Mrs. Michelle “Shelly” Marshall is married with two children, Emily Ann and Owen Langley Marshall. Shelly was raised by a single mom who expected her children to fend for themselves, achieve good grades, and make something of their lives. They frequented the Polish Catholic Church in her hometown of Syracuse, New York, but the services were conducted completely in Polish.
Shelly’s early adult life revolved around work and drinking. In her early thirties, Shelly got seriously sick, which led her to re-evaluate her lifestyle and an obvious problem with alcohol and cocaine. She checked herself into a drug and alcohol program where she found temporary relief in Alcoholic’s Anonymous (A.A.) and Cocaine Anonymous (C.A.) .Shortly thereafter, one of her friends from the meetings invited her to church. A few Sundays later the Lord graciously changed her heart. Miraculously, Shelly became a new creature in Christ with absolutely no desire to ever drink or drug again.
Shelly has a rich background in bookkeeping, office management, database set-up and management, tax preparation, and utilizing a wide variety of computer programs. She had her own bookkeeping business for many years serving lawyers, restaurant owners, and small business owners.
Shelly has a real heart for prison ministry. Her prison ministry experience began when she married her husband who spent 10 years in prison. When her husband graduated from seminary, they founded Metanoia Ministries (MM) together and opened a discipleship home for men just getting out of prison. For five years Shelly served as the matriarch and assistant to the director as she helped her husband oversee MM, keep the ministry books, and interacted daily with each of the men who lived in the home. When MM needed more beds to meet the growing number of applicants, Shelly used an inheritance she had received to help Metanoia Ministries move into a new 14 bed facility. She said, “It is God’s money, and so it should be used for God’s purposes.” Shelly participated in some of the new resident interviews, she regularly served as an extra pair of eyes and ears, and she managed all the finances for the ministry.
Today, Shelly holds the title of Executive Assistant to the Executive Director of Metanoia Ministries. Her responsibilities include designing all the handsome correspondence course covers, setting up and maintaining a comprehensive database, copying and reproducing all of our course materials, mailing all the course material to instructors, students, and chaplains, interacting with all our instructors and students, and handling a dozen other odds and ends that pop up week to week.
Shelly is thankful she has the opportunity to serve brothers and sisters in Christ who are in prison. She knows what it is like to be imprisoned in sin as well as the joy of being set free by the Sovereign Grace of God. She sees the need. Her prayer is to be a small part of the solution to that need.
