I am counting down to Christmas and have all the usual adult stresses and tensions. There is not enough time, more work to do than I can cope with and I don’t feel like celebrating. Well at least that was how I felt before I had a skype call from my grand daughters in Australia. They were their usual bouncy selves and so excited about Christmas coming. They had been to buy toys for poor people and food for their local food bank and they were trying to guess what Gran and I had got them. They have a tree with gifts waiting to be opened. I could not stop myself from feeling some of their excitement and joy as they waited to celebrate the birth of “Baby Jesus”. Hannah and Amelia made me stop and think. At Christmas I should be remembering the birth of Christ and all I was doing was getting stressed and grumpy. After our talk I was a changed person. I now want to celebrate with joy and enthusiasm. The birth of Christ changed the world and by acts of kindness we can do the same. Christmas it t0o important for us not to celebrate.
I wish you all peace and love at this time. I wish you time with those you love and I wish that we spare a thought for those who are suffering and lonely.

Post Earthquake it seemed the celebrations were no longer in order. Since then the World Cup has come and gone and this gave us reason to celebrate. It felt that in the midst of major world financial insecurity there was still some hope and joy. With the coming elections I guess we can celebrate and be glad that we live in a democracy however grim life seems. Thank God the that Christmas is coming. This is a reason to celebrate and at the Mission we are certainly going to do so.
We will have our annual Christmas dinner. Last year over 650 people attended and we had a great time. It is a real thrill to see everyone coming together and enjoying themselves. I hope that people who wish to attend this year will do so.
We will be trying to help people who are finding it difficult to cope financially this year by providing food parcels. Last year we gave out 1800 food parcels to those in need.

Our annual Carol Service will still take place, but of course not in the Cathedral. It will be held on Wednesday 21st December at 7.30pm at St Michael and All Angels in Oxford Tce.
Our various social services will be holding functions for clients to celebrate Christmas and we will be trying to ensure that no one feels left out.

Christmas has become increasingly commercial and expensive and so we are trying to bring it back into line by suggesting inexpensive gift ideas and by encouraging people to realise that the time spent with their children and other family members may be the greatest gift they can give.
We will decorate our reception area and also our chapel and so if you would like to come and see them in December you would be welcome to visit.
Christmas is well worth celebrating. We celebrate the birth of Jesus and the great hope for the world that this event has brought.
At last I am catching the Christmas spirit. I feel like celebrating.

After the last earthquake we felt shaken but were grateful that people were safe. This time we do not have that consolation. Tragedy has visited us and people died as our beautiful city was torn apart. It is very hard to generate a feeling of hope but of course that is what we must do. The City Mission is located in the city centre and while there were no big buildings to threaten us we were unable to cleanup or use our buildings. In fact two of our buildings, Thorpe house our Social Detoxification building and The Pink palace will most likely have to come down. All our buildings were very badly shaken and glass and furniture was everywhere. Computers fell to the floor and filing cabinets and book cases fell like blocks. Thank God all staff and clients were safe apart from a few bruises and cuts. For some time after the quake we helped people contact those they loved and made sure that they had safe places to go to. In the background was the fear that we may a have lost people we loved. Our first task was to make sure that all our staff were safe and looked after. I then looked for places where we could set up a temporary office and get things going so that we could help those who needed us. By chance I heard of a place and proceeded to make arrangements to move in the next day. It is somewhat ironic that the venue was the Riccarton Club, a place of gambling and alcohol. The Club staff were wonderful to us and we soon got computers set up and managed to get our server and some basic supplies. All of the staff were housed in a large room and this helped us to avoid isolation and to support each other. We then proceeded to set up two food banks and a kitchen. We could not keep the Night Shelter open as it was in the cordon and toilets were a problem. We tried to contact our clients and arranged for hot meals to be distributed to various street corners. Over four days we gave out over 300 meals. We were very keen to re establish our Alcohol and other Drug Services and so looked for places to rent. In the midst of all this work, suffering, damage and anxiety there was a place of great safety and help. It was really not one place but a series of places found in people. Wonderful people from near and far gave us practical and emotional support. As the cordon has been lifted we are now back at the City Mission. We are minus a social detox house and possibly the Women’s Alcohol and Other Drug Centre which have been destroyed and have had to throw out food and goods that were damaged but we are on the go and looking for opportunities to help our mission family. Our work at the City Mission is now really only just beginning. While we have to continue to help those who need us we are also faced with many new people who never thought that they would need us. Redundancies and homelessness are forcing people to put aside their pride and seek help. We are eager to assist and will do so. Our services include a food bank, Men’s Night Shelter, Woman’s Alcohol and other Drug Centre, Women’s Drop in centre, Community Gardens, Budget Service, and Social Work Service. We are determined to get out into the community and find those who need help. We need to listen to their stories, give them practical help and ensure that they are given the help they need. We deal with the most vulnerable people in our sad and damaged city and now our client base has extended to a new group of people.

