A six-year-old girl had never slept in a bed, and when one finally arrived, she hugged the post and kissed it like it was her mom. That moment is the spark behind Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a nonprofit taking on a problem most people never even see: child bedlessness, kids sleeping on floors, couches, pallets, or in overcrowded rooms because a bed slips behind rent, food, and survival.
We sit down with founder Luke Mickelson to trace how a farm kid from Idaho, wrestling with fear, doubt, and a quiet faith fog, stumbled into purpose through a simple act of service. Luke shares the first bunk bed build with his Boy Scout troop, the “tiny moment” that pushed him to build again with his own kids, and how a single Facebook post revealed just how widespread the need was in his own community. From there, the story expands into the real mechanics of scaling a nonprofit: creating local chapters, supporting volunteers, partnering with agencies, and building a model that communities can copy to serve families fast.
We also dig into what makes volunteer programs actually work, why the volunteer experience matters as much as the mission, and Luke’s three-step “tiny moments” framework for turning compassion into action. If you care about kids, community service, nonprofit leadership, or finding purpose through serving others, this conversation will stay with you. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can help get kids off the floor and into a bed.
To learn more about Luke and his amazing organization visit his website: https://lukemickelson.com/ or Sleep in Heavenly Peace’s website at: https://shpbeds.org/
To download a free chapter of host Sylvia Worsham’s bestselling book, In Faith, I Thrive: Finding Joy Through God’s Masterplan, purchase any of her products, or book a call with her, visit her website at www.sylviaworsham.com
Transcript:
If you’ve ever struggled with fear, doubt, or worry, and wondering what your true purpose was all about, then this podcast is for you. In this show, your host, Sylvia Warsham, will interview elite experts and ordinary people that have created extraordinary lives. So here’s your host, Sylvia Warsham.
I’ve still got a lot of fire left.
Hey, Live Bringers, it’s Sylvia Warsham. Welcome to Release Out Reveal Purpose. And today is Luke Mickelson, and he is going to be talking about child bedlessness. I had not heard of that term until I read his biography on PodMatch. And he right now is leading the biggest nonprofit in the world called Sleep in Heavenly Peace. And I kind of love that name, I will tell you, Luke. And it’s quite the problem in this country and likely around the world, children not having beds to sleep in. He’ll get into his story, but what I found touching of it was that it began as a service project with this Boy Scout troop. And then he wanted to include his children in it. And it just grew from there. So without further ado, Luke, thank you so much for joining us on released out review of purpose.
Sylvia, thanks for having me on. This is uh this is great. I’m excited.
I’m excited too, because I do know you are someone that is led by the spirit and because your name pretty much says it. And I would love to know the story that you shared with me prior to hitting record so that the listeners get a full idea of what this nonprofit is about.
Right.
Well, again, thanks for having me on. This is this is great. And, you know, and I tell everybody, listen, to kind of understand the story, a little bit about myself, just so you know what a normal Joe I am. You know, I’m a farm kid from Idaho. I grew up in a pretty small town, about 4,000 people. And the beauty of living in a small town is also the curse, which is everybody knows you and you know everybody, and you know their dog and their cousin. You know, they all live close, which, you know, when you look back, Sylvia, you don’t appreciate it at the time, but you appreciate it now. That builds a lot of sense of community, right? A lot of community support. And you just looked after each other. And and being a farm kid, I also learned the value of you got to figure it out on your own. You know, you when you’re out in the middle of the field and the tractor breaks down, you kind of have to figure it out. You know, when you combine those two things, I think uh you you come up with a pretty good sense of support that you get and that you want to provide. Um, I was raised by a single mom with five kids, right? So she worked three jobs, and uh, there’s a lot of times I’d get done with my basketball games and, you know, get off the bus at 10:30 just for her to pick me up and we’d go clean offices for a little extra money, you know. And then and and my mom was one of those gals that she worked for the school, so she had keys to the gym. Well, if I had a bad game, man, it’d be 11:30 after we get done, you know, uh working and and cleaning the offices, she’d take me down to the gym and I’d go shoot for another half hour, you know, if I had a bad game. And it was just, you know, she was my best fan and and was always supportive. And it’s so, in fact, one one year talking about community, uh, right after my parents divorced, it was Christmas time, and we weren’t gonna have much for Christmas, you know, single mom, recently divorced, five kids, you know, everybody knows that picture. Well, I went out to the mailbox and grabbed uh the mail. Well, in the mailbox was an envelope, had $1,500 in cash in it. Right. And that was that was from our community. You know, that’s just where we lived. And and and I bring that up because I think it’s important. I I realized even at a young age, someone could, so they did. Well, when I can, I will, you know, and that’s I I always kind of had that mentality. And so growing up, you know, I I like just being around people like service, you know, I