A Better Day

Day 2 of my NZ holiday:

I slept in and when I got up, looked into some more visa stuff that I am still trying to get sorted.

Rach was at work until almost 3, so when she got home, we went to get some stuff done for my visa, including a chest x-ray. I must say, I love Christchurch. I walked into the radiology clinic and the whole waiting room was decked out with streamers, balloons, the words to the haka (new zealand maori dance which I have placed a link to the video below as an example), and the names of the All Blacks team members on each seat in the waiting room. So funny. The All Blacks are NZ's rugby team. Because the Rugby World Cup (RWC) is on right now, it's a huge deal here. I have never been much into sports, but I actually would like to get into watching it, because it creates so much community (well, and division I guess, if you let it. Haha).



We ate some pizza at an Italian restaurant, I met her boyfriend, and we all played some indoor mini golf! The place was so cute. I'll have to post some photos soon. Then we went to my favorite coffee shop here, the place Lydia and I went to in 2009. We fell in love with the shop, and I was so happy to be back. It was affected by the earthquake, but they have reopened since. Then we headed out to a park, where there was a place for fans of the RWC to gather. It's a small stadium & rugby field with huge tvs, food stands, etc. You can sit in the stands and watch the rugby on the huge tvs. It was lots of fun watching the two places I call home play against each other - Australia vs. USA game! I just wish I understood what was going on. Haha!!

Speaking of the earthquake that happened in February, we actually drove around the city to see where my friend was in the earthquake and to see some of the damage it caused. Rach was on the 3rd story of a business building, and thank God she was okay. But it did scare her, and the building definitely shook. She explained to me the whole story of how she got out and where they went and waited. She also showed me the first building she saw as she exited the office she was in - an old historic church, crumbled to pieces. She stated it was at that point that she knew something serious had happened. She then pointed to a high-rise building in the distance and explained to me that it used to have a glass elevator. She said when she had gotten outside, the glass was no longer there. I imagined what it must have been like that day. Terrifying, to say the least.

But I have high hopes for Christchurch. There is something beautiful about this city that goes beyond any landscape or historic building. There really is a heart of Christchurch - the people - who are ready to move forward - together. I love that. I have some photos I want to take, but my camera's memory cards aren't working and haven't been for months, so I need to sort that out. But we passed a whole street of local businesses, mainly car dealerships, that had been destroyed by the earthquake. Every building had spray paint or some kind of signage on it saying, "We have moved to...." There was one particular car dealership, though, that had written on it's window, "Our showroom is broken, but our spirits are not."

God is moving here, and what seems like a loss of heritage is actually an opportunity to rebuild a new future. As we passed this one building with a fence around it, I asked why no one was allowed to enter. There was no apparent damage. My friend explained to me that it was unstable, and therefore dangerous. That made me think about how we, in our own lives, go through times of shaking every now and then. It is in those times that we find out just how stable we are, and how well our foundation was built. Even sometimes we appear to be strong, but we are actually weak to the core. I saw a physical representation of this through a brick wall that had crumbled to the ground, whilst others around it had remained. Rach said, "It just depends on how well the structure was built."

That reminds me of what Jesus said so well Luke 6:47-49 =

"As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."

I want to build my life on the Rock. I want it to be built on a firm foundation so that the storms of life will not be able to shake or destroy it. Thank you Jesus that you have saved me by your grace! Thank you that your grace is more than enough for EVERY season.