{"id":21022,"date":"2025-04-15T12:22:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T16:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=21022"},"modified":"2025-04-15T12:22:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T16:22:19","slug":"how-one-oregon-womans-faith-led-her-to-full-time-food-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/04\/how-one-oregon-womans-faith-led-her-to-full-time-food-ministry.html","title":{"rendered":"How One Oregon Woman\u2019s Faith Led Her to Full Time Food Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_21025\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21025\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/04\/MeeMaws_credit-meemawshometownkitchen-Instagram.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21025\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/04\/MeeMaws_credit-meemawshometownkitchen-Instagram.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21025\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">@meemawshometownkitchen \/ Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 2023, Elise Stevens of Union, Oregon \u201cvocally heard\u201d God telling her to make sourdough bread. \u201cWithin a couple of weeks, I had loaves of sourdough bread coming out of my ears. I made my own starter. I did it all on my own. I was handing sourdough bread out to everybody in my town, just giving it away. And then I started selling bagels out of my home, then I started making dinner for my Bible study that I was hosting,\u201d Stevens told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wccsradio.com\/rss\/no-price-just-purpose-oregon-pay-what-you-can-restaurant-nourishes-hundreds\/\"><em>Fox News Digital<\/em><\/a><em>. <\/em>Then last April, she heard God with a new call to open a restaurant. Despite her husband Derek\u2019s concern that they had \u201cno money,\u201d Stevens followed the call. After a woman in her community handed her a $5,000 check, she opened up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meemaws.com\/\">MeeMaw\u2019s Hometown Kitchen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>What makes the restaurant so unique is its pay-what-you-can model, with adult patrons only asked to pay what they can afford. Stevens makes around 30 to 80 meals a day for children, who are never required to pay. Stevens, now affectionately known as MeeMaw in her community, is able to run the restaurant through funds she receives through social media. \u201cI have no other source of income\u2026 God made it very clear that we were to only do this ministry. This is a ministry more than it is a restaurant,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Stevens\u2019 faith is behind her commitment to ministry, though her life has not always been easy. Twenty years ago, she escaped a highly abusive relationship with her three-week old baby. \u201cI was held hostage for five months while pregnant with my oldest daughter,\u201d Stevens recalled. \u201cI gave birth while in captivity and when she was three weeks old, I escaped captivity and I met my husband. I had to take my safety into my own hands, so I jokingly asked a friend if he would be my bodyguard, and just a few weeks later we ended up getting married, and we&#8217;re still married today.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Just like Stevens had to escape to safety, the restaurant bills itself as a \u201crefuge, a gathering place, and a tribute to the power of family, community, and God.\u201d Its website also references Romans 12:20, which says, \u201cTherefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.\u201d And, despite the possible uncertainty of a pay-what-you-can model, the restaurant finds a way to make ends meet. \u201cI make an income off of social media. I make [an] income off telling my story to different outlets, different areas, and any form of money that I make off of my story gets donated back to my restaurant. We&#8217;re also funded by donations from people all over the United States.&#8221; Despite the restaurant\u2019s success, Stevens doesn\u2019t claim all the glory for herself. &#8220;I don&#8217;t do this for the fame, I literally give God all the glory.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2023, Elise Stevens of Union, Oregon \u201cvocally heard\u201d God telling her to make sourdough bread. \u201cWithin a couple of weeks, I had loaves of sourdough bread coming out of my ears. I made my own starter. I did it all on my own. I was handing sourdough bread out to everybody in my town,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":21025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How One Oregon Woman\u2019s Faith Led Her to Full Time Food Ministry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After hearing God\u2019s call, Elise Stevens opened a pay-what-you-can restaurant to serve her town\u2014trusting Him to provide every step of the way.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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