from a small town. If you could pick up a ball and throw it in any direction with any bit of accuracy, you played sports, you just didn’t have a choice. And, you know, and of course, I was the I was the sports guy, you know, with the jock, I guess you’d call it. And and so and from that I learned the the joy of competition and working with people. And, you know, when I when I went out hunting and fishing, I always did it with people. I didn’t want to do it alone. I just I just like that. I like to be around people and support and then support us, just a team player, you know. And then when I went on a mission for my church, my mission president gave me some great advice. He said, you know, Luke, if you never want to work a day in your life, you got to look at your career as a way of serving others. And boy, that’s helped me in my careers and my jobs as I’ve gone through life, you know, with the times that it was hardest was the times that people needed you the most. And when you had that kind of mentality of service, boy, it really made the day worth it, you know, made the time go fast and made you feel like, you know, it’s more than just a paycheck. And so I carried that through my life. And so that that brought me to why I’m sitting in front of
you today. In 2012, I was uh I was in my job in my career for for many years, about a decade at that point, and and I did water treatment. If it doesn’t surprise you, I was an outside salesman, felt like I was pretty good at that. And so uh, but but here’s the thing, you know, and when and I think everybody at some point experiences a time in their life where they’re there’s just they’re like you walk through a little bit of a fog. And for me, you know, growing up in a single parent home where my mom was, you know, get your education and get a good job. So you don’t, you know, you’re not without. And and so my measure of success from that was get a good job that’s high paying, right? The number of zeros behind my paycheck, which, you know, it’s not that’s not a bad, that’s not a bad measure of success, not a bad goal. But when you get there to some degree, and for me, I had a great job making good money, had three kids, I was coaching football, I was in my church service, doing all this stuff, you know, on paper. It looked amazing. Uh, you know, I had a most people would love to have that. For me, though, you know, success doesn’t always equal fulfillment. And there was just something I was missing. And I was going through a big faith crisis. I was part of this church for 35 years, and all of a sudden I just didn’t know if I believed it, what I believed anymore. You know, maybe it was the first time in my life I really, really asked myself, you know, what is this about? Well, when you don’t get those answers like you normally do, it, you know, kind of puts you in a really funk. You know, you kind of, and I tell people, it’s kind of like this fog, right? You you’re walking through life and you know you got it, you know you’re doing good, but you you don’t know why. And you don’t know where is my foothold, where’s my footprint that I want to put on this life? And I got kids now, right? You know, uh am I being a good dad? I, you know, for me that these were all really serious questions that I wanted to have answers to, and I just, I just didn’t. And I kind of went through this for several years by myself. Like I didn’t tell anybody, which was probably a mistake. Hey, I’m a tough guy, I’m gonna figure it out, you know. And well, it was in this kind of fog state that I’d been in for a while, struggling, that in my church service, I was in a position what’s called a young men’s president, kind of like a youth pastor, if you will. Although, you know, I don’t maybe I was. Our church didn’t really consider that, but but I loved working with the youth. I coached, I, you know, I had activities and did all that stuff with the youth. So they put me in that position. I loved it. And and the activity of what we did was Boy Scouts. You mentioned that. And so I was kind of like the leader of the leader of the Boy Scouts. Well, in this position, every other week, we would have meetings with other leaders of the church or or, you know, leaders in the congregation, and we talk about things that were happening in the community or small community, what was happening uh in our own departments, if you will, and and the people that we were helping.
Well, one lady stood up and she talked about a home that she had visited. And and at first, you know, Sylvia, it caught my ear. I don’t I don’t know if you’re from a small town, but when you’re from a town my size and you’ve ridden your bike around this town since you five, right? You know every inch of this place. Well, she mentioned this apartment complex I didn’t even know existed. So I was like, wait, wait, what, what, you know, thinking, where is this place? Like, is this real? And then she started talking about what the family needed, the th, the things that she saw. You know, they that we were helping them with rent and rise to school, and the kids needed beds and they needed food and and some clothing. And I said, Whoa, whoa, and like, like hit me over the head. I’m like, wait a minute. And I stopped her. I’m like, did you just say the kids don’t have any beds? Like, okay, yeah, they’ve got like mattresses and stuff. And she said, no, there were blankets on the hardwood floor with a pillow. And I don’t know. I don’t know, Sylvie. I don’t know if it just was because of the fog I was in, you know, if it was because I thought about my own kids, you know. It it just lit a fire in me, almost like I was angry about it at first. I’m like, what? No way. In my small town, there’s kids on the floor. Okay, no, that’s not right. Well, then I thought about my Boy Scouts. And I think every leader out there that’s dealing