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
Hey my name is James Curry, and I want to tell you what God has done in my life. I’m from St. Louis, MO, and I’m 57 years old. I started using drugs at the age of twenty-four. I was stuck in addiction and kept asking God for a way out, that never seemed to come. I was addicted for 33 years, but I kept praying because I came from a praying family. On May 22, 2025, I had divine intervention in my life, two tornadoes came through St. Louis, I was homeless, and they touched down right where I...
JAMES CURRY- December 2025
My name is Whitney Burnette. I am 29 years old from Wynne,...
JANUARY 2022- Whitney Burnette
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 Clair Florence. I am 58 years old. I was born and raised on a farm in central Illinois. I was raised in the church and received Jesus at the age of 9, but as time went on, I didn’t act as if I was saved. I have always had issues with self-esteem, shame, and guilt. I began drinking in high school and by the time I was in college, I was experimenting with all kinds of drugs. I got married in 1979 and a few years later we had two wonderful children, a boy, and a girl. ...
OCTOBER 2016- Clair Florence
My name is Brandon Lee Norman. I was born in Missouri in 1994. My mother was an alcoholic and had several abusive boyfriends when I was growing up. She loved me the best she could. I ended up getting put into foster care. My mom passed away when I was 12 years old. I didn’t know how to cope so I began stealing, smoking and drinking. I went to juvenile detention and when I got out, I had the opportunity to go to college for construction engineering technology. I ended up dropping out...
MARCH 2023- Brandon Normann
My name is Jessie Crank. I am 35 years old from Blytheville, Arkansas. I am the mother of 3 beautiful girls ages 16, 15 and 12. I grew up in a good home with 2 older sisters. My parents were married and they both worked to provide a nice home for me and my sisters. I grew up going to a Baptist church every Wednesday and twice on Sunday. I got saved by asking Jesus into my heart at the age of 8 but I never had a relationship with Him. When I was 12 years old, my parents got...
JULY 2019- Jessie Crank
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
Hello, my name is Dezirae Russell. I call Missouri home, but I’m originally from Akron, OH. I came to Freedom House when I was 27 years old, I am now 34. I
spent my life looking for something or someone to fill the void I felt inside. I listened to the lies from the enemy that I was depressed, rejected, had PTSD, and
needed psych meds to fix all my problems, this only made things worse. By the time I was 20 I was introduced to opiates, which temporarily eased my pain.
However, in...
DEZIRAE RUSSELL- May 2025
My name is Dezirae Starcher. I’m 27 years old, I’m from Akron, OH. I...
MARCH 2018- Dezirae Starcher
My name is Angela Holland. I am 61 years old from Kennett, Missouri. My dad was an alcoholic and abusive to me. He would fill my bottles with alcohol before I even learned to crawl. This had a huge effect on my life. I was saved and baptized at an early age but did not really have a relationship with Jesus. By seventh grade I was drinking and smoking pot. The drug use just got worse and led to severe depression. As a result of my drug use, I eventually went to prison. While in prison, I...
ANGIE HOLLAND- March 2024
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 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 Jamie Black. I’m 38 years old. I grew up in a small town, Russellville, Alabama. I had a good life with a very loving mother that was always there for me and worked really hard to provide for me. When I was 4 years old, my father took his own life as a result of drug use, so I never really had a dad in my life. My mother has 3 brothers and they were the ones who really raised me to be a man. Like I said I had a good life, always played sports in school but never...
OCTOBER 2020- Jamie Black
My name is Hunter Willis. I grew up in Harrison, Arkansas but now I live close to Springfield, Missouri. I’m 27 years old and have fought drug and alcohol abuse since I was 16. Growing up was perfect. My family and I trained horses and rodeoed. We went to church every Sunday and I was active in the youth groups. My family was very close. My dad worked and my mom stayed at home with me and my brothers. She say’s she would ask my brother where I was, and he’d usually say...
SEPTEMBER 2019- Hunter Willis
My name is Cameron Collins. I’m 28 years old and I was born and raised in Mount Ida, AR. I have a brother that’s 2 years older than me and parents that got divorced when I was 4. I really don’t have many memories of them together. Both of my parents got remarried and my brother and I stayed with our aunt and uncle as well as my grandmother. I was raised in church until I was about 14. At the age of 14 I...
JANUARY 2019- Cameron Collins
My name is Brian Nix. I am 45 years old and was raised in Birmingham,...
JUNE 2021- Brian Nix
My name is Brittany Marie Brewer. I am 34 years old from St. Louis, Missouri. My mother worked really hard to raise me and my sister. I was in beauty pageants and dance classes. All of that changed in my early teenage years when my father introduced me to methamphetamines. This landed me in and out of several rehabs over the years. In 2008, I found myself in an extremely abusive relationship. One day in 2014, we were both high, arguing and driving down the road at 90 mph. I...
FEBRUARY 2023- Brittany Brewer
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 Gina Fugate, I am 48 years old from St. Louis, MO. I realized that I needed to make a change sitting under a bridge, after a tornado left parts of St. Louis destroyed. A couple of years prior I was laid off from work and faced with a breakup, repossession, and foreclosure which left me homeless and once again addicted. I was at a point in my life where I needed help and quick. I have 4 children, and I was always involved in their lives; it is strange how things can change overnight...
GINA FUGATE - January 2026
My name is Greg Prater. I am 62 years old, from Jonesboro, AR. I can’t tell you the age when I took my first drink, I just did it because that’s what I saw my
father do. Since I was 16 years old, I have been an alcoholic, and it has caused one problem after another. By the time I called one of the other mission
teens centers in 2009, I was completely broken and miserable. I lost my job, my marriage of 13 years, and was about to lose my house. I didn’t see a future
ahead of me....
