Why No Kid Should Sleep on the Floor | Luke Mickelson, Sleep in Heavenly Peace #075

Hey everyone, it's Karissa from Shining Light on Minnesota. I'm super excited. I have Luke Mickelson from Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Welcome, Luke. Well, thanks for having me on. This is great. Yes. Why don't you get started by telling our viewers a little bit about Sleep in Heavenly Peace and how you got started doing it. You bet. Well, thanks for having me on. This is great. you know, um, Sleep in Heavenly Peace is a nonprofit charity I started in 2012, and our sole purpose is to build and deliver beds for children ages 3 to 17. And so, um, kids right now that, um, that live in the communities across the country that don't have beds, um, we we seek out and, um, and and deliver beds beds for them. So, it's something that uh child bedlessness is something I didn't know even existed back in 2012, right? But because of what we've done, um you we've we've uncovered this terrible pandemic that that lives in our country that represents greater than 3% of the total population. By the way, um we're we're trying to solve that. How did you come across it or how did you kind of get into finding it? Great question. Well, I'm I'm a farm kid from Idaho. I you know, I live in a small town. um grew up in a small town and the beauty of that being from a small town you get to know everybody, right? Yeah. The bad side of that is you get to know everybody, right? I know. I'm from a small town in Minnesota, so I get it. Trust me. Everybody knows everybody and you never get away from that. Right. Exactly. And you know, the beauty about that is I think you develop this bond with people, you know, and and this sense of community and this sense of helping each other out. I that I don't think you get in other areas, right? Um well, that's you know, that's the community I lived in, right? Um, and I I uh coached the local football team, you know, and did all that stuff. I worked at a local water treatment company. And and in my church, I I served at what was in a in a position called young men's president. It's kind of like a a youth pastor, if you will. Um, I was responsible for the spiritual growth as well as the activities of the boys, which was basically Boy Scouts, you know. I was the leader leader of the leaders of the Boy Scouts. One day in our meeting um with the other auxiliary meeting uh leaders, we were talking about a family um that we were helping, right? The the mom was the local school bus driver and the the dad was, you know, suffered from mental illness, didn't you know, couldn't hold a job. They were just struggling, [clears throat] had a couple of kids. Well, the the the topic came up that and they were helping them with rent and food and all that jazz. Well, [clears throat] it came up that they didn't have any beds for their kids. And I remember it just hitting me going, "Wait a minute." Like they got a mattress or something, right? Have something. Yeah, they have something, right? No, they were literally sleeping on the floor with blankets and a pillow. And I don't know, it just hit me. I thought, you know, this is um this is happening in my own hometown, right? No, that's not right. And and it was kind of funny being from a small town. I don't know about you, but I had traveled on my bike as a young kid everywhere in that town, right? I knew it all. Well, they actually lived in apartment complex I didn't even know existed. And so [clears throat] that's what first caught my eye my ear, right? And then this this situation that they were in. Well, it brought up two thoughts. My first thought was for my own kids, right? What would that would be like if my own kids are sleeping on the floor day in and day out? And then I thought and got a little excited, you know, those leaders that that are, you know, trying to provide activities for teenage kids that doesn't involve a screen in in any sorts of of of a manner is hard to do, right? And so I got excited. Here's a great opportunity that I can get an Xbox controller out of these boys' hands. Let's put a, you know, a drill and a sander in it. We'll we'll teach him something for crying out, right? [laughter] So, uh, I was excited. The kids came over that that week and we we I you know I wasn't a stranger to to to tools, right? I knew how to build stuff, although I'd never built furniture before in my life. We decided um uh that we're going to build build them a bed. And so we did. Now, it took a couple of nights that week, you know, but the boys were super excited about it, which was really surprising and exciting for me, too. Um but then the, you know, the bed was done and we went to deliver it. Well, somehow it kind of got out right in the in the church. It got out in the in the families. And lo and behold, a ton of people showed up to deliver this bed. And I was like, "We can't have 20 people march into this." No. Right. Yeah. So, I stayed back. I didn't I didn't deliver the bed. I let the boys and their parents go. And the next day at church, they just went off about how amazing it was. Right. The kids, you know, a lot of hugs and kisses and and cries, you know. Yeah. Uh, and I'll be honest with you, I felt a little jealous that I Absolutely. Right. Why