about...
MAY 2022- Jerrod Hollis
My name is Jody Thompson, and I am a 42-year-old mom to 3 amazing kids. I was raised in church and got saved and baptized when I was young. There was
a lot of love in my family, but there was pain as well. My dad was an alcoholic which caused turmoil in our home. As I got older, there were more and more
“excuses” not to go to church. I started experiencing anxiety, depression and tension headaches and was prescribed psych and pain meds as a cure. This was
the beginning...
JODY THOMPSON- April 2024
Hi, my name is Justin Finley and I am 33 years old. I was raised by my grandparents, which is a decision my mother made due to her addiction. I was raised in church and taught right from wrong. Whenever I visited my mother, I would get molested by her boyfriend. This led to anger and depression. I was bullied to the point where I had to change schools. I started to hang out with the wrong crowd, they accepted me with open arms. They introduced me to witchcraft at the age of 13 and by the age...
JUSTIN FINLEY- August 2024
My name is Treyton Hartle. I am 22 years old from Bloomfield, MO and this is how Jesus turned my life around. On April 1st, 1998 I was born into a great family with loving parents who knew the Lord. Following that was a life in church that was never appreciated like it should have been. At 12 years old I gave my life to the Christ at church camp…then came high school. The work was easy. I wasn’t good enough to play college sports, and I found out I loved having...
APRIL 2021- Treyton Hartle
Garrison Bowen, I am 27 years old and from Hinesville, GA. I realized I needed to change my way of living when I just lost my job and had no money because of all the drugs and alcohol. It was consuming my life. Over the past 5 years, I have been in and out of Christian programs and lost many jobs due to my anger or other actions. After the last program, I thought I had it all figured out. However, I was still drinking, smoking weed and trying to help my brother who was also in a mess. Living...
GARRISON BOWEN-February 2026
My name is Tori Carter, and I am 32 years old. I was raised between Poplar Bluff, MO and Jonesboro, AR. I grew up in a Christian home, so the love of God was not new to me. I had a good relationship with Jesus, until several years ago when my faith was tested. I lost my brother to suicide. I thought this was the hardest thing that I would ever experience, until I lost my 3-month-old baby boy to SIDS, only two weeks after I buried my brother. I was already using alcohol to
numb the pain and...
TORI CARTER- November 2025
My name is Mike Shepherd, I am 60 years old from St. Louis, MO. In grade school I absolutely knew what I wanted to do with my life and that was to play soccer. I loved it and was good at it. When I got into high school, I got hurt playing football and my soccer dream was gone. This threw me for a loop, and I had trouble dealing with it emotionally. I was resentful toward the other players, not a member of the party crowd, shy with the girls and I felt like I did not fit in anywhere....
JUNE 2020- Michael Shepherd
My name is Hasson Abuharba. I’m 29 years old. I was born in East St. Louis, Illinois. I have 8 brothers of which I am the middle child. We grew up in a household where in the earliest memories, mom would leave for weeks at a time to get high. The hard times were when we would try to chase her down from crack house to crack house. Being that little all we wanted was mom, but then things got good for a while, and mom stayed clean for some years. But then she got a divorce, and everything got...
JUNE 2023- Hasson Abuharba
My name is James McNulty. I was born and raised in Longmont, Colorado until I was 17 years old and then I moved to Florida. I started using drugs when I was 13, but I managed to get really good grades and I graduated high school when I was 17. I went to college, but I didn’t finish and get a degree. I was “managing” my drug use until I was 22 and then I really went off the deep end or jumped over the cliff, whichever way you want to say it, I was a mess. ...
JANUARY 2016- James McNulty
My name is Melissa Gaydos and I’m 29 years old. My whole life I never felt like I fit in and that I needed to be different somehow. No matter who I was around I felt all alone. From as long as I can remember I struggled with depression. Like what’s the point to life or does it even matter If I’m alive. I was bullied a lot too and walked in a lot of fear. Why doesn’t anyone like me or why can’t I just be normal are questions that haunted me. Pain pills took all those...
JANUARY 2020- Melissa Gaydos
Hi, I’m Shane Schiller. I was born in 1975, and I am from Missouri. When I was born, my dad left. This was the source
of a lot of pain in my life. I turned to drugs and alcohol at an early age to numb the pain I felt. 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Be
sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
I wasn’t sober or vigilant for many years. I have been on psych meds for as long as I can remember. I developed a
SHANE SCHILLER- February 2025
My name is Dezirae Starcher. I’m 27 years old, I’m from Akron, OH. I...
MARCH 2018- Dezirae Starcher
Hi, my name is Michael Skiles, and I am 34 years old. I was born in St. Louis Missouri. I was raised in a good, hard-working family. We went to church every Sunday. When I was 14, at church camp, I started to feel the conviction of sin and got saved. A few weeks later, I believed I wasn’t saved and started going out with friends and experimenting with alcohol. It wasn’t long before partying on the weekends turned into an everyday thing. I went...
OCTOBER 2023- Mike Skiles
My name is Steven Lee Martin. I was born in 1981 in St. Louis, MO. I spent my childhood around severe alcoholics. My parents would argue a lot. When they were at work, my brother and I spent time with my grandparents. They would drink and argue a lot. I can remember all the way back to 5 years old. My grandpa was a security guard. He would come home from work every day with a case of beer and a bottle of alcohol and get drunk and then get mean. I guess I just assumed that was...
OCTOBER 2021- Steve Martin
My name is Nichole Haywood. I was born in Kennett, Missouri and at the age of 3, my mother moved me and my older brother to Ohio. This move took me away from my father, but I was blessed with a loving stepdad that took me in like his own. He was the father I needed in my life. My brother was older than me and was always getting into trouble. I always felt like my mother loved him more than she did me. He began raping me when we moved to Ohio. This went on until I was 8 years old...
APRIL 2022- Nichole Haywood