with, you know, kids these days, trying to find an activity that doesn’t involve a screen or a computer or a phone that’s worthwhile, it’s kind of hard to do. And to keep their attention. Well, I thought, oh, great, here’s a great opportunity to put to take an Xbox controller out of these boys’ hands and let’s put a drill and a sander in it. Let’s teach them something. And now I’d never built furniture before in my life, but being a farm kid, you know, I’m not a stranger to tools. I worked, I’ve worked my way around a saw before. And so I went home and was pretty excited about it. And my daughter had a bunk bed, so I started measuring this bunk bed and coming up with a good idea. Now we’re talking about 12, 13, 14-year-old kids, so I had to make this as simple as possible, by the way. And so I came up with a good design and went to went to Lowe’s, our our number one sponsor, and they they gave me some some good deals on wood and stuff like that. And anyways, kids came over for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night, and we we built this bunk bed and just had an amazing time. You know, it was awesome. We I wanted them to feel the joys of service, like like I always felt in my life and what it brought me and and and to appreciate the things they had, right? I don’t I mean, I I didn’t realize that beds were luxuries for some people, right? I mean, they’re just mundane, normal tools that you and I use every day and not don’t think two seconds about it. Well, when we finished this bunk bed, it was, you know, Saturday came around to deliver it. Well, everybody kind of found out the word got out, you know, in the community and in our congregation. And the next thing you know, uh,
you know, I had about 30 people show up at my house to deliver this bed. And I was like, guys, we can’t send an army over to this two-bedroom apartment. So me and a bunch of people stayed back. I had to clean my garage anyways. I mean, it was the first week of December in Idaho, not exactly a tropical place to work in, right? And so uh they went and delivered this bed. Well, the next day at church, they just talked about how amazing it was. You know, the the joy that the kids had and that the appreciation the parents had. They got to see what it would have been like, or at least to kind of visualize what it’s like to sleep on the floor. My gosh, you know, and and I think it really helped the boys. At least, you know, as a leader, you kind of look back and say, win-win, right? You know, you solved the problem and you also taught something. That’s what we always hope to do. I was a little jealous, to be honest with you, because I didn’t get to go on the delivery, you know, and and to hear the stories that they had and how they felt, you know, it was just it was just a neat experience. And it it lit something in me. It lit just a little bit of a fire, you know. I was really excited. And and for whatever reason, of all the service projects we’d ever did, that one really felt meaningful to me. Well, the next week comes around, and you know how life just kind of creeps itself back in, you know, you’re back in the fog, you’re back in the, you know, and it was almost worse now because here I’d felt something. I’d felt a a real desire, a real passion, and then it fleeted away. You know, we we solved child bedlessness in the world. And uh, so I’m sitting on the couch, and uh me and my kids were watching Big Bang Theory, you know, our favorite program, and and uh some some commercial came on, it was Xbox or something, something with Xbox. Well, being it was the first week of December, like every parent deals with. We know what’s coming next. Hey dad, can we get another Xbox? And you know, Sylvia, it just hit me right, you know. Here I’m on the couch as a parent trying to figure out number one, who am I? Like, what is this life about? What’s the meaning here? What is my imprint that I want to leave? What do I need to teach my kids? Like they they want another Xbox, they got an Xbox. I just built a bed for a kid, you got a bed. Why don’t you believe? I mean, right? This this tornado of of noise just going on in my head.
And then all of a sudden I got this clear thought, and this is what this is why I call it my tiny moment. Because we all have them. This little thought said, you know what, you’re missing out on an opportunity to teach your kids the same thing you taught the Boy Scouts, right? Now, I didn’t know that anybody needed another bed. I don’t know, but it wasn’t about that. I just stood up and I walked to the garage, and my kids are like, Dad, where where are you going? I said, you know, I got leftover wood. We’re gonna build another bunk bed, and you’re gonna come and help me. And so, you know, we went out and and we had a great time, Sylvie. You know, I got my daughter in her pink tutu, you know, hammering away, and my son in this Boise State Jersey drilling wood together. We just had a great time, you know, and uh and so we built this bed, and ironically, I had no idea what to do with it. You know, you’re sitting here building the bed and a project, a Christmas project with your family, and and now what do you do with the with a bunk bed that you won you want to give to another child, right? Because that was such a neat experience, but I I didn’t know any existed anymore. And so my wife at the time says, Well, why don’t you put it on by sell trade on Facebook? Now, this is 14 years ago. I had no idea what that meant. You know, I I posted pictures of my sturgeon on on uh Facebook to brag to everybody. That was about all I used Facebook for. Well, I said, okay, put a free bet on Facebook Marketplace. That this’ll be a good experience. Well, two
