My heart goes out to the many who have lost loved ones. Sue and I appreciate those of you (some atheists--who were kindly sympathetic) who have contacted us and assured us of their thoughts and prayers.
Our eldest son and his wife and child were visiting Christchurch when the earthquake struck. They are okay, and so are all of Sue's and my relatives, for which we thank God.
Many in the city had very frazzled nerves even before this quake. A 7.1 hit six months ago with no fatalities, and since then there have been more than 4,500 aftershocks. This one was much worse. None of my family know the Lord. May this make them realize the fragility of life.
Back in 1971, just before my conversion, a surfing buddy who was deeply into pornography got his girlfriend pregnant, was married at 16, and had the baby girl adopted.
At the age of 16, she searched out her natural parents, found them, and turned up at their doorstep, pregnant. My friend became a grandfather at 32 years old.
I tried to witness to him when I went back to New Zealand in 1992, but it didn't work out too well as it was in his surf shop, and customers kept coming in. Although he did say that he wanted to ask God about his younger brother, who had tragically committed suicide because he got into financial difficulty.
For some reason I thought about all this, this past Sunday, found his surf shop online, emailed him and was amazed to get a reply. He said that my god (he used a small "g") really scared him with the big earthquake they had six months ago (he used profanity to say how much it scared him). I then wrote back and said that I failed to tell him something when I last saw him, and added that Jesus said if you lust after a woman, you commit adultery with her. I said that Hell was real, and that God made a way for us to be forgiven and have everlasting life.
He responded "That is scary, you mean I have committed adultery about 140 times already today? Hell won’t be so bad – at least all my mates will be there and all the naughty girls. Just don’t tell me it will be onshore all day every day. That will really make me gnash my teeth. Heaven sounds really boring -- all the goody two shoes kids drinking tea and singing hymns all day. Is there surf there?"
I emailed back that there would be no friendship or any pleasure in Hell and talked about his misunderstanding of Heaven, hoping he would get back to me.
The following day, the earthquake struck. His shop was very close to the epicenter. I don't know what happened to him.
