LOVE HEALS: Thistle Farms (www.thistlefarms.org)  

Jennifer. Ty. Becca. Three powerful women who shared their stories with clergy and others at the annual clergy conference. Three women who some would say are victims of trafficking, prostitution, sexual abuse, addictions and so much more. Three women. Broken. Three survivors. Three Healers. Healed/healing through the power of love that comes from being in community. Three women who are changing the lives of others - one person at a time. Three women who truly believe and embody the notion, theology, philosophy that love heals. LOVE HEALS. Not hate. Not judgment. Not persecution. Not genocide. Love.

Becca is a priest who dares to be about the work of justice for women. She braves breaking open the bonds of the power of love to help reconcile and heal the world. One person at a time. One lost and broken person. She does not do it alone. Her faith and the women who struggle with their own brokenness, together, offer a place where other women can come off the streets and be loved and given a space to get their lives in order.

Jennifer and Ty are just two of the women whose lives have changed and who are changing lives.

The women who come to what is known as the Community of Magdalene are transforming themselves and others. They leave a place in their hearts and their home for the next person who needs to get off the streets or out of an abusive situation or a place to go after being in prison.

Becca's sense of justice for the broken and lost women of the world is palpable, contagious and courageous. It transforms more than women. For each woman whose life is saved, there are men and women around the globe whose lives are changed by the power of love, by the power of the story of transformation.

The justice work that Becca and others do through Magdalene and Thistle Farms is not just their work. It is our work. Our Christian faith is about loving the world. It is about social change. Isn't that what God did? Loved the world. Gave Jesus to us to love the world. Gave me to us to love the world. Gave you to us to love the world.

The work of Magdalene and Thistle Farms is profound. I would love to see us supporting their ministry by buying the products (store.thistlefarms.org) that they produce that will help us, as well as them. I would love to see us wrestle with how we can love-heal this corner of the world. I would love to see us engaging in love-healing work with anyone who we have harmed or who has harmed us. How could a church that is called "Grace" do anything else?

God bless each of us in our love-healing work.

Peace,

Shawn

P.S. Want to learn about the new initiative of Thistle Farms? Click here.