Children lost in the shuffle

"While the circumstances are different, the need's not different. We're both involved with at-risk children.  Whether it's in another country or children in middle Tennessee--same story the world over, children getting lost int he shuffle." Tom Ward, President and CEO of Oasis Center, shared his heart yesterday as Sweet Sleep helped to provide 24 mattresses to the two transitional living shelters: Emergency Youth Shelter (13-17) and Harwell Lofts (18-21).  

Tom helping carry in the mattresses

This partnership is a special one due to the nature of these children's living situation--it's very similar to our work done in Gulu, Uganda, helping children resettle into a safe place with a place (bed) to call their own.

The children coming to these shelters at Oasis are searching for a place to come and feel safe, to re-establish themselves, and simply rest.  When Sweet Sleep heard of a need for 12 beds in each shelter, we reached out our friends, and YOU made this possible!  Thanks to your sweet gifts, 24 teens and young adults will have a new bed to rest, revive themselves, and escape the circumstances that have led them to Oasis.

some of the brand new mattresses!

94% of the families are reunited after they do the 2 week program at the Emergency Youth Shelter, which is a very encouraging statistic! We long for children to be brought into "Forever Families," and in this case, going home to their very own family is such a blessing. The bed distribution at Oasis brings Sweet Sleep's domestic bed count to over 600--meaning over 600 children are now sleeping sweetly in middle Tennessee (through local partnerships like DCS and Oasis) thanks to you!

Tom shared, "The more dollars I can move into directly impacting a young person's life the better I am.  Beds, anytime we get a contribution like this, it helps us take dollars from simple day to day things and move it into direct services. They have allowed us to put the money we would have used for the mattresses into really doing more street outreach and finding more young people that want to transition their life."

The whole crew!

Oasis Center is up to some amazing things, and Sweet Sleep was so humbled to be a part of their incredible work serving youth in the area.  "The biggest challenge for us is obviously demand," Tom said.  "The fact is that we can't take every youngster that we want to serve at the transitional living shelter, we have a waiting list.  We need beds."

As we look ahead to kick off our 13in13 Movement, set to launch February 1, the Lord has shown His faithfulness as He leads us to serve His children both internationally and domestically.  Keep a lookout for our launch of 13in13 Movement on facebook & twitter!

For more information on Oasis Center, please visit http://www.oasiscenter.org/

Please begin praying how you can partner with Sweet Sleep in providing beds to orphaned and abandoned children globally! 

Thank you for your gifts. We are truly humbled by them.

To make a gift, please click here>>>>