GREG PRATER- July 2025
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 Katie Pitts. I am 32 years old from Kennett, MO. I had a good childhood never wanting for anything. My mother took me to church every time the doors were open. I was saved at a young age and had relations with Jesus but not a relationship. Growing up, I suffered from depression, anxiety, and rejection issues, In my later teenage years, I discovered alcohol and liked the way it made me feel, In reality, I ended up in bondage and it made the things I was experiencing worse, I used...
FEBRUARY 2022- Katie Pitts
My name is Paige Weiss. I am 24 years old from Farmington, MO. Growing up, I had rejection and abandonment issues, this led to depression
and anxiety. After I graduated high school, I started experimenting with drugs, but they soon overtook my life. I got into a serious car accident
and miraculously walked away with only a scratch. After the accident, I realized how deadly the situation could have been. This scared me into
sobriety for 6 months, but it’s not really about...
PAIGE WEISS- November 2024
Hello, my name is Omar Mitchell, and I am from St. Charles, Missouri. I grew up and in a very loving but strict household. My parents were great to us but volatile to each other. I grew up seeing them argue a lot and it really affected me. I was full of joy on the outside, but anger on the inside. I started stealing things because I wanted attention. It started with candy and escalated to joy rides in stolen cars. By the time I was 20 years old, I had 6 felonies. I spent...
NOVEMBER 2021-Omar Mitchell
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
My name is Ryan Burhans. I am 40 years old. I was born in Wisconsin. When I was around fifteen my parents got divorced and I was left alone
a lot and I felt rejected. That’s when my drinking started. I moved out when I was sixteen and had my first child. The drinking got worse because
it numbed the pain of rejection that I felt. I have had many jobs and two marriages that ended due to my drinking. All these years of drinking, I
only had one accident. I know it was because...
RYAN BURHANS- February 2024
My name is Kerry Maurer. I am 41 years old and was raised in South St. Louis, MO. My mother was only 16 when she had me and my father abused her. They partied and they fought all the time. They separated when I was 5 years old. When they separated, my mom drugs me from boyfriend to boyfriend and husband to husband. When it didn’t work out, we would go back to live with relatives. I changed schools more times than I could count and lacked the stability that I needed growing up....
JULY 2022- Kerry Maurer
My name is Zach Seymour. I am 28 years old from Bay, Arkansas. I had a great childhood with a loving mother and was really into playing sports. When I was 12 years old, I started playing basketball instead of baseball and made new friends. I wanted to fit in with the cool crowd, so I started smoking pot and going to parties and drinking on the weekends. I got into a 4-wheeler accident and broke my arm. This started my addiction to pills and pain medications. I ended up taking...
MAY 2019- Zach Seymour
My name is Morgan Schmidt. I’m 25 years old and I was born in Tupelo, MS. I have a beautiful, 4 year old little girl named Khloe Beth. I grew up in a split home due to divorce. I lived with my mom, but she had a problem and seemed to choose her addiction over being a other most of the time. My dad wanted the best for me and felt like he could be a better parent so they ended up fighting over me. I can remember how DHS would come to check on me...
JUNE 2017- Morgan Schmidt
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 Freer. I am 29 years old from Piggott, Arkansas. Growing up, I had a good childhood with 2 siblings, and we were raised by a single mother. My mom tried to make sure that we always had everything we needed. I was raised up going to church, but I just never developed that personal relationship with Jesus that I needed. I started smoking pot in the 6th grade and continued until I was 17 years old. I
used to dream about going to college and making something of my life...
SEPTEMBER 2020- Courtney Freer
Hello everyone, I am so honored to be sharing my testimony. My name is Carrie Mitchell, and I am 48 years old. I arrived at Freedom House two years ago on December 23 and boy has it been a journey. I didn’t wake up one day and say I was tired of living the life I was living. I woke up one day completely exhausted from years of drug addiction and alcoholism. Then I met Jesus! The road after I met Jesus has been one of tears, laughter, frustrations, joy, peace, anger, jealousy and lots and...
CARRIE MITCHELL- January 2024
My name is Steven Kuykendall, and I am the oldest of 2 children. I was born 6 weeks prematurely and had pneumonia. My parents got divorced when I was
seven, they both quickly remarried. My mother’s husband was abusive to me from the first time I met him, this led to me hating him. I spent weekends back
and forth between my grandparents and my mother’s. As a young child, I wanted to be an MLB player, when I was a freshman in high school, I tried out, and
was on the team...
STEVEN KUYKENDALL- December 2024
My name is Jessi Kamper. I’m 29 years old and I am a current resident of Kennett, MO. I grew up in a very loving household. I have an older sister and 2 older brothers. My parents always showed us lots of love growing up and they are still married. I grew up in church and my parents would have us there every time the doors were open. When I was thirteen years old, I prayed the prayer, walked the aisle at church, and gave my heart to Jesus. But really, nothing about my life...
SEMPTEMBER 2021- Jessi Kamper
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 Trey Hollins. I’m 24 years old rom Poplar Bluff, Missouri. I had a good childhood. I was raised by a single parent, my mom. My dad came around from time to time, but he had 8 other kids and I always felt like he just didn’t have time for me, his oldest son. I started working when I was 16 years old. I complained about it until one day my mom told me that there was a time that she had to pick up trash just to provide for me and my sister. Hearing that changed my...
FEBUARY 2020- Trey Hollins
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
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 Laura Burroughs. I am 40 years old. I was born and raised in Jonesboro, AR. I enjoyed a happy childhood. Although I never met my biological father, my stepdad adopted me when I was two years old. When I was fifteen, he committed suicide which sent me down a dark path. I started seeking approval and affirmation through men. I never felt like I had any worth and I always tried to fit into the crowd. I knew the way I was living was wrong, so shame and guilt set in. I tried to numb my...