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.