Bible Connection Podcast: Love Heals Everybody—Becca Stevens and Thistle Farms
Becca Stevens, Episcopal priest, author, and founder of Thistle Farms, has been recognized as a Champion of Change by the White House as well as the 2016 Hero of the Year by CNN. Through her ministry, she has changed the lives of so many women who were trapped in a cycle of addiction and abuse. In this eleventh episode of the Bible Connection podcast, Becca tells us her story and how God has led her to this incredible ministry.
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Love Heals Everybody—Becca Stevens and Thistle Farms
Through her life-changing work and ministry, Becca Stevens has received national recognition. She was awarded the 2016 Hero of the Year by CNN as well as a Champion of Change by the White House. An ordained Episcopal priest, Becca founded Thistle Farms to help women break out of the horrible cycle of abuse and addiction. Since its founding in 1997, Thistle Farms has changed and saved the lives of countless women.
In this eleventh episode of the Bible Connection podcast, Becca tells us her life story and how it led her to found her ministry. She explains how Thistle Farms provides much-needed community for women and how that community makes an impact. The motto of Thistle Farms is “Love Heals” and Becca explains the meaning and purpose behind the phrase.
Also, Doris, a member of the Thistle Farms community, joins the episode to share her own story. Doris is open and vulnerable about her past and how Thistle Farms changed her life.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit and a reliance on the love of God, Becca Stevens has started a ministry that truly saves lives. Her story is one that will inspire people to show others a love that can heal everybody.
Excerpt from This Podcast
Quotes by Becca Stevens:
2:20 — “We have compassion and that’s what the whole community is about. It’s about being welcoming and compassionate and caring. That’s how it was founded 23 years ago and that’s what we’re about now.”
6:47 — “I never wanted a traditional church or to move up in the denominational world. What I really wanted was to say ‘I’m a part of a community that loves people and that welcomes people.’
9:30 — “If we are talking about really loving women, we have to be concerned about their economic well-being. One of the places that the faith community, I think, falls short a lot of times is we’re so scared of the economic piece of people’s lives. That’s a really important part. The violence and vulnerability of poverty there is huge.”
24:24 — “I was just sad. I can’t explain it any better than just saying like I’ve done a lot of funerals, but I was really upset. So we got in the room and I began the service with ‘The Lord be with you.’ And everybody started crying, the half dozen of us, the five of us, in the room, and we couldn’t say another word. The reason we couldn’t say a word, I promise you – again, I’ve done many, many funerals – love was so thick in that room you couldn’t cut through it with words. It was a moment of transcendence of God’s presence in my life. And I was filled with love.”
25:30 — “I’ll take the worst the world has to offer and go to the places that I’m scared to go if I know love like that is going to meet me there.”
35:40 — “And so if I can start with thanks and I can really feel gratitude, really feel it and really remember it right that there were a lot of beautiful people and things and events and moments and prayers, a lot of stuff to be grateful for. If I can start there, it’s natural that I want to help. I’ve got some good news I want to tell you. I’ve got some good resources I’d love to share with you because they were all a gift to me.”
38:30 — “One of my big disciplines is don’t swipe right and look at that feed. It’s not really the news of the world. It’s the big side-show for the day is all it is. The real news is this throng of people in communities trying to love each other. That’s the news I want to be fed.”
42:42 — “Love Heals is a big idea. And loving the world is a big idea. I want us to grow into that idea, so I want us to get big and strong.”
Quotes by Doris
29:05 — “It was as if Thistle Farms was an answer to my prayers. Because I would walk down the streets of Nashville, I would recite the 23rd Psalm, I would cry out and ask God to come get me, but I could not figure out how I was going to get my life back. And then when she told me about this program, it was like ‘yeah, that’s the place. That’s the place that I’ve been praying for.’”
30:31 — “I always think of Thistle Farms as a vessel. Thistle Farms is the vessel that God sent to come get me. And that’s what I always think about Thistle Farms as.”
31:06 — “I have always thought of love as God and I know God heals. So when I hear love heals I get it. I know when I hear love heals I believe people are not going to judge me because of my past. I believe that they’re going to take care of me and they’re going to show me how to live life and they’re going to love me until I learn how to love myself. That’s exactly what this organization has done for me.”
Featured Scripture: Matthew 6:28-30
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”
Episode Links:
Becca Stevens website
Thistle Farms website
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