Why didn't I get a part of this? Right. Yeah. Exactly. I did all this work and Yeah. You know, um, well, the f the story goes, uh, you know, I was 35 years old, had a great job, you know, coaching, church service, did on paper, my life was great. Yeah. But internally, I don't know, I was going through something. Um, you know, and had been for a couple of years. and and no matter how well I ped myself up and talked and and kind of felt guilty I was feeling this way, you know, I had a great life. Most people would kill for it and uh yet I'm I'm not satisfied. I felt really bad about that, but it's just how I felt, right? But this one service project really just livened me up. It just filled my my heart that the where the hole was at. And um so I was excited about that. But then, you know, life creeps back in. the service project was done and and you're you're back in the same rut. Well, I was sitting on the couch one night and uh me and my kids were watching Big Bang Theory and my kids were, you know, six, nine, 10, something like that. Anyways, the the the a commercial came on and it was about some Xbox game. I don't know. I don't remember. But I remember thinking, "Oh, don't you dare ask for that cuz you know I'm not going to get it for you." You know, us parents, we know that. got to get off the screen, get outside and do something, right? Exactly. Absolutely. And of course there, you know, dad, can we get this? And it was just a perfect storm. It was like, I'm feeling bad about myself. I just did this project that, you know, it's actually actually made it worse almost because you feel this great feeling and then you know where you're going and and I need a project. I need something. I need something, right? And um something that's fulfilling, something that that um really just um you know nourished my soul. Um, and then my kids were complaining about a present that I'm not going to get them. And I just delivered a bed to a child that didn't have one. You know, I just I don't know. I right then I just got off the couch. I just stood up and started walking to the garage and my kids are like, "Dad, where where you going?" I said, "You know what? I'm going to build another bunk bed and you're going to help me, right?" I wanted them to feel the joy of service, the joy of giving back and stop thinking about themselves as well as to appreciate the things they had like a stinking bed, you know. Absolutely right. Instead of the the electronics, right? Correct. Yeah. Or anything, right? You know, uh it brought me so much joy. It brought joy to these boy scouts of mine. I wanted my kids to have that. And so that's what we did. We went out in the garage and we built another bunk bed. Well, I didn't know what to do with it. I mean, I it wasn't about building a bed for a child that didn't have one because the only child I knew that didn't have one, we already took care of. Right. Right. And so I I just wanted it for my kids. Well, now I got this bunk bed and and um I didn't know what to do with it. So it was recommended to me to put it on buy, sell, trade, you know, one of those Facebook groups. Oh, yeah. So that's what I did. And that's where child bedlessness really reared its ugly head. I I started getting messages from people I knew and even people I didn't know of situations that they knew of kids that were sleeping on floors and on pallets and you know in the backseat of cars and just really incredibly uncomfortable terrible situations in my own hometown which we aren't in a you know a povertystricken location you know Twin Falls Magic Valley area is a pretty wealthy area and so um I I just I it it blew me way, right? And and I wanted this bed to go to a child um because a my kids built it and if there was another child out there, I was going to take care of it. Absolutely. Well, a friend of mine called and said, "Listen, I have been helping a family come out of homelessness and they got a house and they have kids that don't have beds." And I said, "Perfect. This is what I want." And this is my Haley story. Okay, so Haley was a six-year-old girl that has never slept on a bed, right? She had slept in the backseat of her mom car, her mom's car her whole life. They were homeless. Yeah. Well, they just got a house. And so, and you can imagine when we walked into this house, and I'd seen poverty before. I'd seen a homelessness before. I'd seen foster transitioning, right? But I never really looked at it through the eyes of a six-year-old, right? I was there. We were there for the family, but this time I was there for just the six-year-old. Um, and it blew me away, you know? And when you walked in this house, there's nothing. There's no couch to watch cartoons on or a table to eat cereal. There was a can of soup sitting on a on a hot plate in the middle of the room. That was it. That was the only thing in the house, right? Um but there's this little Haley, little six-year-old girl, so excited. Yeah. And I said, "Haley, why don't you show me where your bedroom is?" Yeah. She didn't know why we were there. So, she walked us back into her bedroom. And you I mean, you can imagine what that looked like. There's holes in the carpet and tears in the wallpaper. Um, but of all of that, what shocked