things happened that were pretty shocking to me. Um, because I didn’t know how it worked, but it was still shocking. The first one was how many people commented on this post. You know, it was just a bunch of people, and they were complete strangers, no idea who they were. Didn’t even know I was friends with them. Like I didn’t know how it worked. You know, and and friends I hadn’t talked to for 20 years were commenting on. And the and the second thing that was shocking was what they commented about. They all knew kids that were sleeping on the floor, right? Or and they told me about it, like, you know, sleeping on concrete, sleeping on pallets for crying out loud, on air mattresses. And we know how that turns out in the morning, right? Sleeping on couches and four or five to a bed or with mom and dad. I mean, it just it blew me away. They did not have a bed of their own, not even a mattress. And I was like, this is crazy. This is going on in my own hometown, this many people, and it’s not a big town, everybody. It’s pretty small. And then I got a phone call from a friend of mine that said, Hey Luke, have you delivered your bed yet? That bed that you talked about. I said, No. And she says, Well, let me tell you about Haley. Now, Haley’s a six-year-old girl that has never slept on a bed before. She’s only slept in the backseat of her mom’s car. You know, they were they were homeless, which that in itself was really hard to imagine and to think even happens nowadays, especially in our nice rich country. And I got pretty excited. I’m like, this is this is exactly what I want this bed to go to. You know, it’s like the this is a special bed that me and my kids did, and I wanted to really go to a child. I mean, they’re all in need, but but this just struck me right. So we loaded up this bed and and hauled it off to Haley’s house. My friend worked for the social services and helped
them get a house. That’s why she called me. So we walked into this house. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve I’ve experienced and worked with homelessness and transitioning homelessness and moving people, and you know, and I’ve I’d seen this scenario before, right? There was there was nothing in the house. There was a can of soup that was on a hot plate. That was it. And so, you know, but but it was the first time I walked into this type of situation looking at it through the lens of a six-year-old, you know, because that’s who we we were there to serve. And when you do that, you look around, you’re like, there’s no couch or TV to watch cartoons Saturday morning like I did. You know, there’s no kitchen table or chair to eat your lucky charms up if you’re lucky in the morning, like I did, right? There was there was that can of soup, that was it. And this little girl was so excited to show me and my buddy her new place and even her new bedroom. She didn’t know why we were there. And I’m like, Yeah, show me your bedroom. So she pulled us back in the in her bedroom. Now you can imagine what this looked like, right? There was holes in the carpet and tears in the wallpaper, and there was no closet door, right? It was dimly, dimly lit, you know. But the worst part about the whole room was when I looked in the corner and there was a pile of clothes. It was her school clothes, that’s where she slept, a little nest that she made. She’d come home from school, put her PJs on, then sleep on her school clothes. I mean, pillow for a shirt, you know, and pants as a blanket, and then the next day put that same shirt and pants on, go to school. Now, I don’t know what I was gonna expect, but I didn’t expect that. And I certainly wasn’t prepared for it. I mean, at first I was almost like mad about it, you know, like uh but then I got pretty excited. We brought her this bed and we started putting it together, and and I wanted to watch her. I wanted to see what her reaction was when she realized what the heck these two guys were doing in her room. And sure enough, it was like Christmas morning. I mean, she just erupted and she came over and hugged us, and you know, these two strange dudes making all sorts of racket in her room. And then she did something I’d never forget. She went over to this bed, wrapped her arms around one of the posts, and then kissed it like it was her mom. I mean, my gosh, like I’m trying to hold it together. I’m trying to be this tough guy, you know, and then and then I mean, what the straw that broke the camel’s back for me was when I looked up with mom. And and I didn’t, I didn’t even think about this. I mean, how do you think about this? You know, here’s mom, single mom, like mine, you know, six years of tears just pouring down this poor lady’s face. And and I I knew what those tears meant. I really did. I knew the pain and the hurt and the guilt and the frustration of a of a single parent trying to provide for their children. They just can’t get everything that they know that they need. And unfortunately, a bed was too far down the totem pole, right? It it just it was a f it was a luxury. And I remember thinking, this this is what’s this is way more than just a bed. This is way more. I didn’t feel the impact, the weight of what we had built that family. And listen, I’m a farm kid from Idaho. I love hunting and fishing and camping and outdoor sports and college football on Saturday. I loved all these things. I loved them for 35 years, Sylvia. But I kid you not, in that moment, snap of a finger, none of that mattered to me anymore. No, I didn’t care. You know, I thought to myself, me and my kids, you know, seven and ten-year-old kids and a and a crazy old dad built a bunk bed. You know, it took a couple of days, but to solve that problem, yeah, that’s well worth my time. And instantly, that whole, that fog, that missing passion just filled, right? And and uh right then I told my friend on the way home, I said, you know what, no kid’s gonna sleep on the floor in my town if I have anything to do with do with it. So we started building beds.
