Some years ago I was returning home from work on a city bus in Vancouver. For some reason I began to think about how
hard it was to get personally involved with real people in real need. As I thought about this I noticed two filthy
dirty men on the bus. The thought came
into my mind that I should invite them home for a bath. I had the strong impression that this is what
God wanted me to do.
The two men were not sitting close to me, but I could hear their conversation. While I thought about the idea of inviting them home for a bath one of them asked a person sitting near them whether they knew a place where they could go to clean up.
My
stop was the end of the bus line at the University of British Columbia. The two men got off at this stop as
well. We got into a conversation
about where they could go to clean up.
My first suggestion was the UBC swimming pool. I was understandably reluctant
to invite them home for a bath. The very
next words out of my mouth were, "But you are too dirty. They will never
let you in. You had better come to my
house for a bath."
By the time we got to the small apartment where I lived
with my husband and three children I had also invited them to have supper with
us. Now I had a problem. How do you tell your husband that you have
invited dirty hitchhikers from the bus home for a bath?
I
left them standing at the corner of the apartment building and went in. I spoke very rapidly to my husband saying,
"I have invited two dirty hitchhikers home for supper and a bath." I turned and ran out before
my husband could respond. The two men
ate with us, washed their clothes and had a bath.
It
turned out these two men were bible school students on spring furlough. They had been hitchhiking when it started to
rain and had hopped into a box car that had previously carried coal. They were delighted that God had provided a woman on the bus willing to invite them home for a bath.
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