Shannon
Graduated September 2006
Last update - February 2009
NEW! See Shannon featured in a CBS 7 News report.
I often wondered why I had become a prodigal daughter. Life would have been much easier if I had chosen the right path. Today, I understand that what the enemy meant for evil God can always turn for His glory. My name is Shannon Organ and this is my story.
I had a good home with very loving parents and a best friend from birth - my twin sister Teressa. I grew up in church and had always known Jesus. I knew all of the Bible stories and had memorized the books of the Bible. And somehow, in the best of circumstances, I began to make really bad choices.
I didn't become a junkie overnight but little by little my life began to unravel. I began drinking and smoking marijuana and cigarettes by age 15. The party life continued all through high school.
After graduation, I moved off to Amarillo about an hour from home. I began waiting tables and getting into the drug scene. I started doing cocaine, LSD, Ecstasy and even tried heroin. By this time I was using the needle.
Cocaine really took hold on my life and I caught my first possession charge when I was 23. I ended up on probation for three years. I barely made it and I entered two treatment programs during my probation and I had to wear an ankle monitor to finish out my probation as well as having to submit to drug tests.
I tried to stay clean but it never lasted long. I was soon introduced to speed (methamphetamine) which offered me a longer high than cocaine. I also didn't come down as hard. Meth opened up a new chapter of horrors in my life.
Up until I was 28 I had nothing but the dope to live for but then I got pregnant. I June, 2008 I had a beautiful, healthy baby girl. Though I had stayed off Meth during my pregnancy it was not long before I resumed my old lifestyle. Two years later I got pregnant again but quitting wasn't so easy this time. I was strung out as I continued to use during my whole pregnancy with my son.
My mom would plead with me to quit but I would just lie about what I was doing. At the end of my pregnancy I wanted to die thinking that I had hurt this innocent child inside me. I was scared to death but, by God's grace and love, I gave birth to a healthy 8-lb., 3-oz. boy named Christian.
God had a plan.
When one is bound in addiction it is like drowning. I felt so hopeless about everything in my life as I spun out of control. There seemed to be no way out.
Then, the Lord's plan for my life began to unfold. Only when I had gotten to the end of myself could He step in.
It began when my grandmother wrote me a letter saying she was old and ready to go home to be with the Lord but the uncertainty of my salvation was weighing on her. She told me she had been praying for me and the Lord was going to send someone my way to witness to me. My grandmother lived thousands of miles away and had no way of knowing what was beginning to happen.
Within a few weeks the youth pastor and my daughter's Sunday school teacher showed up at my door to share the gospel with me. Also, three guys who had been my friends and had been involved in drugs had just gotten out of a faith-based rehab program for men. They had all gotten saved and began to tell me about Mission Messiah in Odessa, Texas.
But it was going to take more than that for my life to change.
My grandmother was in Oregon and was dying, so my mom, my sister, and my nephew had traveled to be with her. My sister thanked her for all her prayers and she responded in a soft, dying voice, "I'm not through praying yet."
I believe her last prayers were for my salvation.
That same weekend I was busted with methamphetamine in my home which was inside a school zone. My father came and got my children. That night, as I lay in jail, I new my life was about to change.
Three months later I was at Mission Messiah with both my children. I soon decided to let God take control of my life because, so far, on my own, I'd made a complete mess of everything.
I successfully completed the Mission Messiah program, and now I am a completely sold-out, die-hard Jesus freak. Before I met Christ my life was so polluted and contaminated by the world that I thought there was no hope for me. I was convinced I was going to be just another statistic.
Today, I am a statistic--a statistic of hope. The Lord has come in and completely changed me from the inside out. My life is so rich! I have become the mother that I always dreamed of. I have become the daughter that my mom always hoped for. I've become a woman of integrity and virtue, and I've become a true daughter of the Most High God.
God has restored what the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25).
UPDATE: February 2009
Shannon currently works as a senior Business Partner at Zip Supply. She helped organize and launch this job training venture of Mission Messiah and has been instrumental in its success.
Shannon also continues to serve as a youth leader at Mid Cities Community Church which is located between Odessa and Midland in west Texas.