Bessie and Lester McPeek are known throughout eastern Kentucky as the Diaper Lady and the Diaper Man. And they wouldn’t want it any other way.
The McPeeks, who have been married for 24 years, started a unique diaper distribution and parent education ministry in Jenkins, Kentucky, in 2001. Since then they have given away more than 2 million diapers to single moms, unemployed families and others who are struggling to make ends meet in the economically troubled region.
The McPeeks’ ministry, aptly named God’s Love from a Diaper Bag, provides diapers, food, baby showers, parenting classes, Bible studies and other resources to help ease families’ day-to-day challenges. Perhaps more significantly, it also offers hope, acceptance and a sense of worth for program recipients.
Their ministry efforts “are hard sometimes,” Bessie McPeek acknowledged, “but I feel fortunate and blessed to be able to help these mothers.”
“We’ve been doing it for 18 years and it gets better each day,” she added. “We’ve had some ups and downs but God has always brought us through. Just at the time when we’ve needed something, He’s always supplied it.”
New resources
Among the McPeeks’ newest ministry resources are a pair of high-tech infant simulators. One dramatically depicts the effects of babies who suffer from shaken baby syndrome and the other one shows the multiple physical complications for infants whose mothers used drugs while pregnant. Bessie McPeek uses the donated dolls to help teach pregnant women and mothers how to take care of their babies and guard their safety and health.
Churches, missions groups or individuals interested in volunteering with the McPeeks’ ministry may contact Lester and Bessie McPeek at 606-213-6302 or diaperministry@gmail.com.
The McPeeks emphasized they make sure ministry recipients “know that everything we give them comes from God.” Bessie McPeek added, “We want God to shine in everything we do.”
How to Pray
- Pray for the parents the McPeeks reach through the ministry and that they will experience God’s love and the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.
- Pray the ministry will continue to thrive and God will send volunteers and supporters for the ministry.
Share with others: