Sleep Tight
Traveling in a bus is kind of like having a home away from home. We had a makeshift kitchen, a makeshift bathroom, a makeshift bedroom and a makeshift living room. I wish we could say that we had all of the comforts of home but that just wasnââ?¬â?¢t the case. One of the things we were really missing was heat. We didnââ?¬â?¢t have a furnace or any way to keep warm if we werenââ?¬â?¢t going down the road. So it was necessary to schedule things in ââ?¬Å?warmerââ?¬Â weather during the winter months IF it was going to be necessary to sleep in the bus. But what do you do with those unusual extremely cold days of fall? This was the case that is the foundation for todayââ?¬â?¢s story.
This would have been the fall of 1981. Vicky was expecting our twins at the time. We were doing meetings in a little town about 50 miles north of Grand Rapids, MI. We had gone up Saturday night to get things set up for Sunday morning. After getting to the church, getting everything all set up it was finally time to get some rest. The pastor had given us the key to the church so that we could use the church�s restroom instead of the makeshift one in the bus.
It really was cold that night and no matter what we did, we just couldn�t stay warm enough to get a good night�s sleep. I�m not sure, but I think it was Vicky�s idea to go into the church and sleep in there. In any case, that�s exactly what we did. There�s nothing wrong with sleeping in church. People do it all the time. In fact, do you know that if you took all the people who sleep during church and laid them end to end they would be a lot more comfortable?
There really wasnâ��t any place to comfortably lie down in this church so we went camping in our tent. Our puppet stage was kind of like a tent. And that is exactly where we slept. We had some �½â� closed cell foam pads that we used to kneel on while doing the puppets. We rolled them out on the floor and that was our bed. We were able to stay warm and there is a lot to say about that however, I didnâ��t feel like a very good provider having my pregnant wife sleeping on the hard floor of a church inside a puppet stage. I think I had a glimpse as to how Joseph must have felt when his wife had to spend a night in a stable. I am so blessed to have a wife who would be willing to do stuff like this with out complaining as a part of ministry to children.
ââ?¬Å?She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.ââ?¬Â Luke 2:7