me the most and just brought tears to my eyes was um, in the corner was a nest of clothes, her pile of school clothes. And that's where Haley slept. She slept on her cool school clothes. Right. And but that was great for her cuz she wasn't in a car anymore either. Exactly. That's why she was so happy. You know, she at least had a room, right? I wouldn't call it a bedroom because there was no bed in it. Right. And um, and so I, you know, at first you're almost mad. You're almost ticked off, right? I was just like, world like this this can't happen. This is my town, right? Correct. Yeah. Not not on my watch, you know. Y and uh and then it went to, you know, joy cuz we were there with the bed and we started bringing in pieces of the bed and putting it together. And the minute Haley realized what it was, she just erupted, right? She just came over and hugged, you know, these two strange dudes beaming from ear to ear. Yep. Yeah. And and hugged the bed. She even kissed the bed, which was nothing I'd ever seen before. And you know, and if that wasn't enough to just melt your heart. Yeah. I look up at mom and I was raised by a single mom, too. So the six years of tears pouring down this lady's face, of course, I knew what those meant. You know, I I knew that those were sleepless nights, that's worry, that's even guilt of not being able to provide. I mean, we, you know, I'd seen it before. Yeah. It just melted my heart. And I knew right then and there, okay, this is way more than just a bed. This is my purpose now. Yeah, this is Well, I'm a farm kid from Idaho. I mean, I love hunting and fishing and doing all that kind of stuff. And I'll tell you what, in an instant, none of that mattered anymore. It it just no longer was a as a a passion of mine anymore. Getting beds for kids, especially in my own hometown, that's what I was going to do. And so that's what we started doing. Amazing. That's crazy. I mean, to think like when you see it in your own hometown and you don't know it exists and then to go out there and actually see it taking place and then knowing you're making a difference is it's amazing. Well, and and it it it piles on too. Like the more we built and shared and delivered and, you know, posted pictures of what we're doing, the more we uncovered more kids and more kids and more situations and and it was just endless. It just blew my mind. In fact, when I when I tell people certainly back then and even to this day, when I tell people what I do, you know, I usually get two questions. And the first question is, well, you know, there's not that many kids, right? And and I like, look, I I understand that you would say that. I said the same thing, but it is huge. It represents greater than 3% of the total population of any given town on average. There's kids sleeping on the floor. Yeah. And so, and then the second question is, well, yeah, but you know, not in my hometown. You know, I I live in a pretty wealthy part. You know, it's a it's a logical thought, but no, it it child bedlessness doesn't know economics. It doesn't know paychecks. It doesn't know circumstances. It just knows hardship. Um and that can happen to anybody. And so, uh you know, we we wanted to do more. We wanted to grow this. Um you know, eventually we had to make it a nonprofit because I couldn't finance it myself [laughter] anymore. Right. Yeah. Makes it tough to do it all, right? And and the and the beauty of that is you realize it opens the door to realizing how many amazing people there are in this world that want to give back. They want to help. They just don't know how. Right. And and I knew back then, look, solving child bedlessness in a country that I didn't know it even had, but clearly does, isn't going to be solved by some farm kid from Idaho. You know, it's going to be it's going to be solved by Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. it's going to be started by and solved by local communities and local members um wanting to wanting to support the kids that they live next door to. And so we created a platform where people could start chapters in their own hometown. And because of that, since that and since then, we now have and trained well over 430 chapter presidents in four 47 uh states and in four countries. and we've delivered over 350,000 beds. Amazing. Who have been some of your mentors along the way that have gotten you to where you are today? Oh, great question. You know, I I served a mission for my church back when I was 19. And some of the best advice I got was from my mission president who I didn't grow up with a dad. All my dads were coaches and [laughter] and he was one of them for sure. And he taught me a great lesson. And he says, Luke, you know, no matter what you do in life, no matter what career you and path you take, always look at your your career and what you do as a service to others. Yeah. You know, and I really enjoyed that because it made my paycheck a lot more than just paycheck, right? I I I looked at it as ways I can, you know, I was the guy that people relied on. I was the guy that when when the plant went down, um, you know, call Luke because he'll be there to help you. I enjoyed that. I enjoyed realizing um my service meant something and you know I was able to look at