That’s awesome. Oh my goodness, my heart swells. And I have felt the outflow and the overflow
of the Holy Spirit as you were speaking. So I know that whoever’s listening on the other side of this interview is being reached through your words and through your story. So thank you, Luke, for your story for your vulnerability, you know, because you’re a big tough guy. And it’s hard for big tough guys to admit and share your doubts and those questions you had, because our society views you as the provider and the protector. You’re always supposed to be on, and you’re never supposed to be doubting. You’re never supposed to be in this dark space, and yet the Lord took that darkness and did something beautiful in it, in that wilderness that none of us want to go through because it sucks to go through wilderness and to not know and to not have answers, just like Job, to sit in that silence for those first seven days must have been torture for those friends and for Job to just understand why I am here. Why has this happened? And in your case, there were things happening in your life that remind Of that story. And the Lord may not have answered it, but led you through that darkness and said, Follow me. Follow that tiny moment, that prompting to just build the bed with your kids. And look at the story, the impact of a six-year-old girl who kisses the bed, just like she would kiss her mom. It just you can’t make stuff like this up. I mean, this is this is amazing. It reminded me also of the song from Mercy Me. Even if, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard that song, but even if you don’t move that mountain, you know, I will have something to sing about. I will glorify you. Because in Job’s story, he still glorifies God despite not getting his answers. And it sounds like you got some part of your answer, and you got more than that, your divine purpose. The reason why you’re here on earth is to have built this nonprofit, sleep in heavenly peace, to make sure that no child will ever be without a bed because you are gonna ensure that. And it just warms my heart. There’s like more that I can say. And I know the listeners are just their hearts are just filled with joy just at hearing your story. Do walk us through how you did, in fact, build that nonprofit. How did you let go of that sales job? Because I know I came from sales, man, and I remember the dollar amounts and the need to succeed. That’s a big one because you are the provider and the protector of the family. You’re the spiritual leader of your home. Do guide us on how you let that go and step fully into sleep in heavenly peace.
Yeah. That’s a great question. Thank you for asking it. And it’s actually really ironic that you you bring up Job. I I just listened to a philosopher, uh Jordan Peterson, or one of the greatest philosophers in our our time right now, just an amazing guy. Um he gave the he gave an analogy of an explanation and a different explanation, but I really like it of the experience that Job had, you know, and how how Job, when when he was, you know, commanded to go and preach and didn’t because he was scared, you know, of course, God was really teaching him a lesson. And and he talks about the lesson was, you know, he didn’t get to speak his soul. Like Job didn’t get to speak his soul. And so when you don’t get
to speak your soul, or you hold back from actually speaking your truth in a way, that’s when you you put yourself in your own hell. You know, you put yourself in a spot that builds resentment, it builds frustration, it creates fog in your life. When you’re not vulnerable and expose or express what you really have in your heart. And when I listened to him talk about that, I felt like that hit me pretty good because I didn’t I wasn’t in a bad spot of where I was in life, at least on a on a secular level, right? But more on a, it really is a spiritual, maybe divine level. That’s where I was struggling, you know. I was going through a faith crisis. I didn’t know what I believed. I was afraid of it. In fact, in fact, some of the reason why sleep in heavenly peace got created because when you have a big faith crisis, for me, anyways, the first thing I thought of is like, yep, being led by the devil, you know, but I feel like I’m a good guy. I don’t know what my problem is, you know? And so, so when this came about, no question that there was some divine purpose. You know, I was in the well, if you will, and this was an opportunity for me to finally voice, at least internally, what I wanted to share. And it gave me an opportunity to do that. And so when I got home from that delivery with Haley, I was committed to build more beds. You gotta remember, I had a I had a post of all these kids that we knew about, and I needed to fulfill it, you know. I remember I think the very next delivery was a family that of eight, six kids, two parents. They were living in an eight-passenger van. I mean, holy cow, and finally got a a little two, well, it might have been a three-bedroom apartment, six kids, three beds. I took six, six beds over to that place, three bunk beds, and it was awesome, you know. But we we built 21 beds that first holiday season and and delivered them all before Santa. You know, it was just it was amazing. And and my wife said, you know, you got to call this project a little something. And I said, Don’t worry, I got the perfect name, Beds for Babes. And she said, she looked at me, I kid you not, five, not even five seconds. No, it’s not. And hey, don’t judge me too quick. It was the first time I said it out loud, and it didn’t, it didn’t taste right when you finally say it. And I said, Well, what do you call then? She says, Well, how about sleep in heavenly peace? And when you think about it, it was just the perfect name. It was one of those that just rattled off her. I mean, there’s a first thought that came to her mind. You know, Christmas time, silent like one of the greatest hymns of all time. And what and who is it talking about? It’s talking about the one person we all know that didn’t have a bed. And it’s and it really reflects what we want these kids to do asleep in heavenly peace. So we started building beds, and and the the next year we built, we had another what we call build then. So we built a bed or built actually 15 beds, and then my buddy came down and he wanted to build up there, so we built more, and we ended up building, well, 15 bunks, sorry. We ended up building 51 beds that year. And then the next year, I you know, we couldn’t finance it ourselves because it was just getting more and more. The more we built, the more kids came to us, or at least stories of these kids. And and I realized, holy cow, what is going on? There’s there’s hundreds of kids, not just two or three or ten. There’s hundreds of kids that need help. And so the next year we built 75 and we became a nonprofit. And and uh, you know, boy and and the other ironic, well, I didn’t say ironic, you want uh the other amazing thing was how many people wanted to help. Sylvia, I had complete strangers show up to my garage and said, Hey, can I sand? And I’m like, heck yeah, you can sand. Come on, let’s, you know, and and all of a sudden I had a had a a
