Becca Stevens Biography
Becca Stevens commonly known by her professional name Rev. Becca Stevens is an author, speaker, Episcopal priest, social entrepreneur, founder and president of Thistle Farms in Nashville, Tennessee. She is notable for founding Magdalene in 1997.
The farm is now called Thistle Farms, to heal, empower, and employ female survivors of human trafficking, prostitution, and addiction. She was the 2000 Nashvillian of the Year. In 2013 was inducted into the Tennessee Women’s Hall of Fame.
Becca Stevens Age
She was born on 1 April 1963 in Connecticut. As of 2023, she is 59 years old.
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Becca Stevens Parents
She was born to Christian parents; Anne and Rev Gladston Hudson Stevens, Jr. her father. A year after moving to their new hometown, Nashville, her father was killed in a car accident by a drunk driver.
Becca Stevens Husband
Stevens enrolled in Vanderbilt Divinity School, where she met her future husband Marcus Hummon, whom she married in 1988.
Becca Stevens Children
He has a son called Levi Hummon.
Becca Stevens Thistle Farms | Thistle Farms Becca Stevens
In 2001, she started Thistle Farms, which employs the same group of women to make home and body products sold in stores like Whole Foods and on thistlefarms.org. In 2013, Thistle Farms opened a café, employing survivors of prostitution, trafficking, and addiction as baristas.
Stevens Priest
After returning to Nashville after her schooling, Stevens enrolled in Vanderbilt Divinity School.During her schooling, she volunteered in projects to help homeless women and those dealing with addiction.
Stevens was ordained in June 1991 and delivered her first child the following month. After her ordination, Stevens began working at the Church of the Resurrection in Franklin, Tennessee, continuing her work with those in need.
When in 1995, the Chaplain of St. Augustine’s Chapel at Vanderbilt retired, Stevens accepted the post. She founded Magdalene in 1997, a two-year residential program for former prostitutes overcoming addiction(s) and wanting to restart their lives.
Becca Stevens Nashville
When she was four years old, her family relocated to Nashville, Tennessee and a year later, her father was killed in a car accident by a drunk driver.
Becca Stevens CNN Hero | Becca Stevens Youtube
Rev Becca Stevens
Becca Stevens Books
- Finding Balance: Loving God with Heart and Soul, Mind and Strength. Abingdon Press. 2004
- Sanctuary: Unexpected Places Where God Found Me. Abingdon Press. 2005.
- Hither and Yon: A Travel Guide for the Spiritual Journey. Abingdon Press. 2007.
- Walking Bible Study: The Path of Peace. Abingdon Press. 2010.
- Walking Bible Study: The Path of Love. Abingdon Press. 2010.
- Walking Bible Study: The Path of Justice. Abingdon Press. 2010.
- Funeral for a Stranger: Thoughts on Life and Love. Abingdon Press. 2010.
- Find Your Way Home: Words from the Street, Wisdom from the Heart. Abingdon Press. 2010 Co-written with the Women of Magdalene.
- The Gift of Compassion: A Guide to Helping Those Who Grieve. Abingdon Press. 2012.
- Snake Oil: The Art of Healing and Truth-Telling. FaithWords. 2013.
- The Way of Tea and Justice: Rescuing the World’s Favorite Beverage from Its Violent History. FaithWords. 2014.
- Love Heals. HarperCollins/Thomas Nelson. 2017.
Snake Oil Becca Stevens
“In the world of snake oils, you have to see the world a little differently. Where others see poverty, you see riches; where others see weeds, you see flowers; where others see sickness, you see openness.”
Becca Stevens calls herself a “snake oil seller”: She takes natural oils, mixes them with a good story, sells them in an open market and believes they help to heal the world. Becca is the founder of Thistle Farms, one of the most successful examples in the US of a social enterprise whose mission is the work force.
She is also the founder of its residential program, Magdalene. The women of Magdalene/Thistle Farms have survived prostitution, trafficking and addiction, and the natural body care products they manufacture-balms, soaps, and lotions-aid in their own healing as well as that of the people who buy them.
The book weaves together the beginnings of the enterprise with individual stories from Becca’s own journey as well as 20 women in the community.
In Snake Oil, Becca tells how the women she began helping fifteen years ago have been the biggest source of her own healing from sexual abuse and her father’s death as a child. Wise and reflective, Snake Oil offers an empowering narrative as well as a selection of recipes for healing remedies that readers can make themselves.
Originally published: 12 March 2013
Author: Becca Stevens
Genres: Biography, Autobiography, Christian literature
Becca Stevens Amazon
To make a purchase for her books, visit www.amazoncom and make your order today.
Becca Stevens Net Worth
Her net worth is approximately $5 Million as of 2023.
Becca Stevens Facebook
Becca Stevens Twitter
Becca Stevens Instagram
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Becca Stevens News
How Becca Stevens Is Empowering Sexual Abuse Survivors to Change the World
As I sit in the new café at Thistle Farms in Nashville, I marvel at the line snaking out the door. People come from all across the city to sit in our café and drink a cup of coffee or enjoy lunch.