A happy, if somewhat belated, New Year to you all. I have just returned from a wonderful holiday. I had a great time with members of my family and I now feel refreshed and ready for the year to come. It is going to be a busy and positive year.
I can’t believe how quickly the new building is coming along. The basement is almost finished and the site is a real hive of activity. We are putting in a new computer client recording system and this has meant a great deal of work for our systems manager and other staff. In December our foodbank coordinator saw 869 people and gave out in excess of 2,300 food parcels. The demand on our services is still ensuring that we all work really hard so that we can help those in need.
A staff member who is leaving us told me that she really loved the commitment of the people she worked with and had a happy time while working at the City Mission. This makes me very glad. What more can we want than to work hard at something we enjoy, helping people, in the company of supportive, caring colleagues .

I am thinking at this Christmas time about what makes people happy. Some look for it in material things. Some look for happiness in physical pleasure. Some hope to find it in intellectual pursuits, while others look to fitness and keeping the body beautiful. A certain degree of happiness or at least satisfaction can be found in these things but Christmas reminds us where true happiness lies. I think it is found in the God who became man and who was born into humble surroundings over 2000 thousand years ago.
I think that it is somewhat ironic that we humans have turned Christmas into such a complicated event and yet a part of me is glad at the fuss, for such a wonderful time absolutely needs to be celebrated. We have had a hard time of things this year. The economy is in a mess, there have been natural disasters in Pakistan and Haiti. We have been rocked by our own earthquake, the West Coast has been torn apart first by a horrific plane crash at Franz Joseph and then by the tragic mine disaster. Lives were lost with the sinking of a fishing boat off our waters a few days ago. There is no joy to be found in any of this. And then along comes Christmas.
We may be tired, we may be sad but I think we must celebrate. This for me, it is the time to remember the true meaning of Christmas. What a wonderful mystery to tell our children and those we love.
Happy Christmas to all. I hope that you find true happiness.

While the physical shakes seem to be getting less and less and I can’t wait until they are over. I think that we will have the mental shakes for some time. We have experienced a very traumatic event and we are reacting in different ways and at different times. Many people I know are feeling tired and irritable and are feeling “low grade” depression or sadness. It seems to come out of nowhere and often does not last but it is difficult while we are living it. I have had lots of advice about how to help people deal with their pain, uncertainly, fear and anger and it is all good stuff. Counselling, exercise, a holiday, talking with friends, the list is endless and is good advice as we work our way back to some sort of pre quake condition. The trick seems to be to find what works for you and that gives you hope for the future.
My main source of help is to talk about the quake with others. This weekend I had friends from out of town to stay and at the risk of boring them I spoke, almost nonstop about the quake. I told them where I was, how strong the quakes were, how I felt and the effect the quake had on me. I insisted showing them where buildings were taken down and the ruins of other buildings. The more I spoke the more I seemed to want to say to ensure that my friends knew what it was like for me. I was lucky as my home suffered no damage and Mission property was largely untouched but I still had the need to talk about my experience.
I know that it is now time to get on with life and start rebuilding but those of us who have experienced the earthquake have a bond. We were united in hardship and remain united in a common experience. As a city we behaved well. We endured the great earthquake of 2010 and we survived.

I hope that you have escaped the earthquake damage that many of our fellow citizens have experienced. At the City Mission we are doing all that we can to help those badly affected by this act of nature.
Clearly this disruption has consumed most of our energy over the last few weeks. On the morning it struck I visited the Night Shelter and Thorpe House at 5:30 a.m. to see how staff and clients were getting on. On a superficial look there did not seem much damage. I was then given a very large quantity of bread from “Breads of Europe” and spent the rest of the day with my wife taking this around the hard hit areas and offering it to those affected by the quake. I also arranged for some to go the Anglican Aged Care and to the Community of the Sacred Name. The rest we took to the Civil Emergency Centres. The priority was then to ensure that all our staff were well and so I started the telephone tree to have them all contacted. The priority was then to ensure that all our buildings were safe to be in. Brian and Colin were very generous with their time and did an inspection and then Bill Hopkins also carried out an engineer’s inspection for us. A big thanks is due to them. I decided that for the next two days we will deal with emergencies. Some staff could not come in but by the end of the first week everyone was back again and hard at work. I have offered counselling to any staff who feel the need for this and Relationship Services will provide this for no cost.
Over time I have kept staff informed of any advice that has come my way both for themselves and for their clients. The City Mission owned buildings are all intact. The rented shop at Colombo Street was not so lucky and may have to be demolished. We are not sure if we will be able to rescue any stock or we may have to write it off. Our archives are also there and may not be able to be retrieved. The vicarage at Governors Bay will also need repair due to chimney damage. At Thorpe House a chimney had to be taken down to ensure safety but apart from that there does not appear to be any damage apart from a laptop computer which fell and broke. The Foodbank is working in cooperation with the Methodist Mission Foodbank as their premises are unsafe and may have to be demolished. We have been given a great deal of damaged goods and this has placed a strain on our storage capacity and person power but we have accepted everything offered. The number of food parcels we have given out has about doubled. We have scaled back the numbers at Thorpe House until some work can be done to ensure complete safety for staff and clients. All the other services are operating but it is not quite work as usual for staff members are expected to help out where there is a need even if it is outside their usual sphere of work. It is my view that our work is only just beginning. I think the quake will bring about redundancies and business failure which in turn will place a demand on our services. People are still caught up in the adrenaline of the event but this will soon go and depression, overcrowding, depression and stress will set in. All in all we have managed well. The staff have been hard working and committed, the volunteers have worked over and above what could have been expected and the community are supportive as we continue to help those in need.