Sleeping on the Floor with Mission Recruits

Psalm 25:9 (NIV)

He guides the humble in what is right

    and teaches them his way.

When I was at Moody Bible Institute I worked in the dish room to help pay for school. One afternoon an older gentleman walked through the dining room where I was working and stopped and shuck my hand and shook my hand and thanked me for the job I was doing. That man was Dr. Francis Schaeffer. The following story brought that moment back to my memory.

Back in 1966, Doug joined an organization called Operation Mobilization for a year of ministry in France. While in London for training, he volunteered to work on a cleanup crew late one night in preparation for a conference that was to begin the next day.

Around 12:30 Am, as Doug swept the front steps of a building, an older gentleman approached and asked if he was in the right place for the conference. Doug assured him he was. "The man had a small bag with him and was dressed very simply," recalls Doug. "I told him I would see if I could find him a place to sleep."

The place Doug found was the room where he had been sleeping on the floor with about 50 others. Laying some padding and a blanket on the floor, he handed the man a towel for a pillow. The stranger thanked Doug and began preparing for bed. Doug asked him if he had eaten.

"No," the man said, "I've been traveling all day"

The two went together to the dining room, where Doug found Corn Flakes, milk, bread, butter, and jam. As they ate, the man expressed his gratitude and told how he and his wife had been working in Switzerland mainly with hippies and travelers.

Upon awaking the next morning, Doug discovered that the man he'd been sharing Corn Flakes with, the man he had accommodated on a cold, hard floor, was none other than the conference speaker, Dr. Francis Schaeffer, one of the most famous Christians of the past century.

Doug smiles about it now. "I have since thought about this occasion many times," he says. "This gracious, kind, humble man of God sleeping on the floor with mission recruits! This was the kind of man I wanted to be."

I want to be that kind of man, how about you?

Dear Lord, we pray that we would have the heart to sleep on the floor with recruits. We pray for a humble heart. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.