Sweet Sleep is a faith based organization which provides beds to orphaned and abandoned children around the world. They serve children in Moldova, Uganda, Northern Uganda, and Haiti.
Here is the story behind Sweet Sleep...
"In July 2003, Jen Gash was part of a mission team working with orphans in the Eastern European country of Moldova. Her first image of the orphanage came in seeing a pile of mattresses stacked in a corner. The mattresses were only about one-inch in thickness. The smell coming from the mattresses was overwhelming. Jen would later learn the mattresses were 17–47 years old and the 700 children growing up in Moldova’s largest orphanage had only 430 beds and mattresses to share—meaning many children slept two-to-a-bed.
Jen’s heart grew heavier as she sat with the children on their beds each day. Their exhausted metal beds were only the size of a cot. The tired metal springs were sprung and almost every bed sagged in the middle, making it much like a metal hammock. Many children did not even have mattresses and used old wool blankets as a barrier to the harsh metal springs.
Throughout the week, Jen prayed earnestly as she sought to understand what she felt God was asking of her. One evening, during the team’s prayer time, someone prayed for the children to have “sweet sleep” and Jen began to cry. She sensed God confirm a call in her life to somehow work to provide for this specific need of the children she had fallen in love with during the week. In her own prayer time that evening, God brought those words back to her as He continued to affirm His intentions for His children to sleep sweetly on mattresses and beds that would no longer harm them.
On the plane home, Jen decided to read some scripture. She reached for her Bible and opened right to Proverbs, where one particular verse seemed to “jump” off the page. The verse was Proverbs 3:24: “When you lie down you will not be afraid; when you lie down your sleep will be sweet.”
Once back in Nashville, Jen began sharing her vision of “a bed for every head” and immediately received Sweet Sleep’s first donation.
The rest of the story is ministry."
Something as simple as a clean mattress can protect children from a myriad of issues. When children sleep on soiled beds, paper thin mats, or cold, hard floors they are more susceptible to biting insects and disease. The statistics are staggering:
- 1 in 5 of all childhood deaths is caused from malaria. 90% of these children are in Africa alone.
- A sagging or misshapen mattress may add tension to a child’s joints because their bodies rest on the mattress for hours at a time. Even if a child sleeps well on a bad mattress, these injuries to their bodies only make them weaker.
- Old mattresses or scraps of foam are breeding grounds for bed bugs and allergens that contribute to startling increases in respiratory diseases, including asthma as well as rhinitis, eczema and bed bug bites.
- When children continuously do not get enough sleep it affects their health, makes them tired during the day, hinders their ability to do well at school and leaves them more prone to disease.
Sweet Sleep's provision of mosquito nets brings peace and security to children who are so afraid of contracting malaria.
How you can be involved...
Go
Contact Sweet Sleep to arrange a trip for your family or group.
Give
Take a look at the options for giving. We are always looking for creative ways to help our boys be "others minded". The $8 and $10 options seem like perfect opportunities for children to purchase gifts with their own money for these precious children for Thanksgiving or Christmas gifts.
- $8 provides a mosquito net to orphans in Africa or Haiti.
- $10 provides a Bible to an orphan in his or her language.
- $50 provides a bed and bedding for orphan resettlement kits in northern Uganda.
- $125 provides a healthy, comfortable new Sweet Sleep bed for a child in Africa.
- $167 provides a complete Sweet Sleep bed for an orphan in Haiti.
- $200 provides a comfy Sweet Sleep bed for a Moldovan orphan.
Sign up to be a part of the prayer team or to receive monthly news letters.
Shop
100% of the profits from the Sweet Sleep store go to provide beds,
