Update on Rachael and her boys

Hey Mark,

Talked to Rachael tonight. She said she’s in need of beds for herself and her three boys, and that she’d prefer a full-size bed if we happen to come by one. I think they’d be happy to receive any other furniture/housewares we could give them as well, and she mentioned kitchenware specifically, pots, pans, etc. From what I gathered, she works evenings until 11pm, but she said she’s off during the morning on Thursday and Friday, so I said we could meet at 11:30am on Friday. Do you think that you or anyone else would be able to take lunch and go with me?

Peace,
Nathan

Fundraising opportunity

The Bed Project continues to come across bloody bodies (as Mark likes to put it) along the side of the road.  We’ve mentioned before that we don’t have enough resources to meet all the needs we see.  So, will you join us and help us bandage some of the bloody bodies we want to help? TBP has begun a fundraising opportunity using the Kroger Fundraising Gift Cards.  If you shop at Kroger, this should be really easy!  Here’s how you can help TBP meet some needs in our community:

 

1.      Acquire a gift card from Linda Edwards or Becky Lloyd.

2.      Load (recharge) your gift card – either at guest services or at the register inside the store. NOTE: If you recharge your card at the register and use your card to pay for your purchases, please ask the cashier to recharge the card BEFORE your purchases are rung. The gift card recharge must be done as a SEPARATE TRANSACTION.  The maximum recharge amount is $500.

3.      You can purchase all merchandise from Kroger including fuel and prescriptions! (Exceptions are services – money orders, Western Union, postage stamps, lottery tickets, or another Kroger gift card.)

4.      If you let your card reach a zero balance, and it remains there for 90 days, the card will expire.  Once it expires, it will then need to be replaced with a new card from Linda. An expired card cannot be re-activated. So, don’t let your card reach a zero balance.  Please keep money loaded on your card.  But, be careful.  Once you load your card with money, don’t lose it.  It’s like walking around with cash.

 

Once TBP account reaches $5000 in charges, we’ll receive a 5% rebate in the form of a check.  It’s a win-win situation.  Supporters of TBP can pick up groceries, prescriptions and buy gas and TBP receives funds to help those in need with beds and others necessities.  (And, Kroger doesn’t do too badly, either.)

Thank you in advance for helping us help others!

The Bed Project Team

 

 

Hello Network of Compassion People:

We (The Bed Project) have come across some bloody bodies along the side of the road.  We are bandaging up as many as we can.  As we do this, we have noticed a few more.  We don’t have enough resources right now to meet all the needs we see.  We will continue to do our best, but we know how the wind of the Spirit blows in the kingdom, so we throw these needs into that wind and watch.

 

• William is a homeless man we met last night under the bridge.  His son was one of two recently killed in Pine Bluff.  He is in need of some dress clothes to wear to his son’s funeral this weekend.  I told him I would put the word out and bring him what I can Thursday night.  He could use some dress slacks (38 waist, 30 length), socks and underwear, dress shirt (2-3X), and size 12 dress shoe.  A jacket would also be nice.
• Heather and her 11-year-old son Kirby just moved out of a battered women’s shelter into her own apartment.  All they have is a couch and a chair, which they have been sleeping in.   We were able to get them two new twin mattresses with linen to sleep in while we make them some beds.  We could use two twin box springs.  They also could use any type of kitchenware.
• We got a call from the Women and Children First agency (battered women’s shelter) the other day.  A mother, Rachel, and her three children, Dasmine, Kyron, and Treshawn (10, 9, 8 years old), just moved from the shelter to transitional housing and are in need of beds (mother and kids).  We could use some donated mattresses or beds that are in good shape, particularly a full or queen size for the mother.  We could use some help with financing the materials and building the beds.

 

If you want to help in any way through a donation or helping us build the beds, give us a shout.   

Grace and Peace,

Mark and The Bed Project people

TBP in Action (and Contemplation)

Last Thursday night, we delivered a newly built bunk bed to Faith and Patience (see their picture below).  Their family of seven lost all their belongings in a house fire.  The Bed Project had delivered a bunk bed to their younger sisters (see them in their beds below)  about a month before.  Their names reflected how they had waited.    

It took us about 90 minutes to put the bed together.  Our friend, Chris, had helped us build the beds and this was his first time delivering a bed to a family.  There was a moment that busy evening when both halves of what the Bed Project is all about came together.