that and and now you know looking back I have a saying where you know if you want true joy you got to stop looking at yourself and see how you can help other people and your problems they don't go away of course not but they're going to they're going to seem and feel far less heavy than they than what you think they are and and that's so true you know it's so true and so I've had a lot of mentors through the years um that have taught me that same lesson. My mom being the biggest one. I mean to to see a mom raise five kids on her salary and and the efforts and the jobs that she went through. I mean I I remember coming home from basketball games, you know, late at night and I get off the bus, go right to my mom's car and we go clean offices for the next hour and a half cuz we needed the extra income. And you know, my mom just got done with a not just not alone a busy a busy workday, she went to the game. She never missed one of my games, you know, and then we come home and go to work again. And then there was a couple of times make it happen. Yeah. Yeah. Even after that, I had a bad game. I want to go shoot hoop in the in the gym. She had a key. We'd go there till midnight and shoot hoop, you know? She was just that kind of mom. She was awesome. Amazing. So, what would you tell the younger generation that the ones that feel entitled or the ones that don't want to get out there and work to really help since you've been a coach and to really get out there and make a difference? You know, it's getting tougher. I won't lie to you. It's getting tougher to express really where true joy comes and and too often especially our youth nowadays they don't feel that that um accomplishment like we had to you know when when when you had to go out well you know this is a great this is a great lesson I learned in sleep at Emily peace uh you know we have a saying called the happiest volunteer is the sweatiest and the dustiest and really it's the same concept. When you do hard things, when you accomplish and overcome hard situations, you get a sense of fulfillment that is greater than obviously something that you did that was simple. Yes. And I think too too often nowadays, you know, these video games and these these phones, this instant gratification, our kids don't have to go very far or exert much energy, right, to to feel like they've accomplished something when in actuality, you know, they accomplish something that's very easy. You know, I've tried to instill in my own kids and the and the and the kids that I coached, look, it's hard good. You want it to be hard because when you're done with it, when you're done with that hard thing and you look back and you feel the the sense of accomplishment that came from doing this hard thing, the next hard thing isn't going to be as hard, right? You know you can do it and and you feel that sense of joy. And and I see that in Sleep in Heavenly Peace every day. We we take raw lumber, 2x4s, 2 by sixes, you know, whatever, and we take people that may have never touched a tool in their life, right? and they're building beds. They're doing things that they didn't think they could do. They're doing hard things. And at the end of the build, three or four hours later, when you had a bunk of wood before, and now you have 50 beds, they get to look back and see and feel the sense of accomplishment that comes from doing a hard thing like building a bed for a child. Yep. And they know that it's going to someone in their community and they're giving back and all of that, too. So, it's not like, hey, I'm packaging food and it might go to somebody in some other community or somebody I don't know or who knows where it's going. Anything like that, too. So, yeah. You know, this this all started as a family Christmas project. This wasn't going to be some big charity. But when when we decided that it needed to be a charity, we couldn't finance it ourselves. I I I said, "Listen, I'm a farm kid from Idaho. It's not that I don't like charities, but I didn't like that exact thing. I didn't want my dollar or my effort to go to help someone that I mean sure help someone. I wanted to help but man if I could choose to help someone in my own community by gosh that's what I wanted to do. And so that's how we set this up. We knew that this was going to be solved by community members looking out for their own kids. Um and then we just needed to provide a platform so they could do that. So you can copy those processes elsewhere. Yes. Correct. Yep. And it's been successful. We you know we we are the largest bed building charity in the world. a lot. A lot because there's not very many of them. But yeah, but because we've empowered the local communities, we've emphasized the local communities. When you go to our website, shpbeds.org, you're going to go to your local communities chapter. You're not going to go to some big national, you know, uh uh uh main page. You're going to go and see what's going on locally because we want you to be involved. We we I I know that there's kids right now that need your help in your own community. So, why not, you know, learn about what's going on locally? Why not donate and all your dollars stay locally? You know, this is this is just a local problem solved by local