Reverend Becca Stevens (BS) is an Episcopal priest, a social entrepreneur, a speaker and is the chaplain of St. Augustine's at Vanderbilt University. She's the founder and executive director of Magdalene, a residential community for women who have survived violence, prostitution and addiction, and has established Magdalene's non-profit business, Thistle Farms.

Becca has raised over $10 million dollars and has gained national press coverage for the organizations she supports. She has won awards from the First Foundation and the Academy of Women in Achievement. She's authored five books, including her latest, Funeral for a Stranger, and Find Your Way Home. Becca is married to Grammy winning songwriter Marcus Hummon and they have three sons. Today, Dr. Schuller (RHS) interviews Becca.

RHS: Our guest today, Becca Stevens, is an ordained Episcopal priest. She's also chaplain of St. Augustine's at Vanderbilt University. She's the founder and director of Magdalene, a residential community for women who have survived violence, prostitution and addiction. She's also established a non-profit charity called Thistle Farms.

Reverend Stevens maintains a commitment to the truth that love is the most powerful force for change in the world. To date, she has raised over $10 million and has gained national press coverage for the organizations she supports. She's won awards from the First Foundation and from the Academy of Women and Achievement. She's the author of five books including her latest Funeral for a Stranger, and this remarkable book Find Your Way Home. She lives in Nashville with her husband, Grammy winning song writer Marcus Hummon and their three sons. Welcome with me, Reverend Becca Stevens.

Fifty-four years I've been in this ministry and this is the first time I've held the hands of a woman priest from the Episcopal Church.

BS: Oh it's an honor! Thank you very much. It is a gift to be here, it really is.

RHS: Why?

BS: It means a lot, not just to me but all the women that I'm representing back home that are part of this community; for us to be here is a big deal, so thank you all very much.

RHS: This is your book, Find Your Way Home.

BS: Yes. This is a book I wrote, and it includes stories by the women who have come through Magdalene. They each have a story to tell about love and healing in their own lives.

RHS: How and when did Magdalene begin?

BS: It began in 1997. I wanted to help set up a sanctuary for women who could come in and stay for two years, not pay anything to live there, not take any federal or state funding but just be a community of women who would help one another heal and be whole and come back into community. So we opened up the very first house in 1997 and now we have about six communities of women that we sponsor and support.

RHS: Why did you start it? How did you get into it?

BS: My dad was a minister and my mom was a social worker, and I think I'm my parents' daughter. I came into this work wanting to help women who were coming off the streets, but I also wanted to believe that grace and love could really be about healing for people. I wanted to witness that and I feel more faithful now 12 years later than when I started. I also think that I needed that healing, too, to be able to live out the gospel as I understood it and to be able to speak my truth. So it's been a gift all around.

RHS: You're married?

BS: I am married.

RHS: You have three children?

BS: I do.

RHS: You're an Episcopal priest?

BS: I am.

RHS: Wow.

BS: It's a lot.

RHS: Tell us a story of one of the women, but first of all, is it true that this is a place where women who are abused or have been hurt.

BS: Well they all have criminal histories of prostitution addiction, and what I've learned over the years is I have not met a women coming off the streets who has not been abused. The average age of women who are part of Magdalene, and on average the women that we serve, have been on the streets is about ten years and have about a hundred arrests on their record.

The average age they're first sexually abused is between the ages of 7 and 11. A lot of times broken communities and broken systems have been a part of the women going to the streets. So it has to be a loving, compassionate, non judgmental community that welcomes them back, to help them climb that mountain of recovery and brokenness to get to a place where they know that they're the beloved children of God.

But when you said tell a story, there's one woman that came to my mind immediately and that was a woman named Sheila who was from Miami. She came into the program and about a week later found out that she had breast cancer. And so not only was she getting clean and sober, but she was going to have to go through some painful procedures and count on a brand new community that she did not know very well could be about healing.

She lost all her hair about six months into it and was bald. And I asked her do you want us to get you a wig? What can we do to help? And she said that those scars were like a road map that reminded her about where she had been and about how much she had been through. They were giving her the strength to do something different and to believe that there is something else coming. And now she has this long thick hair about down to her waist. She's married, she has two children, owns her own home and she does outreach to women on the streets as her ministry.

RHS: Wow. Now Thistle Farms: What a name. What is it and why does it have the name of what I remember as a boy on a farm, being the worst weed that you could grow.

BS: It is and that's why I think we named it that. If you go out to the streets where women walk, or the ally's where they're sleeping, the last flower growing is a thistle. It has a deep tap root and it can push up through inches of concrete to still bloom. And while it has a thorny exterior and a history of survival by brutality, it has this regal center.

RHS: A history of survival by brutality?

BS: The reason it survives is it hurts to pick it. So in some ways it's a violent flower. But the beautiful thing is it has this beautiful center. It reminds me of the scripture from Matthew that says “even Solomon in all his glory is not arrayed like one of these.” It's that soft, wonderful place that God's created in all of us.

And so thistles are a beautiful symbol. They're a reminder to me that the world is our farm and there's beauty in all parts of creation. Nothing should be condemned and we shouldn't forget about anybody. And you know you can actually make beautiful, beautiful paper out of thistles.

RHS: Really?

BS: At Thistle Farms we make paper. That's one of the products. We also make all natural bath and body care products and we're in about 22 states now and on the Internet.

RHS: This is your company?

BS: Yes. Right now, the company employs 23 women who were formerly on the streets. So it's a beautiful ministry. I'm a volunteer for it so that other people can work. One hundred percent of the proceeds from every product goes back into the program and into salaries that support women who are coming out of the program. They're the sales team, the bankers, they're the inventory specialists and they ship. They do everything. It's really beautiful. It's one of my favorite jobs that I get to be a part of.

RHS: It's your calling.

BS: It's my calling.

RHS: You're the founder.

BS: Yes.

RHS: Jesus inspired you.

BS: I like to think that not only was I inspired but it has been my saving grace. When I look back on it, I'm thankful that I didn't miss the beauty of the thistle or the women that I get to work with or this ministry. It has been the greatest gift in my life.

RHS: Wow. God bless you.

BS: Thank you.

RHS: He has and He is. You are favored by God. Yes, you are favored. He picked you. Jesus said you have not chosen Me, I have chosen you. Thank you.

BS: Thank you. Thank you very much. Peace and love.

RHS: Becca's books, Funeral for a Stranger and Find Your Way Home are available at hourofpower.org.

© Copyright Hour of Power 2009. This interview was conducted by Robert H. Schuller from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral and aired on the Hour of Power November 8, 2009.