February, 2011:

Several days on from the massive quake which has caused so much destruction in Christchurch, I took the opportunity yesterday to update my radio listeners on what was happening in New Zealand.

Tuesday’s 6.3 magnitude tremor is the largest of many aftershocks from the 7.1 magnitude quake in the same area on the 4th of September last year.

At this time 123 people are confirmed dead with 200 still missing and many hundreds injured.

Allan Lee is Director of News and Current Affairs for Rhema Broadcasting Group in New Zealand. He joined me live during my program on 98.5 Sonshine FM the day after the quake as he headed by road to Christchurch. I spoke to Allan again yesterday and he updated me with details from the last couple of days.

Since we last spoke Allan had been into the city of Christchurch and witnessed the devastation as well as travelling through the suburbs and finding out how the people of the area are coping.

You can hear our discussion by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

I also asked Allan how we should be praying for those caught in the tragic events. He reminded us that while the physical needs are being attended to as quickly as possible, the emotional scars will take many years to heal.

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A national state of emergency has been declared in New Zealand following the devastating earthquake that rocked the area surrounding Christchurch yesterday. Horrific images have been beamed into our lounge rooms as the rescue and recovery efforts continue.

Yesterday’s 6.1 magnitude tremor is the largest of many aftershocks from the 7.1 magnitude quake in the same area on the 4th of September last year. At this time 75 people are confirmed dead with 300 missing and many hundreds injured.

Allan Lee is Director of News and Current Affairs for Rhema Broadcasting Group in New Zealand. He joined me live during my program on 98.5 Sonshine FM this morning as he headed by road to Christchurch.

We talked about the feeling in New Zealand today as people continue to come to terms with the tragedy and the dangerous rescue efforts as aftershocks continue to shake buildings that are already on the brink of collapse.

You can hear our discussion by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

I also asked Allan how we should be praying for those caught in the tragic events. He reminds us that while the physical needs are being attended to as quickly as possible, the emotional scars will take many years to heal.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.