A nice clear glass of water...

What is the most dangerous thing in your house?

A knife? Some poisonous substance hidden away so the kids don't mistake it for juice? OK, they are dangerous but there is little chance of anyone using these on themselves unless they want to do damage.

What about this?



Maybe you are thinking “How can that be dangerous?”

Well, if you drink the faintly brown stuff that comes out of our tap, you'll find out how dangerous it can be. Since arriving here, we've realised how much we take clean, drinkable tap water for granted. The impurities are easier to see against the white background of the bathroom sink:



We have a couple of choices. We can boil it. Or, we can fill this basin, which sits on top of our fridge, with water:



The long orange thing is a Katadyn filter. Overnight, the water seeps through it and out the rubber pipe you can see bottom-right into a green bucket.

This is the full apparatus in all its working glory:



The clean water that comes out of the bucket is bottled and put into the fridge – we keep around 8-10 litres bottled at any one time, for drinking, cooking and brushing teeth.

When it's 30C outside and you have to drink 2-3 litres per day, you come to appreciate how important clean, easily accessible water is. At least we have something from a tap that we can purify - unlike some of the people in the Ndop area of Cameroon who are part of a Wycliffe water project. Read about Dubliner Mick Toolan's work here, and again here.

Next time I hear an appeal for funds to help people dig wells or clean a up water supply, I'll think twice before refusing.

Digressing slightly, the appearance of our water is not the only thing Apocalyptic about it. Imagine, on a hot day you are thirsty and need a drink. So, you go to the fridge. Alas, you forgot to put a bottle in the fridge so you fill your glass directly from the water filter, at room temperature (around 30°C) You drink one mouthful and pour the rest down the sink. It's horrible. Cold water refreshes and so does a nice hot cup of tea. Both of them have a purpose in their existence. Lukewarm water has been sitting around, being changed by its environment and as a result is pretty sickening.

Suddenly, Revelation 3:15-16, in which God is sickened by a complacent, inactive church makes new sense: “I know your deeds, 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”

Harsh words? Most sermons based on this comes down to God not being happy with a complacent church (or complacent Christians) that just lets life happen, being changed by the world around it rather than having a positive effect on its surroundings. '.

Are you (are we) like refreshing, cool, running water – or lukewarm and stagnant?