We had just finished building and stacking the beds.  Faith and Patience were excitingly making up the beds.  I was standing next to Chris and we were looking at the beds and watching the girls.  Chris had this reflective look on his face and said, as if to himself, “This is good.”  I looked at Chris and smiled.  I thought I knew what he was experiencing, but I wanted to check.  So, I whispered to him, “What is good, Chris?”  Absorbed in the moment, Chris did not answer the question, confirming what I thought.  I shared in that moment with Chris.

We desire and seek after moments like this, moments when we are able to drop down into our hearts and sense the rightness and goodness that comes from the God of compassion.  God’s grace and intentional, well-directed effort came together in a mystical balance at that moment.  Chris stopped to help apply some bandages on the bloody guy he came across on the side of the road and, in doing so, he caught a glimpse of God acting, of His kingdom.

A small injustice was corrected.  The kingdom was experienced.  Let’s talk about that.  Let’s do it again.

Bed number…what number is this?…is done

The bed for Faith and Patience is done.

Let’s not lose sight of what this means for the kids.  Last Friday night, Lora and Adam had a cook out and invited Omega’s family.  All 10 of the kids came over and we roasted marshmallows over the fire and made smores.  I told Faith that we should have her bed done this week.  She said with a broad smile, “I can’t wait.” 

Thanks to all who helped make this happen.  We can’t do this without all of us.

Let’s build a bed for these two next

A house fire took all they had.  They are sleeping on the floor.

This is why we do it

The boughs of the mighty are broken
And the weak are clothed with strength

May the glory of Jah endure forever

This Week

Click on the Calendar tab to see what is happening this week with the Bed Project.

New Need

There is a family of 8 that lost all of their family possessions in an apartment fire. Lora has a connection with them. They had to cancel their renter’s insurance due to a job loss. The four girls–Faith, Patience, Destiny, and Angelique–still do not have beds, and they don’t have any other furniture (sofa, loveseat, table…). We are just about finished with one bunk bed. We have some furniture at R Street that we can give them. We are planning a field trip to meet them. We have the resources to start building another bed for them.

Two Questions

The Bed Project has some decisions to make.  One of them is the same one we have to make about every year or so, usually when it is time to buy more posts.  The posts are such a hassle to get that we try to get as many as we think we will need for the next year, usually about 10 bunk beds.  Do we want to commit to continue building beds for another year?  There are other sub-questions, such as How in the heck are we going to pay for them? How are we going to find the families? And, How are we going to do what we do? 

In the past, we seemed to wrestle with that first main question independent of the sub-questions.  If we didn’t answer the main question in the affirmative, the sub-questions became mute.  We also seemed to settle on an answer to the main question without knowing the answers to the sub-questions.  Committing to build beds for a year was also a commitment to engage in the process of working out the sub-questions as we go. 

I suppose this is not a very strategic planning process.  It is like committing to a plan that we will make up as we go.  We want to become the kind of people that can join with the existing network of goodness and compassion that is there in our community, part of the kingdom at work.  We are confident the resources will reside within that network.  That includes us, if we figure out how to be part of that network.  We want to live our lives in a way where we routinely encounter injustices within our community.  We want to sense the direction of the wind of the Spirit as we put intentional, well-directed effort into finding those that need what we have to offer.  We want to learn to sense the presence of the One both within and around us, even as we go about doing what we do.   Commitment to these spiritual formation issues go hand in hand with the commitment to build another round of beds.

The Union Rescue Mission would like 12 bunk beds. So, we ask the question again.  Do we  build another round of bunk beds? 

 

The second question relates to changing our process to accommodate more people, particularly those from within the population we will be serving.  We got a good thing going now, with our relatively small group.   We act and we contemplate.  We build and we go deep.  It feels right and comfortable just like we are.  If we look to expand, two issues come up.  One is space.  My basement workshop can handle about 8 max.  The space at R Street has been offered, but it will need some work.  The other issues is inviting people who are different from us to join us in both the building and the contemplation – like some recovering addicts living in a homeless shelter program.  They might change the dynamic during our fireside contemplative time.  Maybe it needs to be changed.   Maybe messing it up will provide additional material for spiritual formation and transformation.  Maybe. 

Do we stay where we are, doing what we do, or do we step out in a direction with an uncertain outcome?

What say you?