Friends meet here to chat about life and news of the day, perhaps including Bill Cosby’s guilty verdict or the explosion of the #metoo movement.
They may not realize their latte was prepared by a sexual abuse survivor, another survivor baked their lemon scone, and their smiling waitress fled home as a teen to escape a sexual predator.
Each woman survivor comes to Thistle Farms for a reason – whether sexual abuse, trafficking, addiction or prison. They are the faces behind the headlines.
They came here to discover the many ways love heals. To find space to heal and recover. To rediscover their worth and dignity. Our graduates are living proof that love is the most powerful force for change in the world.
Opportunities
Showing love to these brave survivors goes beyond addiction recovery and housing. Finding work that provides a living wage is one of our graduates’ greatest hurdles.
As a result, Thistle Farms began creating justice enterprises which have been translated into business systems. Our café, and the retail space next door, sell goods from all over the world. Our work is proof that it is possible to grow economies of love that have an impact on people’s lives.
Research shows a dramatically growing consumer base interested in cause branding. From students to retirees, people long to put their money where their values are.
Millennials come to our café because they want their purchase to invest in women’s freedom. Business leaders come to the café to connect with the story of women healing from trafficking and addiction.
Others simply drop in at the café for lunch or a cup of tea and to bear witness to love – love is practical, relevant, and influences the distribution of wealth and resources.
Humberto Maturana, a Chilean biologist says, “Love is the only emotion that increases the intelligence of the system.” In other words, any system organized around love increases that system’s intelligence and connection.
Faith in the power of love is at the heart of all we do at Thistle Farms, yet this rich economy of love, which changes markets and cultures, is rather old news.
Everything I needed to learn about launching justice enterprises I learned from attending church “bazaars” with my mom.
Donations
The model was simple – a group of women decides to raise $1,000 for a justice initiative. They could take up an offering, ask a wealthy woman for a donation, or simply ask the church. There are many ways to raise $1000. Instead, they hold a bazaar (kind of an onomatopoeia).
The bazaar worked like this. Everyone spent their own money on materials, then they created crafts from raw materials and delivered them on a specified date.
The ladies set up tables, hosted cake walks, or sponsored a fish fry. Mainly they spent all day buying each other’s stuff.
At the end of the day the $1000 had been raised in what appeared to be a non-efficient way. It took too much time, and it cost them $600 in raw goods.
But much more happened then could be measured in dollars. First, everyone shared their talents and felt good about their personal contribution.
Second, community was formed as they committed to do an event every year, raising thousands of dollars over time.
Growth
Third, people invited their friends to join in, and the market of supporters grew as the story of the justice initiative spread further. Yes, it is bazaar, but this old model demonstrates how easily a small community can create an economy of love.
Over two decades at Thistle Farms, we have founded a half-dozen justice enterprises in which the work force is the mission. This is a specifically powerful economy of love.
The more creatively and lovingly the justice issues are articulated, the stronger the enterprise grows. Conversely, if a community approaches the work of justice only by force and debate, the impact is lessoned. As we share our story and invite people into creativity, listeners are more open, and more willing to engage with us.
Last year a group of individuals started the first Thistle Farms justice enterprise with women refugees from Syria who are living in a refugee camp in Greece.
The work was to weave strips of used blankets and life vests – used in their escape from Syria – into welcome mats. Their work was symbolic of a shared hope that the world would become more welcoming. It was loving, practical, and relevant, all the requirements of creating a powerful story with an economic impact.
Outcomes
Established organizations said we couldn’t hire or pay refugees. They said the launch of our economic model in the camp would cause a riot, but the riots never came.
One thousand welcome mats have been produced and $100,000 of revenue have been generated in just the first nine months. And the numbers are growing. Now an official not-for-profit in the European Union, this justice initiative is poised to grow exponentially with more projects, more outlets and more support.
The refugee’s welcome mats are really just the church ladies’ bazaar on a grander scale. As women sit together, stripping old life vests and blankets into pieces, they share stories. They talk about hopes for their kids and the refugee camp.
Weaving, side by side, they imagine how they are going to reunite their families. People around the globe are joining this economy of love by purchasing $100 welcome mats. They buy these woven mats for the same reason many people visit our café in Nashville. People long to be part of a loving story alongside these resilient women.
Founders
Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, spoke of how, in the work of charity, there is extravagance. Charity is rich enough to endow all who participate with gratitude and worth.
Day taught me, and thousands of impressionable seminarians, that we had to find a way to make love relevant and practical for people. It was her conviction that whether we were running a business, a church, or starting a movement, we needed to do it with love so it would be powerful and deep enough to make an impact.
The economy of love is a good business model, a smart way to use resources, and it can change our world. No matter what your business or what you are selling, love can be an organizing force for your business.
We participate in the love economy when we take the time to know where our products are sourced, how they are made, and who benefits. We can put our money where our values are and sustain these economies. This is how love heals.
Adopted from: relevantmagazine.com
