A New Look At Christmas

I often feel like Scrooge at Christmas. I hate that so many unnecessary things cause us to lose focus on the real meaning: the pressure we put on ourselves to bake like Martha Stewart; to decorate like Pinterest and put it on Instagram; the crazy traffic and harried crowds to find THE perfect gift; the hollow look in the tired eyes of friends who are "stressed out" from all the hustle and bustle.

The best gift I ever received from my own parents was never found under the Christmas tree. Though I fondly remember sleepless nights as a child, wondering with anticipation if Santa was ever going to get there -- although I'd already opened and re-wrapped many of the gifts I was about to receive (Sorry Mom!). The gift was that of unconditional love and acceptance, an instilling of confidence and self worth that to this day keeps me secure and grounded, and is something that I strive to help provide to my own children.

Working with the women of Magdalene on a daily basis has opened my eyes to the sad reality, that far too many children grow up without that security of a stable, loving home, and has made me realize all the more what a true gift it has been.

This year, for the first time I had the privilege to attend a party for the Magdalene women, which is hosted every year by The Farm at Natchez Trace. When one resident came to me, with tears in her eyes, telling me that Santa was coming to the party, I wanted to cry as well. She explained how all her life, she'd wanted to meet Santa, but her mom would never take her. Later that night, unable to sleep from all the excitement of the evening and the snow falling, in the wee hours of the morning, she made her first snowman.

Another woman about my age, tearfully told us that never, ever, ever, in her entire life, had anyone so much as asked her what she wanted for Christmas. Her eyes lit up the room, when she opened her gift, and saw the laptop, a gift that will help her as she goes back to school, and works toward her goal of graduating with her daughter. It is a gift of hope that goes far beyond one night. A gift that tells her she is loved. Something tangible that will remind her when things get hard, she has a whole community behind her who loves her, supports her, and wants nothing but the best for her future.

Every gift unwrapped represented joy and hope, and for a moment so much pain was forgotten. The Farm did an outstanding job of blessing each woman with the perfect gift for her. Every coat fit perfectly. Every gift was well thought out, and exactly what each woman had hoped for, or more. Beyond the actual gifts themselves though, was the meaning behind them, that they truly are loved. And we all know that Love Heals.


Throughout the night there were many tears, much laughter, some jumping up and down, lots of dancing and shouts of joy all over. I can't even begin to describe what a blessing it was to be a part of it! I I even forgot all the things I dislike  about the Christmas season. The absolute joy in the room the entire evening was palpable. I took far too many pictures. I wanted to capture every moment, so I could savor them later. My heart is full.

For a slideshow of more photos from the Christmas party, click HERE.

By Marcie Brolund

RN and Thistle Farms Volunteer

All I Want for Christmas

Just in time for the holidays, eight new women from Magdalene joined the staff at Thistle Farms. Some have had jobs before, but for others, this is their first job. Having a job in a safe, collaborative environment allows the women to learn skills and responsibility. Having a purpose provides meaning and helps one stay focused on the path to recovery.

In preparation for Christmas I asked few of them to share their Christmas wishes. Each of their wishes came from the heart and reflected their gratefulness in being able to be part of a community that is helping them heal.

Ty, a young woman working in manufacturing, told me her Christmas wish was for her mother to get clean. Ty has been working hard on personal change and hopes someday her mother will be able to do the same.

 Kennethia, who also works in manufacturing, said she hoped her brother would be able to get out of prison during the coming year. He is up for parole in the next few months and she is holding her breath that her family can start to heal.

For Larryissa, working in shipping, she hopes that her sister will stop prostituting and follow in her footsteps, maybe even come to Magdalene.

Deborah is training for the receptionist position and says she hopes for a better relationship with her daughter in the year to come. Each of these wishes reflects the healing that is happening in their lives and with hope that it will carry over to the rest of their families.  

When you support Thistle Farms (during the holidays and all year long) by buying products you support the wishes of not only our newest women, but all of the women here. You help them move towards a future of clean time where they are able to mend old relationships and build new ones. Thistle Farms is thankful for the support of our customer community and always grateful to share in making dreams come true.

By Julia,
Thistle Farms Intern

PLEASE NOTE: In order to have your order shipped in time for Christmas, you must place them by 

12pm noon on Tuesday, Dec. 17.  

Go to our online store to place your order: http://store.thistlefarms.org

These Are A Few Of Her Favorite Things

You might remember, our friend Jennifer Nettles performed at our annual fundraiser at the Ryman this year. But Jennifer isn't just a show-up-and-sing kinda gal. She a true blue Thistle Farmer. And she has gone above and beyond her duties as a supporter to share her love of our products with her fans.