people. If people don't have a chapter in their own community, how can they get one started? Great question. I love that question. Look, if you Yeah, if you bring up shbeds.org and there's not a chapter next to you and this is something that pulls at your heartstrings, we you can start your own chapter. We put on about 50 or 60 chapters every year and we only lose one or two and that's usually because someone moves. We make sure that you're prepared to be successful. We prep you. We then fly you down to Salt Lake to to learn how to, you know, a run a nonprofit. Um although we take care of most of the heavy lifting for you, but we want our chapter presence to focus in on three things. Raising money, which is actually the easiest thing that you'll do. That's usually the hardest thing people think they're going to be facing. um building and then delivering beds, right? Those are the three main things we want people to focus in on. And anybody, if a farm kid from Idaho can do it that has no business running a nonprofit, if he can do it, anybody can, right? What do you think's next for you and for your family? It's a great question. You know, we we still got young ones in, you know, so we I travel quite a bit speaking and doing that, but I try to stay home as much as I can. But down the road, I mean, we we're in four countries right now, right? But there I mean, we get hit up by all sorts of countries, I mean, that that need help. Um, we're we're going down to Costa Rica and going to put something together down there, you know, because we we know if it's happening in our own hometowns, it's certainly happening everywhere, right? And getting that established um is a dream of mine now. And and we have a platform that is successful. It would be egregious if we didn't continue to try to promote that and and implement that in other in other areas. Third world countries everywhere else. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. But you know, it's a difficult thing. They don't have the same resources that we have. And you know, we know that there's we still today, if you look at our national numbers, um there's still 160,000 kids on our waiting list right now. That's just our waiting list. And that's just the kids that know about Sleep in Heavenly Peace, which right now we only cover about 27% of the entire United States. So we've got still home hometown stuff. We still got a long ways to go, but but we're we're working hard at it. How do you stay intentional when you're doing all this with the family? I mean, everybody always talks about the whole fun work life balance and there's not a work life balance because I mean, I even know when I'm in front of thousands of people every day, everybody's like, "Are you going to slow down?" I'm like, "The flow is there and you've got your passion. You know, there's the family does it with you, right? You know, you just go when it's good and you do it. You make it happen. Yeah. We train our chapter presidents because we've been through it. Yeah. There you still have to live a balanced life. You still got kids games to go to and, you know, baptisms and and whatever. You know, you still have a life to live because this is pretty addicting. You know, it's really hard when companies find out what you're doing in your hometown. They throw money at you. They want to help. They want to be involved. It's hard to say no to a $10,000, you know, donation and build 50 beds. It's just it's hard. And and it's hard when you see the kids, too, that you know you're making a difference, right? You know, we I tell chapter presidents, the hardest part of being a chapter president, h is laying in your own bed looking up or looking up these applications and reading these situations that these kids, you know, right then as you're laying comfortably in your bed on your pillow, they're sleeping in these situations. these these, you know, pallets and air mattresses that are deflating or, you know, three or four kids to one bed, you know, it's hard. It's hard not to um uh feel guilty about that. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. So, you have your own kids. Are they getting involved more? Are they going to be doing it next? You know, God bless them. They want to do their own thing, I'm sure. Oh, they've been around more than any other kids. And of course they still help once in a while, but you know they've they've delivered helped build and delivered hundreds and hundreds of beds if not thousands of beds. And you know they're in that stage the 20 to 23 year old stage where they I still have one 14-year-old but um you know they're they're in college classes and trying to figure yourself out. So you know I think everybody has a season of life where they can do more for others and and sometimes that season of life just you know you got to focus in on what you what you do now. I I'm I'm certainly glad that I feel like they've they've learned the joys of service. They they're they're excited to feel like they have a history and a part of the history of Sleep in Heavenly Peace and they get to share that and they're excited to share that with others. Some of the some of the best um blessings that I get out of sleeping peace now is going to these chapters and seeing