Rocked by Christchurch

My Amazing team (plus a crazy kiwi down front)

Leading this trip to New Zealand you wouldn't think I'd be stretched as much as 11 months of traveling through mostly 3^rd world countries, but in less than 2 weeks, I've been challenged in ways I hadn't experienced all of last year.  I've entered into a whole new kind of brokenness and received strength from the Lord in ways I sought out during Race where I was rather comfortable, or as comfortable as one can be on trip such as that.  Who would have guessed in a rather first world beautiful New Zealand that I would experience all those things I hoped and longed for during the World Race? 

After a week of getting settled in our beautiful base camp of El Rancho in Waikanae Beach, Christchurch had been struck by another devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake (the same magnitude that left most of the older buildings of the city in ruins from this past February).    We were already planning on making a trip to Christchurch at some point during our stay in NZ, but now there was obviously a more pressing need for this team to get down there ASAP.   What can I say except that the Lord opened up the right doors for us to get down there in record time.  We were able to partner with the an amazing church called Grace Vineyard which is situated right in the heart of where the quakes did the most damage to the residential areas.   So we became like first responders arriving on the scene where the city and volunteer organizations were absolutely exhausted and feeling hopeless facing earthquake after earthquake.   The city was just starting to see real progress in the recovery efforts from the February quake when they rocked again by another devastating one last week. 

So we drove down in faith, not even sure there was sufficient housing for everyone.  But upon arrival several homes in the community had contacted Grave Vineyard  and offered to house any volunteer workers.  So not only did our team have cozy houses to stay every night, but amazing hot meals to come home to after long days of hard work that were more physically, emotionally, and spiritually draining than almost anything I've experienced. 

One of the biggest issues among the local residents is liquefaction.   Lique-what?   Most of the residential areas in Christchurch are build on a swamp/marsh.  So when the earth shakes, the sand and silt mix with the water and are forced up filling people's yards and for many their homes with a thick clay-like substance that dries to a cement like mixture.  The government has determined that nearly 2 billion dollars worth of homes and properties will be deemed unlivable causing a mass shift/displacement of the city's population.  At least 5000 homes in the local area will be forcibly displaced due to damage caused by liquefaction.

One of the main jobs that we were able to help in is going around to homes of the elderly or single parent's and help them dig out literally tons of liquefaction from their yards and around their homes with shovels and a wheel-barrel that they could not do on their own.   It was back breaking work, but so appreciated by the wearisome residents who face upwards of 24 quakes a day, most very small, but I felt about a dozen tremors in my week there, one of them lasting nearly 10 seconds at a magnitude 5.3.