[ICTHUS]

I'm listening to the Emily DeLoach arrangement of "Salvation to the Lamb" (well, a clip of it) on Indelible Grace's new CD. It's very...rock-y. Just how I like it.

I tried putting new strings on my guitar only to realize I haven't got a bridge. I've already got the E string on there, but I loosened it enough so that I can just slide a new bridge into the slot under the string and it should be alright (anyone know of any problems with this?). The problem is the nearest music shop is in Burnie, so I need to wait until someone makes a trip to Burnie next, or else pay ridiculous bus fare ($5.40 AUD) to take the metro from Wynyard to Burnie. Actually, Tyson, the guy I met at CCC who I'm going for a drink with this week, works in Burnie, so I wonder if he might give me a lift in the morning if picking me up isn't too far out of his way. