ChCh

You can’t get any more down under the world than New Zealand–anything that’s inhabitable anyway. 

Dennis and I flew into Christchurch (ChCh) 10 years ago as a tag-on to a couple weeks of ministry in Australia. We figured we were as close to NZ as we were going to get, so as a 25^th wedding anniversary gift to ourselves, we made a holiday on the south island. A rental car and daily road trips later, we had made our way around the south island from ChCh to Queenstown (where we had the adventure of taking a helicopter up through the valley to our starting point for white-water rafting), to Milford Sound (where it snowed in January - NZ’s summer!), full circle back to ChCh where we enjoyed the city and beach. All along the way, the novelty of sheep grazing on hillsides became commonplace, and I wondered where the Hobbits might have lived or what mountain tops might have been the roamings of Frodo Baggins and Samwise.

Today I’m sitting in The Addington Coffee shop in ChCh while Evee, our 6-year-old granddaughter is in her class at school, Iris, our 3-year-old granddaughter is at Kindy, Jamie, our daughter is at work in the social work job she loves, and Clint, our son-in-law, gets some mentoring time with Dennis. This time we sandwiched a holiday visit to the south island between Global Partner connections on the north island and an M retreat in Cairns, Australia. Little did we know ten years ago that we would have family living on the south island of NZ!

It’s been so fun to enter their world - walking Evee to school, clad in her blue-plaid skort that matches her light-blue polo shirt, the school uniform worn by all; dropping Iris off at Kindy, a colorful large room filled with activities that would take more than a day to explore; seeing Jamie off to work in a fitting and fulfilling social work job that she loves; watching Clint in action as he gives leadership to The Well - a church plant that launched in February of this year - and having the opportunity to see the reality of The Well gather on Sunday morning.

This time, though, Frodo and Sam are not on my mind, but the devastation of earthquakes. I've tried to imagine what it must have been like to experience the quakes and survive the aftermath. And, there is always the question of when it might happen again. 

Clint and Jamie moved to ChCh when the city was still feeling daily tremors from the February 2011 earthquake. The tremors have diminished, but the rebuilding efforts are still going on. We took time on our first day here to walk through the Central Business District where there are parking lots where tall buildings once stood. Shipping containers have been creatively turned into shops. A pavilion was made out of pallets for local businesses and venues. Thousands of homes have been demolished, no longer suitable for living. It's been said by some economists that it could take the NZ economy 50 to 100 years to recover. Amazingly, life has continued on, and others like Clint and Jamie have moved to ChCh for various reasons.