Something took me aback in Revelation a few weeks ago. Jesus was talking to the angel of the church in Laodicea when He said, “I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm -neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16.) To think that Jesus would prefer us to be cold rather than lukewarm was an awakening for me. Since then, verses about the fight that we are in have stuck out to me.    We are warned in 2 Timothy 4:3 about people in the last days, that they will...

As a solid introvert, these few moments after 6AM are energizing, peaceful, and in a way, making paths for safe mental processing. I am the only one awake. And although there is only my breathing splitting the quiet in all of Pretoria, I am rewarded. The African sun greets me in a way it does no one else; I am the first one it says good morning to; I am the first skin it touches. Not everyone can say that. Our car was ambushed the first time we went to Mamelodi. The children just wanted the love of the Americans– the attention and affection of the missionaries. They saw no point in waiting...