Upcoming Mission Journeys
Ialoveni, Moldova
Aug. 29-Sep. 6
Only 3 spots left!
First team meeting:
Help us start off the school year in a SWEET way as we build new beds for the 180 children living in this orphanage just outside Chisinau, Moldova.
Team members will be building beds, leading
worship, teaching in the classroom and hosting workshops for teachers and staff.
Note: This journey occurs over Labor Day, so you won't have to take an
extra vacation day!
From the Heart
I want to tell you a big THANK YOU for the beds with which you have equipped our dorms.
When I go to bed on the soft mattress I feel so warm. I am very happy I have such a
comfortable bed. When I go to sleep on my new bed, I feel the efforts made for me to have this bed - it is a great pleasure to sit and sleep on
it!
I am also very happy that these beds are not made of iron, but are made of wood that
doesn't creak.
May God watch over you for you do wonderful things.
May your plans succeed and may all your wishes come true!
Sincerely, Elena
Our Mission
Sweet Sleep exists to share God's love by providing beds to the world's orphaned and
abandoned children.
Sweet Sleep is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
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From Jen's Pen
It's been so great celebrating 5 years of this amazing journey called Sweet
Sleep! So many of you have shared stories, letter and testimonies about your experiences with Sweet Sleep and I'm continually amazed at what God has
done.
When I think about the more than 1500 beds we've provided, I'm reminded of
the sweet copii (children) who now have a safe, comfortable and cozy place to sleep at night. The names constantly run through my head - Mihai,
Andrei, Iura, Lilia, Olga, Ruslan, Victor, Sergiu, Anisia, Petru... just to name a few.
I think this is why I haven't had a full night's sleep since 2003!
Thanks again to each of you who have made these past 5 years so amazing.
There are still more than 11,000 orphans in Moldova needing new beds and millions around the world. Let's see how many beds we can provide in our
next 5
years!
Sweetly,
jen
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Thank You from Drochia: Kids say thank you to their American
friends for providing their new Sweet Sleep beds!
This trip to Drochia marked Sweet Sleep President and Founder Jen
Gash's 20th trip to Moldova since
2003. What started as a mission to replace beds in an
orphanage has grown to a world-wide orphan care
ministry with a goal of providing "a bed for every head."
Read more about Sweet Sleep's story at www.sweetsleep.org.
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Play Ball!: Sweet Sleep VP Stuart McAlister
throws out the first pitch at
Faith Night.
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Sweet Celebrations:
Sweet Sleep Turns 5!
Sweet Sleep celebrated 5 years of providing beds for orphaned and abandoned children
Friday, June 20th at Greer Stadium in Nashville as part of Faith Nights with the Nashville Sounds. American Idol's Chris Sligh performed a concert,
Stuart McAlister, Sweet Sleep's new Vice President, threw out the first pitch and the first 2,000 fans in attendance received limited-edition Sweet
Sleep Joseph the Dreamer Bobbleheads. Over 8,000 fans celebrated with us and were introduced to our ministry!
As we continue to celebrate this milestone, we'd love to hear from you! You can e-mail
birthday wishes to info@sweetsleep.org. You can also wish Sweet Sleep a happy birthday by donating funds for a child to have a new Sweet Sleep bed!
You can mail donations to Sweet Sleep, P.O. Box 157, Brentwood, TN 27024 or give online here.
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URGENT FUNDING NEED
Our Ialoveni Team leaves in just 8 weeks and we need
$31,115 for beds for the 179 children who call this orphanage home.
Help us replace
their beds and terrible mattresses like those pictured here with beautiful new Sweet Sleep beds!
You can give online at
www.sweetsleep.org or mail your donation to Sweet Sleep, PO Box 157,
Brentwood, TN
37024. Please write Ialoveni Beds in the memo line.
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179 children in Ialoveni spend their nights curled up on mattresses like these. Help us help these children find sweet sleep.
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Beds
ablaze: A pile of old mattress and bedding
burns behind Drochia's orphanage as new beds are installed inside.
Read below to see how encountering these
mattresses lit
a fire within team member Amy Helms.
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New Ways to Support Sweet Sleep
Have you visited Sweet Sleep's newly redesigned website? If not, why not go there now!
On our website, you can connect to our Team Blog and read more about the experiences of
Amy and her team in Drochia. You can also find out about upcoming mission journeys like our trip to Ialoveni this Fall!
And that's not all! Now you can donate monthly to Sweet Sleep
automatically! Just go to our website and click on the button "Click Here to Donate." It's that simple! Thank you for your continued support
of Sweet Sleep! We could not do what we do without faithful supporters like you!
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MEET OUR VOLUNTEERS
I'm
hooked. I've found what it means to be called to a personal mission
field in a tiny country far, far away building beds for the sweetest
children on earth. I love it. I can't get enough of it. I love it so much, that even though I just returned from Drochia in April, I'm
returning
in September to Ialoveni for my third trip to Moldova.
I used to be one of those people that questioned whether or not what we were
trying to do was enough; "Can a new bed really change a child's life"? I don't ask that question anymore.
During our second day of building beds in Drochia, it hit me.
I
was playing Frisbee with a group of kids in a forgotten field behind
the
orphanage. The weather was perfect and a strong breeze was blowing in our
direction. It smelled like a campfire nearby or maybe a farmer
burning rubbish of some sort down the road. It was then that an errant Frisbee led
me behind an outbuilding where I found the source of the smoke.
The smoke I had been inhaling was that of 240 piles of
stinky
rotten, disgusting, smelly, and just plain wrong, mattresses and bedding in one big
smoldering heap. In the blaze were all of the children's mattresses we had cleaned
out
the day before. To me, it was a symbol of all of the injustice we had witnessed in this place burning.
I literally ran to tell the other
team members. "Go see for yourselves! This is it! This
is why
we've come." I was smiling, although tears were streaming down my face. I was overcome with joy. These children that we had come to love would never
sleep in filth again. Those mattresses no longer existed. They were forever and permanently banished from the place these children call home. They
were gone forever.
We built more beds on this trip than any trip before. 240 kids are sleeping
sweetly tonight in their very own own Sweet Sleep beds thanks to Sweet Sleep and friends like you.
In Drochia, Sweet Sleep marked the completion of new beds for 10% of the
children living in Moldovan orphanages. God is amazing and for this, He gets all the glory!
I see God at work in Moldova and I can see the face of this country changing
each time I visit. Christians in Moldova and Christians from America investing in and traveling to Moldova are
leading anti-trafficking training classes, starting homeless
ministries, adopting
kids out of the system, and strengthening local Moldovan churches. I know that God is there.
I know he is at work. And I know that I am blessed to be a part of what He is doing in Moldova and through Sweet Sleep.
Great things are happening, but there
is still so much more to be
done. I hope you will consider praying, giving our
going. The impact you can
leave on the life of a child is eternal.
May God set your heart ablaze,
Amy Helms |
Amy introduces a child in Drochia's orphanage to his new Bible.
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