Shane Parr

I was first introduced to Teen Challenge at 15½, during Red Ribbon Week at my high school. A guest speaker and Teen Challenge volunteers were there that day, and for the next several weeks they offered to shuttle students to Orange County First Assembly of God. By that point in my life, I had already begun using marijuana, LSD, ecstasy, and meth — spiraling out of control, committing crimes, and cycling in and out of juvenile hall. But by the grace of God, a seed was planted during those few weeks, one that wouldn't take root for years to come.

Nearly twenty years later, almost to the day, I walked through the doors of Orange County Teen Challenge at 35½ — broken and desperate for healing. I completed the year-long program and went on to intern at Inland Empire Teen Challenge. I was hired in January 2012 at Orange County Teen Challenge. In September 2015, I married my wife Maria, who is also a Teen Challenge alumna. In November 2021, I was unanimously voted in as Director of Orange County Teen Challenge — the very ministry that first planted a seed in me as a teenage boy searching for a way out.