family prayer

"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in Spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. "
- Apostle Paul

sisters

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about paper beads in Beauty for Ashes, and this week we finished our first pieces of the new jewelry line – KEZA Beads (KEZA Beads). This accomplishment is just the beginning…

With KEZA Beads, a new gender equality campaign, putting together the new training facility, fundraising, and new interns, the directors at SOR felt as though we just didn’t have enough work to do. So naturally, we decided to take on another project…soap and candle making.

Becca Stevens (www.beccastevens.org) and 6 other women traveled from Nashville to Kigali, Rwanda last week to share their wisdom and expertise in the skin care and candle business. Becca is founder of Thistle Farms (www.thistlefarms.org) a skin care line, and Magdalene House – a non-profit that works with prostitutes, female drug addicts and former prisoners in Nashville. They were an eclectic group, each with their own strong personalities and amazing gifting. And they were each a beautiful gift to us. These women didn’t just come to burn themselves with beeswax…they came to share their lives. The spirit of this group was raw and genuine. Their authenticity melted away pretense, and broke down walls.

We sat as sisters, barefoot on the floor, and talked. Sharing stories of humiliation, rape, life on the streets, abuse, prison, addiction and much more; realizing that our wounds are shared by women around the world. Realizing that together we can heal, day by day. Reminding each other that we don’t have to have it together all the time. We cried together. We laughed at each other. 

Together, we rolled beads from paper, messed up necklaces, melted beeswax, started electrical fires, poured candles, mixed soap, dug in the dirt, prayed, and praised God for His grace.

So we made jewelry, soap and candles last week. 

It’s the beginning of something and the air is thick with anticipation. We are low on funds and materials are scarce – but we have finally produced the first of 3 products that hold our dreams within each. That may sound silly – I know when most people are shopping for candles or soap or jewelry they aren’t thinking of other peoples dreams. Yet for us, these simple items hold the very livelihood of 43 women and their children. We’ve got candles that smell like honey and coffee, soap that smells like fresh cut flowers and clean laundry mixed together, and beautiful jewelry that is original and unique – all hand made. The smells from this week will remain with me. Varnish mixed with beeswax, roasted coffee, charcoal, clean fresh flowers, rain, mud, geranium, sweat, and the strong aroma of hope. These smells represent unity and community. They represent hurting women in America becoming a family with hurting women in Rwanda. They represent healing…healing together. They represent dreams becoming a reality.

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Thistle Farming

“Thistle farming means that the whole world is your farm.” – Becca Stevens (www.beccastevens.org)

Becca goes on to describe that nobody wants thistles because they are pesky weeds, yet they grow everywhere. To most people they are merely weeds…nothing good comes from them. The only good thing about thistles is getting rid of them. For some reason we humans do the same thing with people. We deem them unworthy of anything good because we don’t agree with their views. We wish our enemies would simply disappear. We give up on those who struggle and stumble over and over again. Instead of using our energy to find the good in others, in those that annoy us, we use our energy to try and forget about them.

Thistles come back though, they pop up in unexpected places…uninvited and unwanted.

So Becca decided she would find something good in them. Just like she does in the people society wants to get rid of and forget. And she did…or rather, she does. She’s a real live thistle farmer. She strips down these weeds, removes the harshness so that they are tender and vulnerable. Just as her spirit does the women she works with. She processes the thistles so that they are useful. Just as she trains those who seek refuge in Magdalene House. The result is paper that is strong and beautiful. This paper becomes a messenger of hope. It will carry in it healing oils made by society’s forgotten women. It will carry their hope, their stories, and their light into the hands of those of us who forget them. And these thistles…these pesky weeds that nobody wants, will connect society’s forgotten with society’s forgetful.

For more information on Magdalene House & Thistle Farms visit: www.thistlefarms.org