warehouse full of wood and and sawdust and drills and strangers and tears and and high fives. And I mean, it was just the it was the greatest thing, you know, and and now as we’ve grown and more people want to get involved and wanted to do it in their own hometown, and we were featured on some pretty big publications that were a megaphone to the world to help them realize number one, that child bedlessness, although it’s not even a real word, which is the ironic thing, because it’s a real problem. You know, it represents greater than 3% of the total population of whatever town you’re living in. So if you’re in a town of 100,000 people, there are 3,000 kids that are on the floor. And guess what? They might live right next door. It’s such a hidden and unknown problem. You know, and the other ironic thing to me was when I wanted to be a nonprofit, I’m I’m an entrepreneur. I like starting and stopping businesses. I’ve done it many times, and but I never started a nonprofit. I didn’t know what I was doing. So, of course, you go and talk to a nonprofit that’s doing the same thing and you kind of figure it out, right? Well, I looked, I found one in the entire country. Isn’t that crazy? One nonprofit that provided beds for kids. That’s it. I mean, that wow, that in itself was shocking. Because to me, I’m like, I’m getting, there’s there’s a lot of kids in my community, my small community. I can’t imagine what it’s be like in some of the more poverty-stricken areas of the country. There’s gotta be other well, there wasn’t. And and it was solidified when I mean I was getting calls from CPS and and foster care and CASA and all these agencies that were helping these families. I was like their favorite guy. And I’m like, I didn’t know why. I had no idea. And they said, Luke, listen, you you don’t understand. Providing a bed for a child or getting a bed for a child in these circumstances is oftentimes, most of the time, the single hardest thing for them to do. Which I just didn’t comprehend. I thought getting a bed for a child’s hard. I mean, we’ll build them one. You know, it just so that’s how it grew into, and there was thousands of people that felt the same way and experienced, and when they found out about child bedlessness, had the same change of heart, had the same passion that burned. And now we have we’ve trained over 490 chapter presidents, you know. We we’re in four countries. We just delivered our 400,000th beds, really since 2018. And and we built a half a million beds. Uh and and and we’re we’re still just barely scratching the surface. There’s 12 and a half million kids plus in our in our very rich country that don’t have beds. And the and the main problem is is no one knows about it.
Yeah, because then nobody’s gonna be talking about something that is very shameful to them. And to admit I don’t have enough money to provide the basic necessity that my child needs.
That’s well, food, clothing, shelter, right? The three big.
The three big. And you think I mean you do think it is a luxury. A bed is a luxury, it’s not a necessity. It’s a luxury. And we do take it for granted because we we have the means and we just don’t think about it. Those questions you had at the beginning of the interview where you’re sitting there and they just want another Xbox, that happened to me in December of last year. Really? I sat there looking at all the things that we had in our home. And what were we teaching our children? More? You you need more? No. You don’t need more. You need to learn what you do have, and what you do have we give away. Because that blessing, that thought, that idea didn’t come from us, it came from the Lord and from his overflow and from his blessing. And when we are blessed in the way we have been blessed, it is our duty as a part of his body to give that gift away. It’s not ours to keep, right? And when we teach our children since the time they’re very young to use the skills that the Lord has gifted them with. Because that’s in essence what you’re teaching your young children, Luke, is look at the He gave you woodworking as a skill. And you’re using it to benefit his children that are in need. Because we’re all the same to him, but he doesn’t have favorites. He doesn’t, right? Because it teaches us that even if he doesn’t move that mountain for us, we are there to honor him with what we do every day. And I’m just blessed to hear you say these words. Say what you’re teaching your kids. And moving forward, what are the next steps for sleep in heavenly peace? What do you think the Lord is guiding you in this season of your life?
You know, as we speak right now, we yeah, we have 400, I think active chapters right now. We have about 420 active chapters, which is a lot of chapters. That’s a lot of beds. In fact, just yesterday was our bunks across America. We built 12,000 beds plus a single day, over 250 chapters, you know. So it’s great. However, we have right now, as you and I speak, on average, every day we have about 120,000 kids that are on our waiting list all the time. And the sad reality, we only cover 30 of the United States. You know, so we have a long way to go. And the program that we put together works very well. You know, the website we have, shpbeds.org, is not a big national website. You know, it used to be, but we quickly realized that, and I realized a long time ago, listen, if we really want to solve child bedlessness, and it’s not gonna be by some guy and farm kid from Twin Falls, Idaho. No, it’s got to be solved locally. So we got to create a program and a platform that people can copy what we’re doing and just do it in their own hometown, right? And so that’s what we did. You know, we created this program and took all the obstacles away from anybody starting a nonprofit. They don’t have to worry about that. They don’t have to worry about insurance and bank accounts and all the mumbo jumbo that goes with administrations and starting a nonprofit. We took, we, we handle that for everybody. We just look for people that have the same passion that we have that want to provide beds for the kids and solve this problem in their own hometown. And because we do that, that’s how we’ve been able to grow to the largest in the world and provide 100,000 beds a year to these kids, you know. So when you go to our website, we change it from just being a national organization. And although we are that, we don’t look at ourselves that way. We actually look at ourselves as we’re just 425 individual communities that have the same mission. So you’re gonna, when you go to shpbeds.org, you’ll be brought up to the chapter that’s closest to you on their website, and you’ll see how many kids they’ve helped and built beds for, how many are on their waiting list. You’ll see events that you can be a part of and and help out with. You can donate. You know, that’s the other thing. When I started a nonprofit, so yeah, I didn’t want to be like another nonprofit. You know, I didn’t know much about them, but I always worried when I donated my money, where’s it going? What’s it going to? How, you know, blah, blah, blah. I made sure we we we still have to turn on the lights, we still have to, you know, pay for pay for things.
