Karla Groves says she has a heart for the homeless, so in 2017 when Greg Gosselin asked her to help make sleeping mats for people living on the streets of Montgomery, it was an easy yes.
But she realized quickly that the project needed an edit.
“He asked a bunch of us older women — I’m 81— if we would like to crochet sleeping bags for the homeless,” Groves said of Gosselin, who at the time served on staff at Eastern Hills Baptist Church in Montgomery, where Groves is a member. “We wanted to do that, and I felt a calling for it. But I started trying, and some of the other ladies did too, and we realized that with the arthritis in our hands, it wasn’t going to work.”
God’s leading
Groves felt like it wasn’t an accident that Gosselin had enlisted their help — she felt like God was leading them in that direction.
“I prayed about it and said, ‘I want to do this and follow Your lead, but I can’t crochet,’” she said. “The next day, someone told me about a YouTube video of someone from Canada who made mats by weaving plastic bags.”
From there, Groves didn’t waste any time. Her 94-year-old husband, Lou, made three looms like the ones in the video, and eight women began coming to her house each week to weave sleeping mats from plastic shopping bags.
Then when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Groves kept making them by herself — at the rate of 48 a year. When the group could gather again, they began meeting at Dalraida Global Methodist Church in a space that is now stacked to the ceiling with plastic bags waiting to be woven.
“To date, we have finished 500 sleeping mats,” Groves said.
Partnerships and training
It hasn’t stopped there. In addition to pulling together several churches into a partnership, she has trained five other churches to start their own sleeping mat ministries.
And she’s enlisted volunteer groups ranging from sororities to the Air Force.
“It takes a village,” Groves said.
Other groups donate bags that have been folded and cut in the way that Groves recommended in preparation for weaving.
When the mats are completed, she takes them to local ministries to be distributed as needed, along with a twin blanket, a pillow and a book about Jesus. They also sometimes include hygiene items, winter hats and gloves and rain ponchos.
“It’s been all God,” Groves said.
Groves is available to give a presentation to other churches interested in starting their own sleeping mat ministry. Contact her at karlasmilie626@gmail.com or through the group’s Facebook page, Homeless Sleeping Mat Ministry.
Share with others: