Give Kids a Good Night’s Sleep
Tony McIntyre had seen some children share a twin bed with four siblings each night. Others slept in chairs or on the floor or on cockroach-infested mattresses. So he and his wife started a ministry through their church, Custer Road United Methdodist Church in Plano, Texas, to change that.
The church’s ongoing Bed Start ministry collects gently used mattresses, box springs and headboards. Monetary donations also are used to buy new items like those. The church then delivers the beds to local families in need, like low-income families registered with the Head Start program.
“One family had just been through an awful divorce, and the husband had taken all of the furniture,” McIntyre says. “We were able to give each child a twin bed and the mom a new queen-sized bed.”
Tom Hutson, a volunteer with Custer Road, helps deliver the beds on a regular basis.
“Jesus tells His followers that when He was hungry, they fed Him; when He was naked, they clothed Him,” Hutson says. “I think that passage could also translate into, ‘I had no place to sleep, and you provided me with a bed.’”
A more detailed story about this ministry appeared in the January/February 2008 issue of Outreach magazine.