Last week, Jennifer stopped by our manufacturing facility at 51st & Charlotte Ave. in Nashville and hand picked some of her favorite products from our handmade line. She then created two holiday gift baskets that the public can purchase and send to someone for Christmas… or keep for yourself!

The Jennifer Nettles' Good Tiding Basket includes:

Candle 

Room Spray  

Lip Smoothie

(for $35 plus tax)

The Jennifer Nettles' Comfort and Joy Basket includes:

Snake Oil 

(inspirational book signed by the author & Thistle Farms Founder, Rev. Becca Stevens) 

Bath Tea 

Liquid Hand Soap

Holiday Candle 

Geranium Spray 

Body Butter  

Lip Smoothie

(for $100 plus tax)

Some of the baskets even have a little handwritten Christmas note from Jennifer! 

Then she wrote a little blog about it which you can see on her website HERE.

We are so grateful to Jennifer for coming in and working with us, then sharing it with the world. We love you and are excited for others to experience some of your favorite things for themselves!

Whole Lotta Love at Whole Foods

This is a busy time of year, especially for Thistle Farmers who are making their way to bring holiday cheer to Whole Foods stores around the south! If you're in the area, we hope you stop by and say hello to our fabulous demo team that can show you our latest holiday products which make perfect stocking stuffers and under-the-tree-feel-good-gifts

December 12 - Whole Foods Briarcliff  Altanta, GA 4:00pm - 6:30pm
December 13 - Whole Foods West Paces Ferrry (Buckhead) Atlanta, GA 11:00am - 2:00pm
December 13 - Whole Foods Duluth (St. John's) Duluth, GA 4:00pm - 7:00pm
December 14 - Whole Foods Cobb Harry's Marietta, GA 12:00pm - 2:00pm
December 14 - Whole Foods Merchant's Walk Marietta, GA 2:00pm - 4:00pm
December 15 - Whole Foods Harry's Market Alpharetta, GA 1:00pm - 4:00pm
December 20 - Whole Foods Sandy Springs, Atlanta, GA  5:00pm - 8:00pm
December 21 - Whole Foods Ponce De Leon Atlanta, GA 11:00am - 2:00pm

Come find us and tag us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram so we know you stopped by!

Sanctuary

Shelia, Dorinda and I had a great intro meeting with the six new residents of Magdalene on the Inside. We talked about our first meeting with the first residents of Magdalene in 1997 and how we could never have imagined how that community could grow and blossom. The conversation flowed easily between past fear and shame to future hopes.  Women teared up most as they described what it means to be open to healing. We began with writing the word "sanctuary" and as we talked one of the women sketched a beautiful thistle under the word.  

There is so much work and we all made a commitment to dig deeper than the taproot of a thistle to get to the roots of what lead to the streets and the foundation of love. Everyone also committed to not talking with other inmates about what a woman says in the circle and what bonding with one another might look like. We told them that they were now considered six new residents of the program, that they would get a small stipend and that we would write to them and have a place for them when they were released. There is so much work ahead and we need volunteers to help with things like the Christmas party Shelia has planned and scrapbooks for Christmas. Clinicians from the Rape and Sexual Abuse Center are coming to help weekly and residents will write to them over the next few months. The program is planned for three nights a week for two hours at this point. We are brainstorming about how we can make some arts and crafts to be used to help raise money for this prototype for community inside prison. I remember the first time we had a conversation about it was after visiting a women's prison in Texas when we saw a women that had deep ruts in her cheeks and tears flowing like a stream through them. It was a visual of how lonely and scary a place it can be and we talked afterwards about what it would be like to try and create a sanctuary with a very small group of women inside. I love that its coming to life. 

By Becca Stevens

@revbeccastevens 

Love Is Good Business

Credit

The poetic justice of--Love Heals--as the tag line of a company run by survivors of trafficking, addiction and prostitution is deeper than all the scars women carry from childhood trauma and rape. For survivors, sex has been monetized and violent for years. On the street with pimps and johns, it is not about love. It is about survival, drugs, and turning tricks. Learning how it is that love heals is one of the goals of the community of Thistle Farms, an all-natural manufacturing company that sells body care products. At the social enterprise women find their way back into a world that has allowed them to fall through the deep cracks of hard, unjust systems.

