Sleep in Heavenly Peace builds beds for kids who don’t have one
After volunteers construct frames, the nonprofit organization tops them off with mattresses and bedding
The buzz of saws and squeals of drills fill the air when a corner of the MET Church campus transforms into a woodworking factory on Saturdays.
Volunteers are assigned to 18 different stations, each with a captain, two Saturdays each month at the northwest Houston church. Together, they churn out twin beds that can be stacked into bunks.
It’s the mission of the nonprofit Sleep in Heavenly Peace to deliver the beds, along with mattresses and bedding, to children who otherwise would not have their own.
“You start with raw lumber,” co-president Thomas Lincoln said.
Boards are measured and marked to become headboards, side rails and slats to support a mattress before being cut, sanded, drilled and sealed.
Holes are bored for dowels that allow the finished beds to be stacked. Some volunteers are charged with screwing the pieces together; others assemble the bedding, which is sorted by age and gender.
Last year, the Houston Northwest chapter of the organization built 732 beds for children in need. This year, the goal is nearly double, 1,350 beds.
“Whatever we can get out the door,” Lincoln said.
About 2 to 3 percent of the nation’s youth in the U.S. do not have beds of their own, Lincoln said. In Houston, the number is significant, he said.
Families in need apply on the organization’s website, and local chapters respond to the approved applications in their service area.
Lincoln and co-president Gary Akin want to do whatever they can to help. “Our goal this year is to get further down the list,” Akin said. “We know there’s a need, and we want to take care of it.”
Starting the chapter
Akin founded the Houston North chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace with his wife, Nikki, in 2018 after reading about the national organization on Facebook. The chapter serves a location stretching from Loop 610 up to the Harris County line, between Interstate 69 and U.S. 290 and west of Texas 249.
Akin had been an avid volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and hurricane relief efforts for years, and he was looking for a less physically taxing project. “I got too old,” he said with a laugh. “I needed something else.”
The vision of Sleep in Heavenly Peace resonated with him — building beds at no cost for children sleeping on the floor, on couches or with siblings.
The nonprofit was established by Idaho resident Luke Mickelson. After constructing one bed for a child in need in 2012, word spread of the deed, and requests began pouring in.
Mickelson ended up building 11 beds in his garage, followed by 15 the next year. Before long, the numbers of requests soared into the hundreds, and Mickelson formed a nonprofit to respond to the call.
Now, there are about 300 chapters across the U.S., as well as in Canada, Bermuda and the Bahamas.
Akin signed up for training in Idaho. He set up a meeting at his church, Northwoods Presbyterian, to share the news and to recruit volunteers. “I invited everyone I had an email address for,” he said.
Akin also sent a message to the mission director at his church seeking funding. He shared that about $3,500 would be necessary to cover starting costs and the purchase of needed tools. “She called me on a Thursday and asked, ‘Can you
make a presentation on Monday?’” Akin recalled.
It was urgent; another mission had canceled. So the church had funding ready to donate, $3,000 to be exact, and was looking for a new project. It felt heaven-sent. “There was ‘someone else’ involved the whole time, to see the way things happened,” Akin said. “And it’s been that way the whole time.”
Lincoln, a church member who works in industrial supply, offered to provide the tools. Then he became co-president of the chapter.
Finding a home
Other Sleep in Heavenly Peace chapters kept their tools in a trailer, set up shop in a parking lot for a day and then moved everything into storage. Akin was hoping instead to find a dedicated workshop space.
After hearing about Akin’s desire to start a chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, Bob Young, a member of the MET Church who volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, told him, “We’ve got a building for you.”
The church’s lead pastor, Matt Roberson, offered a building on campus that was vacant. “We had this old facility that we weren’t using at all,” he said. “And it was sitting right in the middle of campus.”
Roberson offered the building rent free. “They went in, emptied everything out and set up stations,” he said.
When that building was needed for church business, Heavenly Peace moved first to a rental space and then to the storage facility on the corner of campus. Donors from the MET Church came forward to expand the space to better fit the needs of the organization.
Bruce Green, a member of Northwoods Presbyterian, works in the metal building industry and offered to do the work at cost. Another member, Jim Landing, offered his services as a master electrician.
Housing the chapter on campus has ended up being a blessing for the MET Church, Roberson said.
“I’m trying to help people grow in their faith,” he said. “One way to do that is to focus on others. That’s how you grow and develop in your relationship with the Lord.”
He can simply point members to Sleep in Heavenly Peace if they are interested in helping others.
Roberson has participated in the build days himself and has brought his daughters and members of the softball team he coaches along for the ride.
“Once you deliver one bed to a child, once you have that opportunity, you’re hooked,” he said. “You get to change someone’s life immediately when you put a bed in their room.”
The co-presidents of the Houston North chapter agreed. “Delivery is the frosting on the cake,” Akin said. “That’s what puts it all into perspective.”
Lincoln added, “There are some deliveries that are so meaningful; they just stick with you. I’ve been there when a 4-year-old kid is so excited, he’s jumping up and down and when a 12-year-old girl was in tears. She didn’t have a bed for eight years.”
Built on faith
The faith community has been essential in the growth of the Houston North chapter, Lincoln said. In addition to the MET Church, other congregations have stepped up to help.
Faithbridge Church hosts bedding drives, and students from Northland Christian School volunteer. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elevation Church and Kinsmen Lutheran all have supported the group over the years.
Northwoods Presbyterian provides volunteers and funding through its outreach and mission programs.
“Our pastor said this has helped our church come together — reinvigorated us with something new,” Lincoln said.
“It’s been a godsend for our church,” Northwoods pastor Paul Nazarian said. “It has allowed people to use their gifts.
Retired engineers have streamlined the bed-building process. They work alongside others who perhaps never would have considered themselves craftsmen. Youth have also gotten involved.
“It has just snowballed into being a wonderful ministry,” Nazarian said.
Lincoln said building beds has become like a form of worship for him.
“This helps me get closer to my faith, by doing this work,” he said. “And it’s impacting a lot of people’s faith. People get involved.”
His son Lance, now 18, has worked at his father’s side for the past four years, joining on the first build day for the chapter.
“We ended up having a really good time,” Lincoln said. “For me, it was a way to spend time with my son.”
The program depends on volunteers and donations to continue, he added.
Individuals can donate needed equipment or bedding, in addition to financial support. Companies are invited to sponsor build days.
Akin said that the most rewarding part of leading the chapter is seeing how each volunteer can contribute their skills, whether that means buying a pillowcase or drilling a hole. Together, they are able to accomplish more than they could alone, he said.
Since founding the group, he continues to be astounded by the amount of children in need of a bed. “It’s an unbelievable need that never seems to be met,” he said.