That’s the motto of SHP (Sleep in Heavenly Peace). It is a commitment to the community, particularly the children, to provide a decent and safe place to sleep. The estimate is that 3% of children do not sleep in their bed. They either are on the floor or a sofa or share a bed with other children or adults. Doesn’t sound like a huge number, but that equates to many thousand children in Mecklenburg county alone.

Christ Lutheran launched a SHP chapter for our county last year, building about 30 beds each time we gather.  Last week, we participated in a Lowes’ 24-hour build in which chapters from 36 states and approximately 6,500 volunteers met at the Charlotte Convention Center and knocked out (are you sitting down?) 10,027 beds! That’s amazing.

The volunteers from our chapter were there, manning two assembly lines training the volunteers to do everything from cutting to drilling to sanding to assembling. And it was great. The convention center looked like an anthill with people moving in every direction, getting the job done.

Kudos to Lowes not only for the lumber, but also for organizing such a massive event that, at least from our perspective, went off without a hitch.

At the end of the build, our chapter of SHP loaded up a truck with 14 pallets of unused lumber and drove to our workshop at Southland. With the help of about 20 of our volunteers standing side by side in a line, we unloaded the wood. After counting all that we received, we figured that we have enough lumber for about 200 beds!

This has been a wonderful ministry, filled with good people giving of their time and their skills to provide beds for kids. In addition, our quilting ministry provides some of the bedding—so this is a CLC group effort!

Stay tuned for our next bed build weekend. Don’t think you have to be a skilled carpenter. We need people to move lumber, do the sanding, hold boards in place and even provide lunch. Hope you can join us next time. You will be glad you did. . .because no kid sleeps on the floor in our town!

Peace,

Pastor Scott