For two years women live in rent free communal houses and find the mental, dental, physical and educational help they need. A key element in the process is to be economically independent in order to gain control of their destinies. The social enterprise began in 2001 as a means to provide that economic security, and as a vehicle to engage people in understanding why women turn to the streets and to get past education into action. None of us had ever run a company, but we didn’t shy away from launching a movement. Our mission was to live into the truth that love is the strongest force for social change in the world. It is remarkable that 13 years later we are on pace to grow 100% based on the first-quarter numbers and break the million-dollar mark in sales. Many of the leaders of the company are just coming into their own as business executives, sales people, and entrepreneurs. Shana Goodwin, one of the sales' executives says the biggest lie she was told when she was sold to a drug dealer as a teenager was she was stupid. Although she never finished 7th grade, she is one of the smartest, most enterprising women you will meet.  She can manage an excel spreadsheet with the 280 accounts across the country and explain to a group of business women that by purchasing products, they are helping women find freedom.

There is no secret to our success.  Our business is an open book that supports volunteers and more than 1,200 annual visitors to the company where people tour the facility and drink a healing cup of thistle tea at the Café. Love is worth so much. It is a endless commodity we can tap into when we put people first and swear we won’t leave any sisters behind. There is an old saying, “If you want to kill a village, rape the women. If you want to heal a village, heal the women.”  The women of Thistle Farms are bringing healing and practical ideas to create sanctuary to cities across the United States. We are speaking at hundreds of churches, conventions, and gatherings  to spread the truth of how love is lavish and economical.  Just by our presence in Nashville, Tennessee, we bring over half a million dollars in savings, taxes and revenues with no federal or state funding.  We are part of wider movement that is changing the tide of the conversation away from blame and shame towards practical healing with quantifiable value.

We will continue to rise to the occasion for the thousands of women still on the streets who deserve to be more than just survivors of child rape, trafficking, prostitution and addiction.  They are bankers, manufacturing directors, baristas, distributors, social media marketers, facilitators, case managers, outreach directors, receptionists, candle makers, and paper makers.  Love is a good business model that can teach traditional businesses about how to sustain a community as you grow a company.  The business of Thistle Farms teaches us how we can serve one another, love the earth, and hope for the future.

By The Reverend Becca Stevens

Author of #SnakeOil

@RevBeccaStevens

New March

Spreading the mission of Thistle Farms and the message that LOVE HEALS comes in all kinds of packages. Recently, Atlanta-based singer/songwriter Hannah Thomas took it upon herself to share this the way she knows best: through music.

Hannah wrote the song, New March, with Thistle Farms in mind.

"I have some friends that introduced me to the work that Thistle Farms does and I was so amazed by what they do for these women," Hannah explains. "Thistle Farms really provides a second chance to women that probably wouldn't get one otherwise and I knew that I wanted to be a part of it. Everybody makes mistakes in life and everyone deserves a second chance and that is what the song is about, looking back, learning from your mistakes and then moving on. If everyone was judged by only the mistakes they made we could never get anywhere. Instead we should all figure out what we can do to help, and that's what Thistle Farms does."

In addition to writing a beautiful song, Hannah is also donating 100% of the proceeds of the download of New March to Thistle Farms through March 30, 2014. You can download the song directly from her Bandcamp page or stop by the Thistle Stop Cafe and pickup a business card with a QR code to scan & download.

Hannah has been spreading the love through national media including After Ellen, The L Stop and during an interview and performance on WOOD TV 8 in Grand Rapids, MI.  

We are so grateful to Hannah and look forward to her performing New March at a Thistle Thursday soon!

Welcome To The Circle: Fall Fundraiser 2013

Two days after our First National Conference, "Welcome To The Circle," we hosted our annual fundraiser with the same name, this year, at the Ryman Auditorium.

Two thousand friends filled the hallowed Ryman space as residents and past event chairs created a circle on stage. Ali Harnell, Jennifer Nettles, Jeff Hanna, Levi & Marcus Hummon, Maura O'Connell, John Prine, Cary Rayson, Regina Mullins, Fiona Prine, Carolyn Snell, Becca Stevens and the women of Magdalene offered us inspiration that filled the room with love and hope.

Through donations during the fundraiser and online after the event, we raised almost $450,000, enough money to keep our doors open to women and to move forward on a Magdalene program inside the Tennessee Women's prison! There we were in the Ryman saying "love heals" and the community gathered and said, "amen." 

To see photographs from this sacred evening, go to our Facebook photo album HERE.

When the Circle Becomes a Movement

Today marks one month since we hosted our first national conference "Welcome to the Circle." We were joined by 250 passionate attendees (social workers, therapists, nonprofits, students, doctors, nurses and more) from 31 states who came together to share dreams, questions and best practices in a collective effort to help women, and the communities in which they live, heal and recover. 

