We've had a chat with whanau in Christchurch this morning, and although they've escaped relatively unscathed from yesterday's quake, you could hear that shock is setting in. They didn't sleep at all last night; their house was constantly moving gently, and at times, less gently. They stayed downstairs, because the thought of going to be upstairs and facing another night like the one before was too much to consider.
That's caused us to reflect a bit. We had originally planned to go to Christchurch this weekend. We would have flown down Friday night. For the first time ever, we're kind of glad that work commitments kept us home. On the other hand we're not. We'd love to be there; to be able to hug and comfort our family (on both sides).
We're off to chucrh soon where we will praise God that there were so few injuries and pray for His comfort to those whose lives were literally picked up and shaken 28 hours ago. But we'll also be wondering why. Perhaps when we get home we'll pull out Philip Yancey's excellent book When God doesn't Make Sense. Anyway, blogging seems unimportant this morning in the great scheme of things. We might have some more coherent thoughts later in the day.
Oh, and a very Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads out there. And Dad; 21 years on, we still miss you.
4 comments:
Youngest MacDaughter, who was in Christchurch at the time, says the same thing. She had virtually no sleep last night because all the small aftershocks kept waking her.
It's bad enough here in Dunedin. Having felt the thing and thinking it was nothing (like so many before), it was a massive shock to turn on the news 2 hours later and discover that it had taken out our second largest city.
It's quite unsettling to think that such devastation is just a few hours up the road, to such a major city. Yet, here is gives all the appearance of being just another day.
@ MacDoc - my Darling Daughter is also in Christchurch, but has emerged unscathed, as have the Inventory-in-laws. For that we're immensely grateful and relieved.
@ Scrubone - you're right; it's all a bit surreal. This sort of thing normally happens somewhere else. That it has happened so close to home, and that pretty much all of us will know someone who's been directly affected is discomforting.
Pleased to hear all branches of the INV family in Christchurch are safe and sound as are those of other commenters.
I have a cousin at Darfield and have just spoken to her mother (in fact mrs pdm is still on the call). A huge mess inside the house but no major structural damage. Cousin's hubby has a helicopter and they took a spin to have a look around the local area. They think the epi centre was about a mile from their home.
Post a Comment