Coming Home to Serve: Brandon Holmes' Vision for Beds for Kids

After serving as a missionary in Africa, Brandon Holmes was shocked to discover families in his own hometown struggling with basic necessities. When he learned children were sleeping on the floor of their homes, Brandon and two friends founded "Beds for Kids," a ministry dedicated to providing youth a comfortable place to sleep.

On this episode of GPS: God. People. Stories., hear Brandon's journey from ministry abroad to community transformation at home. Discover how God worked through this small team to address a hidden crisis and create lasting change for families in need.

Connect with us through email at gps@billygraham.org or on Facebook at Billy Graham Radio. 

If you’d like to know more about beginning a relationship with Jesus Christ, or deepening the faith you already have, visit FindPeacewithGod.net. 

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Transcript

MUSIC STARTS

Brandon Holmes:
00:00:00 We found out that there were hundreds of children sleeping on the floor, lots of families coming out of shelters and into permanent housing that didn’t have any furniture and couldn’t afford that. You know, they’re paying bills, they’re paying for food—to furnish a home seemed like a luxury. And so we said, maybe we can do something about this.

Jim Kirkland: Brandon Holmes had been a missionary in Africa before discovering that families in the very city he grew up in were struggling with basic household needs. How would Brandon respond to what he learned? You’re about to find out on this episode of GPS: God. People. Stories., an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I’m Jim Kirkland.

Brandon Holmes says he’s just an ordinary man in whose life God has done extraordinary things. That’s the way God works, says Billy Graham:

Billy Graham: 
00:00:48 You are a link in God’s chain and God’s plan to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world right now in history. Are you, as a young man or a young woman, ready to say, “I’m ready to go.”?

Jim: You’re going to hear Billy Graham elaborate on that a little later in this episode. In the meantime, if you’re ready to see where God would like to take you, visit us online at FindPeaceWithGod.net—and we will give you insight on how to learn that, how to grow closer to God. That’s FindPeaceWithGod.net. Whenever you listen to GPS, always know that you can find that address—FindPeaceWithGod.net—as a link in our show notes.
Intro: GPS: God. People. Stories.

MUSIC TRANSITION

Jim: Brandon Holmes grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Brandon:
00:01:39 My dad was a banker, like many other folks in Charlotte, and we attended church somewhat regularly, but I wouldn’t say any of us walked with the Lord necessarily. And so we are kind of your typical middle-class suburban family. No major drama or hardship, but just kind of went through all the motions of life of elementary school, middle school, high school, and did things without rocking the boat too much.

Jim: But then, the boat did get rocked. When Brandon was in high school, his dad felt the need for a change.

Brandon:
00:02:14 All of a sudden God did start knocking on his heart and he ended up taking a major career change and started serving downtown the homeless populations. And as he did that without any like, real reasoning, except for he felt there had to be something bigger, he started pursuing God and started engaging my family in God conversations and at church more, and so, our family started pursuing God in the same way that he was as a result of his pursuit of wanting to know something more.

Jim: What Brandon started trying to figure out was a better understanding of who God is.

Brandon:
00:02:49 I had a number of Jewish friends and went to bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs, about that same time in life, and I started like realizing that God was to be revered and beautiful, but had a lot more questions. 

Jim: In his search for answers, Brandon started going to youth group and Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings. And it was at one of those FCA meetings that Brandon came to know Jesus Christ personally. 

Brandon:
00:03:14 I was there ’cause my friends were there, initially, but this one night we had a senior in high school. He was not a famous athlete. He was not, you know, NFL player or anything like that. And he shared the details of the passion of Christ, the final hours of Jesus. And it rocked my world to know that Jesus would endure such suffering to accomplish something for me and for all those people that I loved and those that I didn’t yet know. There was a call to follow Him that evening, and I remember saying yes. I had a 1988 old Chevy Blazer at that time. I got into the car and truly I felt as if Christ was in the seat beside me and went home with me, and I just wept on my bed with Him sitting beside me, just considering the beauty of what He just invited me into.
Jim: That night changed Brandon’s life. When he went back to his high school weightlifting class, he handed out Bible verses. He says he wasn’t even sure what he was doing, but he knew he was trying to live out his newfound faith. That faith would cause Brandon to change the plans he had for the rest of his life.

Brandon:
00:04:22 I was a little bit directionless in high school before knowing who Jesus was. I knew that I could do some kind of engineering or finance like my dad, but it would just be to kind of ‘keep up with the Joneses’ to establish a life of what I saw all around me—but after coming to know Jesus, my desire was to serve people.

I found out that kind of by, maybe what my dad introduced me to, was that I could meet with those who were in business suits and worked at the bank, but then also have conversations with those who were homeless on the streets and quickly like decided that I wanted to do something that connected the two people from different backgrounds coming together kind of under the same banner and the resources being shared. 