No, and you have to pay salaries because there’s people on the back end that are doing work that nobody sees, but that’s right, it it keeps the program running. You see, I I also created a nonprofit in college, so I know what it takes to start something and to keep it going, because that’s the other thing is to make sure that that everything is is working smoothly. And because there’s always issues, much like when we’re entrepreneurs, we go through these spikes, you know, and these big waves of like really high highs and really low lows. And nonprofits are very similar. In fact, I was in front of a nonprofit last week here in Austin, Texas, and Sammy’s house, and they provide medical, like they provide a space where they prepare from zero years to pre-K level children that have medical uh special needs. They prepare them in a classroom setting and they kind of bring that trauma level down significantly. And I walked in and and my heart just, I mean, there was no way. It was kind of like the moment you were describing with Haley. My heart just kind of bungled up in my throat. And I just thought, wow, these people really are doing an amazing service. But we know that there’s a lot of struggle out there to get the money appropriated correctly so that the families can have the support. Because the executive director of Sammy’s house had a child that ended up dying because he had special needs. And she found herself in a space where she needed these resources that now she provides through her nonprofit. And it’s amazing to see how much you’ve expanded. It sounds like you have chapters everywhere. I’m sure Austin has a chapter. And I will tell you, my husband is an amazing woodworker, and this he’s always looking for projects to work on because he gets bored. He’s an electrical engineer, and he goes into the garage, and the Texas heat here is awful. But I know in the winter months he’ll want to have a project to work on that would really make him feel all the feels. Well, who does who doesn’t love playing with power tools?
You know, I’m not I’m not a woodworker, I’m not someone that likes it, but listen, that’s the beauty, that’s the beauty of what we created, right? Because, you know, we build these beds from raw lumber. And it’s not sleeping on the piece, it’s the volunteers that come to our build days. They’re they’re the people that maybe never touched a drill before in their lives. And that’s the other amazing thing that I realized is the volunteer experience is so critical. Like, you know, a lot of people will volunteer, and I have a really good story about this, but a lot of people volunteer and maybe never go back because they don’t, although they know they did good, they don’t have that necessarily fulfillment feeling that they get. You know, maybe, maybe they didn’t feel like they participated enough, or maybe the cause, you know, they it someone else could have been there. It wasn’t as important for them to be there. These are all, these are all things that volunteers feel, you know. And as nonprofits, listen, this is gold nugget stuff I’m dropping here. Your volunteer experience needs to be just as important as your mission, because that’s who solves these problems. That’s who solves it for you. So you got to make the experience for the volunteer an amazing one. And and they need to feel like they’re a part of it, that they’re a solution. I had an old guy come to, I mean, old, old guy, 700 years old. I mean, this guy’s an old guy. You know, he came to our building and uh he he wanted to know what to do. And uh, you know, my first thought was Hank, I don’t I don’t want you to die. That’s let’s let’s keep that on the table. And I said, What do you do for a living? And he says, Well, I was a I was a carpenter for 40 years. Oh, yeah.
You know how to work with tools.
Yeah. If there’s one station in our all our stations that you can’t screw up, it’s cutting the wood. That’s kind of a critical part. There’s no there’s no wood stretchers that we have, right? No. So we put them on the saw. And uh, and you know, when you’re doing a build with 80 volunteers and you know, you might be the only guy that knows what’s doing all you get all these questions, you’re running around, you’re you know, you’re training people. Well, I completely forgot about this this Hank guy, and it was four hours later, and I’m like, oh my gosh, I need to go see a lot of number one. Well, you go over there and he’s covered in. I mean, his clothes are as white as his hair. It was hilarious, but I felt really bad. And and and he, you know, I said, Hank, oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I forgot about you. And he kind of looked at me and he wiped his his face, the sawdust off his face, and he says, Luke, let me tell you something. I’m like, oh crap, here we go. I deserve it, I deserve it. And he says, you know, I have served at places my whole life. I’ve volunteered my whole life. I says, I’ve never shown up to an event, and in five minutes, I was put on an assignment so critical, I couldn’t leave. People, people would have waited on me, you know, if I wasn’t doing my job. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom. And I’m like, man, Hank. God sucks four hours. I truly am. I truly am sorry. And he like held up his hand like to tell me to stop. And he said, no, thank you. And I kind of stepped back and I was like, and it dawns on me, right? He was there to help, but he was getting fulfilled. He knew he needed to be there.
