Serving New Brighton in unity.

Hey guys! Trying to be good at updating this blog, I hope you understand.

Where do I start? The first week of lecture phase is over and I must say I could not be more thankful for the students here. When we went in for airport pick-ups last weekend, the first thing most of the students asked was, "Are we going to be able to serve Christchurch?" They were ready to get in and serve. This week was spent in lectures focusing on hearing God's voice, worship, and intercession. For the past two days we sent teams into Christchurch and New Brighton to help with the earthquake relief. Thursday's ministry was focused on sending out neighborhood care teams that distributed food and water to the homes. It was hard to see some of the affects this earthquake had in this area. Many neighborhoods are still without water or power. Petro is low as well as food so this makes it very hard to obtain daily needs. On a street that has about thirty homes I found only 5 families that still remained. Most people left that area to stay with family. I was so blessed by the people I met during that time though and found most of them just wanted to talk. They were broken and in need of care and it was encouraging to see the community coming together to provide that care for them. The Lord is doing a mighty work here.

Friday we took a team into New Brighton once again. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the Lord had plans for us. The students stepped it up in a big way! Most of the staff around us had to tell them to take a break because they were so focused on the tasks they were doing that they didn't pay attention to the time. It was great to step back and look around at the students loving on the people in this area. I'm so proud of them. I focused on the food distribution area. All of the food at the center was donated and it was a lot! It was so cool to be able to give these people as much as they wanted because of the quantity the Lord has provided. He is so good and know's just wanted His people need.

Thank you for the prayers. Please continue to lift up these areas, there is still a lot that needs to be done. Christchurch is not the place I remember it, but I see this as an opportunity to serve this nation and am so thankful we are here to do that. We've been praying that the Lord would redeem this situation and that this is a chance for Christchurch to be built on God's foundation. That He would reclaim this land for Him.