The text of a mail I received from my brother Robert who lives in Christchurch New Zealand along with more than the half of my family.
We have had a number of emails wondering how life is in Chch
so I thought I should do a bit of a group email.
After our initial 7.1 earthquake which caught us napping at 4.35 in the morning, we have slowly come to grasp the significance of it all,
It all depends on where in Chch you live.
Most affected is the older central city which tends to be non residential.
Residential areas affected tend to be those on softer ground where liquefaction seems the big issue. St Albans, and toward New Brighton closer to rivers.
The most visible damage is loss of chimneys.
- I don't think any have come down in our street.
Our new Pastor Rusty is in rented accommodation at present - he lost a chimney.
1-2 others in the church lost chimneys.
One family have had major disruptions to their house such that the floor is no longer level, but hopefully it will be fixable and not be condemned. Some areas with severe damage to newer houses involve houses with concrete floors - when they snap there is little that can be done except - start again.
We now appreciate our engineers and engineering standards. We appreciate our city's infrastructure and systems. We appreciate a roof over our heads and simple pleasures of water supply and electricity !
Most of us have felt 30 -50 after shocks since Saturday. We are getting quite accurate at detecting their severity. More short sharp jolts some around 5, centred closer to Christchurch and only 6-7 km down. Today there has been a bit of a let up.
This is all beginning to wear people down a bit. Life has slowed right down, peoples thinking is a bit clouded and we all need time to recover.
Some it the church have become quite stressed out with this notable to stay in their own home at night. - Interestingly some of these have been in war situations in the past.
There are spiritual lessons.
On the Friday before the quake our newspaper triumphed an article by Steven Dawkins that science has proven God is dead.
However on Saturday, even our Prime Minister and Mayor are saying 'it is a blessing' that no one was killed, rather than "fortunately."
there is more of an acknowledgement of the existence of God.
As a Cambodian lady said in church on Sunday morning; "we feel closer to each other and closer to God."
God teaches us through experiences and through his Word. The best way is through his Word - if only we would listen! Some times experiences can be a real learning opportunity.
For me an initial thought was that this must be the closed thing to the return of Christ that I have experienced.
Overwhelming, How small are we. How big is God! How dependent we are on Him.
We need to learn again the might of God the power of God, that he is the Judge of all the earth. how awesome is our God
Psalm 33:8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
But we do not come just to a powerful god but one to whom we can run, we can know of his love.
Psalm 33:20. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart shall rejoice in Him, Because we have trusted in His holy name
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