these these teenage kids there helping out and being involved and you know, you just don't see that nowadays. And as a coach, you know, that's, you know, we coach a we coach a sport, sure, but I also look at it as we raise men, young men to be men and and um and and how that's important in the in the day and age now and and how they need to raise their kids. Um, you know, it's all lessons that you've learned and and mentors like you mentioned that that that teach you things. And I just hope that what I've done and what these other, you know, hundreds of thousands of volunteers have done for their own families teach them the joys of service and giving back, right? I think it's important. I mean, I know I have a blended family of seven kids, but they get out there and do they do the same thing. I mean, it's always giving back. How can I get in the community and help out and right volunteer and do service things, too? I mean, that's more important than anything, I think. 100%. Yes. Absolutely. Well, we have we love having you on. Is there anything that you would tell our guests, you know, leaving or what would be the next step and what would you tell the guests? Oh, absolutely. Thank you. Yes. If there's one thing that I would ask your audience to do um is just help me raise awareness. Child bedlessness. Don't don't feel bad that you may have never heard this before. I didn't. And most people don't. That it's really this bad and it's in your own hometown. In fact, one of our chapter presidents from um Burnsville, Minnesota. Yeah. Right. He talked about how um he actually came across us because he wanted to build a bed for he built a bed for his daughter and he wanted to build a bed for um just like me, a member of his community. He looked online for plans and he ran into us. Well, now he's a chapter president. In fact, his first year he says, "Well, I think I'll build four or five beds." And I just laughed at him because I knew four or five was going to be four or 500 beds and and that's what they build every year now. and uh he found out in his own um church congregation that there was kids sleeping on the floor. He didn't know that that was even happening. And so it's right next door. Help us raise awareness and help you know your your agencies like CASA, foster care, you know, uh child support services, protective services rather, they will tell you beds for kids is one of the hardest things for them to find and and acquire. Um and and so when they realize that there's this organization called Sleep in Heavenly Peace out there that that provides a solution to this problem, they they're ecstatic. Ecstatic. And you can be a part of that solution by just sharing this podcast. Share it with your friends. Tell people about child bedlessness. Help us raise that awareness. Last question before I go. What is your favorite quote that's out there? Oh, this is it comes from my favorite sitcom of all time, Ted Lasso. If you know Ted Lasso, he's great. Absolutely. One and he's got some real good ones in there, but probably my favorite is, you know, be curious not judgmental. And that carries so much so many lessons in so many situations. You know, we go into these homes, especially in Sleep in Heavenly Peace where, you know, I remember I took my brother-in-law in this house and they had a bigger uh uh television screen or television than he did, you know, and I remember he walked away feeling pretty upset about that. He's like, "Man, I just delivered a bed to this family and they have a TV that's bigger than mine." And I said, "You know what? You're right. That TV was probably given to them, you know, and so you just never know, you know, and and Ted Lassel said it the best. you know, ask questions. Be curious, not judgmental. And when you start asking questions, you start realizing some of the circumstances of what that family's gone through and maybe, excuse me, and maybe how you can be involved to help them further down the road. And I promise everybody out there, when you take time to help someone else out, you're going to help them, right? They're going to feel that, but I promise you, you're going to help yourself probably more than you realize. And how can they find you? Where can they find you at? shpbeds.org. That's where you can find and learn about the mission. You can of course find me on social media all over the place. It's either Luke Mickelson or SHP Luke. I'm on Instagram. You know, follow me. I share content every day helping people see the the the doom and gloom of child bedlessness, but also the great impact and joy that comes from serving others. Hook look me up, send me an email, whatever. I've got a book coming out later on this year called More Than Just a Bed. It talks about the history of SHP. It gives some some hopefully inspirational stories to inspire people to to do more, get off the couch, and really make a difference in in your in your life and in the lives of others. Amazing. Well, we all hope we can help out any way we can. We'll definitely be sharing the podcast and it'll be out later this week, actually. So, the sooner the better. And I really appreciate you being on today, Luke. Keep shining light. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Yes. See you later.