digging

So here is a neat story. The other morning the base all got together for prayer. The girl leading it, Ali, tells us the snowboarders school needs $13,000NZD (~$9,400USD) to go on outreach, which they were leaving for in 2-3 days. I'm thinking, well that's a load of money, where is that going to come from in 2 days? So then Ali challenges us and says that she believes all of the money was in this room, the room we were all sitting in together. We are all living off the support of others, but that we can still provide. We don't need to look outside (back to the States or Canada or wherever).

Boom baby, the snowboarders school somehow got over the amount they needed from our backpackers staff, a few base staff that were in the room, and some random others. How? How did that happen? In 15 minutes, they got every penny and more? This is why I believe. It is one reason of many, but I believe in a God that provides. Amazing.

Next story. Yesterday, eleven of us headed to Christchurch to do whatever we could to help with the cleanup of Christchurch. The fellas were so pumped to get there hands dirty and put there huge muscles to work. We girls were excited too, we just don't have huge muscles.

Here is what I can describe of the disaster. Many subdivisions were somehow allowed to be built on sand/silt. Everyone knows the phrase about not building a house on sand, welcome to Christchurch. The odd thing about this is most of these houses are the upper class. In many of my studies in college we learned about the poor being the ones targeted for this kind of thing. Mainly because if something did go wrong they can't do much about it (watch Erin Brockovich).

We saw houses barried under a foot of sand, and we spent yesterday digging them out. I'm pretty sure sewage pipes were damaged (I only know that from the horrible smell). Water was out. These houses are ruined. A house is not livable when part of there foundation goes up and the other down and is cracked in half. What are these people supposed to do? The economy sucks and now they have to somehow deal with this.

Natural phenomenon's (Earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, etc.) take what men build and play with it like a toy. I learned you should never feel untouchable and safe. Tomorrow there could be a 30 second long Earthquake that can tear your life into crazy. Still, we can be thankful that no one died.

That is enough for now, time for some tea and breakfast.