We shopped 'til we dropped at the Shared Trade Marketplace, which featured vendors from a new alliance of social enterprises committed to helping close the economic gap between producers and consumers. To read an article by the Nashville Scene about the new Shared Trade Alliance, click here. It felt great knowing that every dollar we spent went directly back to supporting the women who made the products. 

We heard from extraordinary speakers like Nicholas Hitimana and Martina Vandenberg and exceptional workshop leaders from partner organizations like Eden House, Magdalene St. Louis, the Sexual Assault Center, the Hannah Project and more. And Music City did not disappoint! We were brought to our feet (even in the wee hours of the morning) by the talents of Radney Foster, Ashley Cleveland and Marcus Hummon. We literally laughed, cried, and sang together. We were inspired and forever changed.

You may have noticed that we talk a lot about circles at Thistle Farms. Most of the time, we’re talking about widening the circle in a continuing effort to spread hope and healing. Since the conference, we’ve also been thinking about the circle as a loop. After all, a “movement” has to be in motion, right? Becca and the Magdalene residents and graduates continuously travel across the country sharing the message that love heals. Each time they do, people in turn decide to visit us. Over the past two years, more than 1250 of you have come for our Education Workshops from across the country and beyond. Each and every time, while spending the day with you sharing best practices that we've adopted during this 16 year journey, we learn something new. 

Our hope is that those of you who joined us for the conference in person or in spirit were inspired to go back out into the world to say, “Welcome to the Circle,” confident that your voice is a key part of this living, breathing and growing community. Love really is the most powerful force for change in the world. 

The conference was a true collaborative effort. We are thankful to the many people who contributed generously of their time and talents.

To see a slideshow of pictures, go to Flickr or visit our Facebook album. Thanks to Erin Lee and Peggy Napier who captured the weekend so beautifully.

Plans are already underway for our 2014 conference. Most likely, the date will fall again in mid-October. Stay tuned for the date and registration information. In the meantime, please join us for one of our upcoming Education Workshops scheduled for January 13, 2014 and February 24, 2013. For more information contact Deb Markland.

A Ban Against Neglect

Today's guest post comes from Lindsay Sebastian and Callie Brauel with ABAN (A Ban Against Neglect).

Thistle Farms has been both a source of inspiration and support for ABAN from our very beginning. ABAN started as a class project by three university students: Emmanuel, from the University of Ghana, Callie, from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, and Rebecca, from Concordia University. Since the original idea in 2008, the organization has continually transformed into the two-year program that exists today.

ABAN is an organization that works to end the cycle of poverty among marginalized young women in Ghana. Similar to Thistle Farms, we reach out to young women who have survived lives of prostitution, trafficking, addiction and life on the streets.

Part of ABAN’s funding strategy is through the sale of handbags and other accessories made from recycled plastic water bags. These plastic bags provide Ghanaians with pure drinking water, yet 60 tons of this plastic ends up on the streets every day due to inefficient trash collection systems. ABAN recycles 20,000 of these plastic bags every month and couples it with beautiful hand dyed batik to create purses and bracelets to sell.

Funds from sales are delegated to a holistic two-year healing program for the young women who enter ABAN’s program. The women are taught basic math and literacy, as well as business, savings and elective classes, which teach skills needed to pursue a job after graduating. 

In our first year Becca Stevens visited our campus in Ghana. We forged a relationship, and since then Thistle Farms has purchased products from us for use in two of their kits. Currently, they buy handmade pouches and couple it with body products to create a Travel Survival Kit! They also buy bracelets from our newest venture for the Evening Survival Kit made from 100% recycled glass. Recently, we began taking discarded bottles from the streets, melting them down and crafting beads for the creation of jewelry.

Due in part to the steady revenue from Thistle Farms, we were able to expand ABAN to form a sibling organization, ACE, or ABANCommunity Employment. ACE hires seamstresses and tailors from the local community. This takes the product demand off our ABAN apprentices so that they are able to focus on their studies, as well as choose the career they desire. Before ACE, our apprentices spent their entire second year sewing products. Now, these girls are able to decide whether they want to pursue sewing, or choose a different profession such as catering, hairdressing, or bead making. ACE is also an opportunity for a steady job after graduation from ABAN.

In addition to financial support, we have looked up to Thistle Farms for inspiration from the beginning- our models are so similar, separated only by their 11 more years of experience and knowledge. We begin each day with Sister Circles, where the apprentices gather to sing, pray and start the day with a positive attitude. We have both a residential program and social enterprise that work together to create a community. And most importantly, we too are working to transform our current culture, which exploits women, and instead empower them with love and support.

We love ABAN and you should too! For more information on ABAN, go to their website, like them on Facebook or follow the on Twitter.