Jim: The problem was Brandon didn’t know how he could make a career out of that. So, he planned on becoming a high school history teacher and baseball coach. He thought that would give him the opportunity to help transform other young men’s lives in the same way his life had been transformed. But during his time at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, Brandon changed his major five times. He was definitely determined to figure out how to pursue God with his talents. 

Brandon:
00:05:32 I started off secondary education major and then went to maybe social work. And then I believe I went to theology and then I went to a general business degree. And then finally, after all that, landed on finance and was doing what my dad had done, but not necessarily for the reason of going into the business world. I just knew that I could apply that in a lot of different ways, somehow in ministry or in the business realm, whatever it may be.

Jim: Brandon graduated in 2008, thinking he’d find a banking job in Charlotte. But the Great Recession made finding that kind of work pretty difficult. He started praying for direction. And that’s when Brandon’s best friend and former college roommate offered a suggestion: move with him to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to work at a Christian university. 

Brandon:
00:06:23 I just kind of said, Lord, is this what You want for me? And very quickly all the funding came in, like without me even trying. And I just saw that the Lord was purposely opening a door for me to move forward on that.

Jim: So, at a Christian university in the Congo, Brandon taught English and basic business courses using the notebooks he had just completed as a college student back in the States. His students weren’t the only ones learning, though. One particular morning, God decided to teach Brandon a lesson.   

Brandon:
00:06:54 I woke up and we lived on a compound with barbed wire and we had an armed guard because we’re in a very contentious, war-torn part of the country. And I looked out and I saw people coming out of their mud huts and I pitied them, and I just said, God, these folks will never go to the movie theater, go taste like a fancy steak at a restaurant—and of course, looking back now, that was a very prideful and like arrogant one-sided thing, but it was like the Holy Spirit was a backhand and I got popped in the back of the head and I just felt the Lord say to me, Brandon, these people have experienced hunger and pillaging and disaster. They’ve experienced pretty much hell on earth and yet they worship Me, unlike anybody else. I’ve brought you here to learn from them, not them to learn from you. And from that point on, I understood what He was doing in my life, with a lot clearer vision and with a new level of humility.

Jim: Brandon came to realize that God was using the Congo as a training ground to show him love through discipline and brokenness. But within a year, Brandon got moved to a new training ground. 

Brandon:
00:07:58 I had contracted malaria five times while I was in the Congo. And one of those times I had to be e-vaced out because I was so sickly and had to go to Nairobi for like legitimate health care ’cause the hospitals in Congo couldn’t benefit me. And so while I was in Nairobi, I stayed with another missionary family and got to know them, and they introduced me to an opportunity in Methare Valley Slum, which is the second-largest slum of Nairobi, with an organization that they said, Hey, you could come learn here and participate. And so, I went back after my time in Congo to live with that family and to serve in that slum, doing microfinance.

Jim: Microfinance provides funding and training to people who have a business idea, but don’t have the money themselves to start it. It helps them build a business that generates income and lifts them out of poverty. Brandon joined a well-known microfinance program and spent his time in Nairobi educating and training people on what the Bible says about business and money management. His work helped families who had accepted predatory interest rates from loan sharks break free from a crushing amount of debt. After a few months in Kenya, Brandon felt the Lord might be calling him to another change. He asked God if he should stay in international missions or return to the United States.

Brandon:
00:09:15 What I’d learned from the Kenyans that I’d served was a deep passion to see God’s kingdom come in the place that God has planted you. And I felt like God was calling me back to Charlotte, which I didn’t have necessarily intentions beforehand to live in Charlotte, but I wanted to come back to Charlotte and see the city improve through whatever God had intended.
Jim: After nearly a year-and-a-half overseas, in 2010 Brandon returned to Charlotte. He was working at an inner-city church when he got connected with two other men who were willing to pivot their lives to follow the Lord. 

Brandon:
00:09:50 I was living back with my parents trying to figure out what it was. I had no money to my name, obviously, or anything else. A lot of my colleagues were already working back in the banks and everything else. And so, I had these coffee conversations with these two guys, Tim Rally and Daniel Fogarty. 

Jim: Tim told Brandon that a small group at church had recently delivered some extra furniture to a single mom who had just moved out of a shelter. She and her children were now living in a bare-bones home and they simply needed basic furniture. The situation touched Tim’s heart. 

Brandon;
00:10:24 He realized that this was a big need in Charlotte, and he had heard that I was looking for something, and so our mutual friends just connected us over coffee. And, I told him, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I just know I’m supposed to serve as the Lord’s hands and feet. 

Jim: Brandon, Tim, and their other friend, Daniel Fogarty, started researching what the furniture situation was like for low-income families in Charlotte.

