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 To
avoid unpacking and repacking I usually open my suitcase flat,
and slide it under the bed, wherever I an staying. At two
different places the hostess' cat used my case for a litter box,
despite my efforts to keep household pets out of the room. At
another place the family pet poodle puddled profusely, and
chewed my pencils to shreds. It's all in the game of
"staying with folk" in the course of gospel meeting
work:
But
the worst "pets" of all were those crawling and biting
things with which I had to share one bed. Maybe some former
preacher brought then in, but this one spent a miserable night
identifying the enemy, and then prepared to oust then. In an
early morning trip to town he obtained powders, paints and
sprays designed to kill or repel the invaders. Then, when the
woman of the house was away he tore that bed apart,
administering a chemical blitzkrieg. The bed was then put
together, but pulled from the wall and the legs set in shallow
cans filled with kerosene. Although my door remained closed
through the week the chemical odor filled the house. Everyone
ignored it — saying not one word. And we had a very good
meeting.
And
lest you conclude that such experiences are "usual"
let me assure you
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that these are some of the worst, drawn from
forty-plus years of being the "visiting preacher." Nor
have I always been the victim. One host was doing some
remodeling, and had fourfold doors hung, but no hardware
installed. Since I had done such work in my own house, I offered
to finish his job. And I almost did — drilling the holes in
the wrong door. I had the embarrassing task of trying to
"patch up" and hide the error.
We
also keep our share of preachers, and they have their problems
with us. Several have stayed in our house while we were away,
and on one such occasion we returned to find three dead
scorpions stacked in a neat triangle on our snack bar — gentle
reminder of what our guest had to endure while "staying
with us."
I
could tell you about the preacher who used up two cans of
bathroom air freshener in one week — finally explained when
the host saw smoke coming from the bathroom window and knew the
man was trying to hide the fact that he smoked while in there.
But you night want to know the man's name so I won't tell that
story. Instead, I'll thank hundreds of wonderful people
everywhere who keep the preacher.
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