It’s God’s joy right there. Yeah, that’s a definition of joy for those listening, because we oftentimes as human beings forget the distinction between being happy, which is the earthly concept, or being joyful. And that is being complete and perfect according to God. Because the word perfect in the Bible does not mean what the word perfect means for us here on earth, it means whole.
Sure.
And that is the essence of the fruit of the spirit of joy.
You know, I when I go around town or go around the country and speak, my talk is called tiny moments. Because I want people to understand that my experience of finding true joy, and I stand by this, is you number one, you gotta stop looking at yourself and you got to see how you can help other people. Now, do your problems magically disappear? Of course they don’t. Of course they don’t. But we have a weird habit sometimes in humans where when we have a problem we don’t want to face, we just throw in the closet and deal with it later. Well, that’s when this weird, that’s when this weird superpower that we have kicks in. It’s a terrible power. We the this problem that we just threw in the closet and don’t want to deal with starts growing arms and legs and fangs and just gets bigger and uglier, right? Yeah. And it gets harder and harder to deal with. And so it weighs us down. And and weighing yourself down, you know, produces a lot of anxiety and and fear and doubt. And that’s not joy, you know. And so, but when you go and serve, when you when you’re out serving and thinking about and helping other people with their problems, right, what happens? Well, it puts you in this state of mind and really it provides a perspective that you otherwise wouldn’t have. And that perspective, whatever it might be teaching you, it does something for you. When you open that closet door to look at this monster now, well, you realize, oh, it’s it’s actually not that big of a deal. And it’s not as heavy as I thought. You know, I lost my job. How do I deal with that? Well, when you go and serve, you know, you’ll realize number one, the things that you have and how grateful, and maybe how you got them and what’s more important in life, maybe your job and how horrible it was, and maybe this is a great thing. At least it puts you in a state of mind and a perspective that now you can deal with this problem. Now you can either work around it or get through it or work through it, right? That’s where joy’s coming from. You know, and so my tiny, I teach people tiny moments. Number one, there’s there’s a there’s kind of a process here, if you don’t mind me sharing. No, you know, that process number one is when you see something. And we see stuff all the time. I mean, you walk down the street, you go to church, you go to school, you go walking in the mall, you’re gonna see problems all over the place, right? And some of those, which is the second step, some of those you feel for, you really feel for. And the good thing, the Lord’s blessed us with all sorts of different appetites and preferences because we feel things differently. I’m glad we all don’t feel the same about the same problems, right? I don’t care so much about the ocean, I do, but I care more about beds for kids, right? You know, whereas someone feels differently, which is great. That’s what we need. So when you see something and then you feel for it, that’s that’s you, that’s you. There’s something inside of you going, Luke, you you ought to do something. This is something that I think you and I would like. You know, this is yourself talking. And so it takes you to the third step. Now, this is the step that’s the hardest. It’s the act step. So I tell people, listen, we all want to change, we all want to do good. When I was sitting in my fog and my, you know, that that depressed us, I want to do, I want to do change, I wanted a better life. You know, maybe you’ll go see a therapist, maybe you’ll read a self-help book or listen to a great podcast like this, all for motivation to to be better and do better. Awesome. That’s great. We need that. But your your motivation, your desire to act needs to be higher, needs to be stronger. And ask yourself, do you ever work on that? Do you ever practice that? You know, if we’re out wanting to be a better free throw shooter, what do you got to do? You gotta go shoot. You gotta practice.
Because practice makes permanent.
100%. 100%. And and so when you’re sitting here thinking and you see something and you feel it, that’s your body giving you a tiny moment. It’s it’s within yourself because sometimes they’re very, very tiny and and they don’t they seem insignificant. That’s why they’re so easy to dismiss, right? Oh, it’s not a big deal, or I’m too busy.
It’s also the moments of joy that the Lord gifts us every single day, but because of our busyness, we just don’t see them. We don’t experience them because we don’t pause for presents. Sure. As he’s asking us to. I loved what you’ve said so far, but we are at the end of the show. And I did want to just first of all thank you, Luke, for coming on and telling us your amazing story about sleep and heavenly peace. And do tell your wife that her name was way better than yours.
No question.
And congratulations on how far you’ve brought this organization. I will pray that you will be able to take it internationally and to have several chapters everywhere because this is a problem that is not only experienced here in the United States, it’s experienced everywhere in the world. And children are our most vulnerable out there. This is what’s important to Christ. Our widows and children, and you’re and you’re doing the job. So bravo for that. For the listeners of Release Doubt, Reveal Purpose. Remember Matthew 5.14 to be the light. Be the light like Luke’s been the light. Step into your purpose, whether you see the path before you or not. Have faith that the Lord is guiding you in these tiny moments with his voice, with his leadership. If you let him, he will lead you into your light. For everyone else, have a beautiful and blessed rest of your day. Bye now.
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