Brandon:
00:10:45 We found out there were hundreds of children sleeping on the floor, lots of families coming out of shelters and into permanent housing that didn’t have any furniture and couldn’t afford that. You know, they’re paying bills, they’re paying for food—to furnish a home seemed like a luxury. And so we said, maybe we can do something about this. 

Jim: The three men started making connections within their community. They got an SUV with a pull-along trailer to carry furniture that people were getting rid of on Facebook Marketplace. They connected with families through social service groups and even secured a storage unit to fill with extra furniture. 

Brandon:
00:11:20 We all thought, hey, this may be something that the Lord is stirring up and we want to pursue this. And so, this friendship between the three of us began and turned into a nonprofit that we ultimately ended up establishing and pushing forward.

Jim: They named the nonprofit Beds for Kids. A simple name that was created specifically to tug at people’s hearts … and to help encourage people to help them solve the city of Charlotte’s need for children to have a comfortable bed to sleep in at night. It also provided other types of furniture, not just beds. 

Brandon:
00:11:52 We said, God, if this is something You want to do, like, make it legitimate. And, sure enough, I mean, just—it felt like week after week we would be connected with another person, another company that just expanded the ministry.

Jim: Among the many ways God answered their prayers was through an overflowing storage unit. Beds for Kids now needed a warehouse.

Brandon:
00:12:14 We started praying in a parking lot of a vacant warehouse, right outside of downtown. And we said, Lord, this warehouse, we have no means of acquiring it or renting it even, but if this is what You want us to do, like, please give us this warehouse. Within a month of praying that prayer, we were set up on a coffee connect with a gentleman we didn’t know, but through other church members, who pulled up in a Maserati. And I’ll just say that because it was just a movie scene and he didn’t have much time. He just said, Hey, I heard what you’re doing. I like it a lot, and I have a 11,000 square foot warehouse that I’d like to give to you. And that warehouse was two blocks away from where we had been praying just a month earlier. And he gave it to us rent-free to start filling up.

Jim: The blessings just kept coming. A local furniture distributor told Beds for Kids they wanted to start giving toward the cause, too. They sent Beds for Kids brand new furniture and mattresses. 

Brandon:
00:13:11 Door after door was opening up, not so much based on our effort, although we were working really hard. But these opportunities that just compounded to us saying this needs to be something that becomes big. We can’t just make this a side gig; let’s make this a full-time thing.

Jim: That they did. They discovered they were able to deliver more than just furniture through the doors that God was opening. They were able to deliver the Gospel … sharing the hope that’s found in Jesus Christ. 

Brandon:
00:13:38 We said often we realized that furniture was our currency to share the Gospel. And a cool aspect of our work was, we would assume that yes, going into families that had very little material wealth was a big aspect of our ministry, and that’s true, but on the front half of the day, we’d find ourselves in some [of] Charlotte’s wealthiest homes, wealthiest individuals who had the furniture. You know, if we’re picking up a kitchen table or a bed from them because they just were ready for a brand-new suite to fill out their home, we found that we were in a place of intimacy with them just as much as those who didn’t have material wealth. And for both sets of homes, we could very easily just say, Hey, can we bless you with prayer? And is there anything we can pray for? And it didn’t matter if we are in a 7,000 square foot home or an 800 square foot apartment, you know, in subsidized housing. In both places, we were able to share who Jesus was and to be His hands and feet. And not just that, but we could go places where the church isn’t necessarily able to go or it’s not easy for them. We were in a place of intimacy for folks who may not otherwise find themselves in church. And so, lots of stories came about of people in that place of kind of like intimacy of their own home. They felt safe. They would share with us what their family’s struggling with or what their children are going through, and would ask for us to pray right then and there and so we would just hold their hands in a circle after either loading up the truck with their furniture or setting up the furniture we just delivered to ’em, and we’d pray over ’em. 

Jim: Many of their deliveries were to single-parent homes with a mother or father who had nothing but what was in the black trash bags they got at the local shelter. Beds for Kids was on a mission to help the Christian community make a difference in these families’ lives.

Brandon:
00:15:24 You look at Acts chapter two and Acts chapter four where like all believers had things in common. There’s this sharing of resources like to any who had need, somebody else could supply it—and I think that’s very much what Beds for Kids hopes to do is take where there’s an abundance, you know, where there’s plenty, and be an in-between to get that to somebody who needs it. So I think that’s like the most obvious example. I think in general, like … the Gospel encourages us to be creative and to be creators and to develop things. And so this was a nonprofit, yes, but it was also like an entrepreneurship. We wanted to consider new ways to serve the city that it had not done before. And so I think just in general, it reflects the Gospel of something new being created where there’s brokenness, something beautiful where there’s darkness. And in this case, furniture was our way of able to creatively establish the Kingdom in our city in a way that hadn’t really been done before.

Jim: God continued to bless the ministry of Beds for Kids and Brandon worked as its director of operations … until 2014. That’s when he felt God calling him to step away from the organization.

