Marilyn and I have been blessed to spend the week in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. After spending the weekend with Andrew and Lynley in Christchurch we headed up to Hanmer Springs Sunday afternoon until Tuesday, and then flew down to Queenstown for our National Leader’s meeting.
Andrew is now Pastor of our Elim Burnside church. Burnside is one of our oldest Elim churches in New Zealand, and is now made up of a good age mix of folk with many young families. Andrew and Lynley have settled well, brought a lovely home and are building a great vision in the church. It was good to catch up with Les and Isobel Covic who attend the church. They are living legends in Elim having pioneered churches and Les was our National Leader in 1971-2.

My last National Leadership meeting was difficult. The guys on the team have become great friends and have contributed so much into my life and been a real encouragement in our leading the church. I have been on the NLT for twenty one years and National Leader for eleven. I will miss the meetings; we always had lots of laughs along with the more serious side of church governance, but I know Elim is in good hands as we encourage our young Pastors to rise up and take responsibility.

I've been in Christchurch this week, firstly for a National Leadership Meeting and then yesterday we had a Regional gathering of the Pastors and spouses from Christchurch, top of the South Island and the West Coast. It was good to catch up with Andrew and Lynley who have gone out from us to lead the church in Burnside, and Richard who along with Maria went from East to Nelson. Maria wasn't with Richard as she was not well. They are expecting their third child; another girl I think Richard said. Congratulations.

Both couples are doing an awesome job. I feel really proud of them when I hear the others speaking so highly of what they are doing.

Christchurch is a mess after the earthquake. So much of the inner city is to be torn down, but added to that are thousands of damaged houses and then the roads are up and down and need lots of work. Look at the photo of the road by Clinton and Jan's house.  We have been able to put $120,000.00 into the three churches from our Elim family to assist them in the recovery.

I tabled at the National Leadership Team my letter of resignation from the role of National Leader and as a member of the leadership team to take effect at this year’s conference. It is time to pass the baton to the next generation, and I also feel we have some huge years ahead of us in Elim Christian Centre. My passion has always been to serve in the local church.

The BNZ bank have approved the finance to do the first stage of the college in Golflands.

I managed to get out on Monday for a bit of fishing. It was a beautiful day but we only got eight. The highlight was a pod of about 50 dolphins swimming around the boat.  I think the season has come to an end. It’s time to pack the boat up for winter.

Wow another world shattering event last Friday with the earthquake in Japan. The magnitude 8.9 offshore quake unleashed a seven-metre tsunami and destroyed dozens of cities and villages along a 2,100 kilometer stretch of coastline resulting in tens of thousands lost. And if that was not enough now they have the huge crisis of the nuclear power stations in melt down. Our prayers are with this great nation.

On Sunday afternoon I flew down to speak in our Christchurch City church. They are still meeting in our Burnside church at five in the afternoon but hope to be back in their church building in two weeks for normal services. It was a beautiful day and a bouncy castle, candy floss and hamburgers brought out lots of children. The church seems in good heart.

I never got into the inner city but the destruction is everywhere to see. To date we have raised about $57,000.00 across our three congregations to assist our churches in their recovery and help immediate needs.

Last night we were blessed and challenged with the Watoto Restore Tour from Uganda. Birthed out of the vision of Gary and Marilyn Skinner this is an incredible ministry of transformed lives and communities from the brokenness of internal wars.

It is sobering to remember that with the huge loss of life in the recent tragedies, 11 million have died in Africa of HIV/Aids and 1 million this year will die of Malaria; mostly children. A child dies every 45 seconds. Both are preventable and curable, yet will hardly get a mention in our media.

Marilyn and I flew out last Friday for Samoa. We have a strong Elim church there led by Ps. Manuele Lemosa which is in Salelologa, the other side of the island from Apia. They have planted two smaller daughter churches. We have helped them recently to be able to purchase two buses which are used commercially through the week on the run to Apia. Then on Sundays they bring the families to church.

We were very impressed with the ministry there. The area was badly affected by the tsunami less than 18 months ago, but the courage of the people in rebuilding their lives and their town was inspirational. We slept in a hut that was newly built right on the beach. One has a niggle in the back of one’s mind it could happen again, which I guess is what our Christchurch people live with every day. 

Their fishing boat which our Porirua church helped purchase was back inland among Coconut trees totally destroyed. There is potential to replace this, add another bus and help members start businesses. I feel really confident with what I have seen.

This week after morning church I will head down to Christchurch to speak in the evening service for Clinton. The church is holding services in our Burnside Church as their own building has not yet been repaired and cleared by engineers.

One week on and the true reality is starting to hit Christchurch and the nation. This will be a slow rebuild for the city with a lot of work needed. The nation observed 2 minutes silence yesterday as we stood still in remembrance of the quake victims and the city of Christchurch.

Our churches are doing ok. Burnside and Christchurch North are able to meet in their buildings for services on Sunday and have very little damage.

Elim Cathedral of Hope met at Burnside as their building is in the cordoned area of the city. Clinton said they had a great time together and it was good to see one another. They are likely to keep holding a 4pm service at Burnside for a few weeks until they can use their building. Our Christchurch churches have been out and about helping people from their churches and also the wider community; everything from removing silt and mud to counselling. They are doing a great job, especially when many have no power or water etc at their own homes.

On Sunday we took a special offering for Christchurch. It looks like we will collect around $50,000.00. This is a fantastic response church. Our churches around the country are also taking up collections so we should be able to make a real difference in helping our Christchurch churches meet their commitments through this time and have funds to meet the needs of folk who they have contact with.

Nationally we have also been working with the Salvation Army in providing helpers to work with their counselling and Pastoral care teams on the ground in Christchurch. This is a managed process through Elim NZ, not just for anyone who wants to help. We have had a great response from trained counsellors, and Pastoral Care folk and the Salvation Army is contacting them as they require them. 

Today we are grieving as a nation as we view the loss of life, trauma experienced and buildings devastated in Christchurch by the earthquake which struck yesterday. Our love and prayers go out to our churches and their members and families.  What can we say?  It seems just so hard for them after what seemed to be normality returning after the last one. Not all church members or their families are accounted for.

John Glass our National Leader in the United Kingdom, Dr. Joseph Serwadda from Uganda, Jeff & Kay Lucas from the USA, Bishop James Isaquirre from the Philippines and others have made contact expressing their sympathy and prayers. Thank you for that. It gives strength to have that support.

What a tremendous responsibility our church leaders Clinton Kelleher, Andrew Garrett and Stewart McLellan and other church leaders carry at this time. Keep them in your prayers.

We are taking a special offering across our congregations this Sunday. If you will not be present but wish to contribute you may do so online here.