The Chance to Start Over
by Merrily Brast
The Chance to Start Over
By Merrily Brast
Union Gospel Mission
At the beginning of 2013, Shannon Duval was sitting in a jail
cell. She had lost her children, her job, her home and her car. The
truth, however, is that she was in prison long before she was
arrested.
“I had used drugs in the past, and then I had three years clean
and sober.” When she relapsed, her addiction escalated fast and hard.
“It only took eight months before I had no control. I was a prisoner
to it completely.”
Sitting in that cell with nothing, it dawned on Shannon that she
was exactly where she needed to be.
“I knew that it was all for a reason, and that reason was to start
over – start a new life,” she said.
A counselor from the UGM Center for Women & Children in Coeur
d’Alene visited the jail while Shannon was there and described UGM’s
approach to recovery.
“It wasn’t the shortest program… It was supposedly the hardest…
but something just kept telling me that’s where I had to go, that’s
what I had to do.”
Her time in prison became the turning point in her life—the
catalyst for transformation. Her desires were changing, and her life
looked different.
Shannon offers one explanation for the radical changes that have
taken place in her life. “My only explanation is that Jesus is guiding
me… helping me make the right decisions… I’m still the same person,
but I’m like a better version of that person.”
Shannon has finished UGM Recovery. She has her children back, a
job, a place of her own. That’s not to say life is easy.
“I still get thoughts of wanting to use. I still get thoughts of
wanting to have ‘fun.’ I still get all those little tugs from the
enemy that wants to pull me in the wrong direction.”
Nonetheless, Shannon continues saying no to her addictions because
what she has now is so much better than what she had before.
“I have hope. I have love. I have a future, and really that’s what
I was looking for that I could never find. That’s what matters most.”
Shannon and her children have a fresh start that would not have
been possible without support from the community. To give, go to
uniongospelmission.org/donate.
|