Brandon:
00:16:32 And so I left Beds for Kids with just a vision that I wanted to expand how I served my city. And I loved Beds for Kids, it was great, but I just felt that season was coming to an end, and I desired to go into the business realm. And, so I left without a job actually in place because it was just, again, an act of faith, just asking the Lord to reveal what would be next. He had answered so many prayers in the past, and so now, He was asking me to like trust Him again. And so, He was getting ready to lead me into the next season.

Jim: Where God led Brandon next was Coca-Cola Consolidated. Brandon had gone from asking Coca-Cola Consolidated for a grant in support of Beds for Kids to now interviewing for a job with them.

Brandon:
00:17:17 I’ve just celebrated 10 years now at Coca-Cola Consolidated and am now in what I consider my dream role, which is the charitable giving part of our company. And we look for nonprofits and organizations that are providing fullness of life to the communities that we’re in, and we support them, financially, so that we can see the communities grow.

Jim: God has used Brandon to minister to people, everywhere from Nairobi, Kenya, to Charlotte, North Carolina. Yet, Brandon still says his story is very ordinary.

Brandon:
00:17:52 And I don’t say that to belittle what the Lord’s done in my life, but I’m your average Joe, and yet the Lord has done extraordinary things in my life. And so for anybody who’s listening that doesn’t have a million social media followers or hasn’t written a book or anything before, I mean, I’m in that same boat, but yet, my cup overflows in the way that the Lord has blessed me abundantly. I resonate deeply when David says to God like, who am I and who is my family that You have done this for me? I feel that very often. I feel like the richest man on Earth, and yet, I’m just kind of a typical guy in the city of Charlotte, trying to serve and see God’s kingdom grow. So just that it doesn’t have to happen. God’s work in your life doesn’t have to be some wild event that gets publicized. It can be so very beautiful, just in small year-by-year ways.

MUSIC TRANSITION

Jim: Brandon Holmes knows firsthand that only God can give true purpose and meaning to anyone’s life. Finding that purpose and meaning begins by having a relationship with God’s Son, Jesus Christ. If that’s something you don’t know, and you want to know that now, go to our website: FindPeaceWithGod.net. That’s FindPeaceWithGod.net.

Along with the purpose that Jesus gives to your life, Brandon Holmes says there’s something else you can expect … something that keeps you on your toes. You’ll hear what that is in just a minute.

Voice-over: You’re listening to GPS: God. People. Stories., a podcast production of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

MUSIC STARTS

Billy Graham:
00:19:38 You are a link in God’s chain and God’s plan to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world right now in history. 

Voice-over: Billy Graham …


Billy Graham:
00:19:46 Are you, as a young man or young woman, ready to say, “I’m ready to go.”? And that takes us back to the Bible. And Moses saw a bush burning and he went over to investigate and out of the bush spoke the Lord and He said, “I am the Lord God and, Moses, I want you to go and lead the people of Israel out of Egypt.” Moses said, “I can’t. I can’t even speak. I’m 80 years old.” God said, “Moses, I’ve chosen you. I’ll be with you.” One man dedicating himself to Christ! Have you made your decision yet? With God, you can be sure that you are a majority. Just you and God tonight. I’m going to ask you to receive Him. Receive Christ into your heart.

Jim: If you’re ready to receive Jesus Christ into your heart … or you’re ready to go deeper in the faith that you already have in Jesus, pay us a visit at FindPeaceWithGod.net. FindPeaceWithGod.net.

Our guest on this episode of GPS: God. People. Stories. is Brandon Holmes. God has used him to serve people in his community in a variety of ways and in all kinds of places. He says something you can expect when you’re walking with Jesus is …  the unexpected.

Brandon:
00:21:07 God always is surprising me. Like we are told to be a people of hope and to ask certain things, be specific in your prayers to God, but we never figure Him out. But He like never disappoints. And every time He comes through, He blows whatever I had in mind out of the water. And so, as soon as I start feeling like I am getting used to my walk with the Lord, I know I’m kind of in a dangerous spot because He’s always surprising; He’s always breaking my expectations and doing the extraordinary. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that I should just always be ready for a surprise from God in the way that He responds to my asks and my needs and my desires.

Jim: We’re grateful for Brandon Holmes joining us on this episode. The ministry he founded, Beds for Kids, served 8,000 families and delivered more than 25,000 beds last year. As Brandon continues to care for his community in Charlotte, he’s also a husband and dad to three young children.

If you enjoyed hearing Brandon’s story, be sure you’re subscribed to GPS so you will not miss any of the stories we share of how God works powerfully in peoples’ lives. We post new episodes every other Wednesday—and we count it a blessing that you are listening. Thank you.

I’m Jim Kirkland; this is GPS: God. People. Stories., an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association—Always Good News.

CLOSING MUSIC

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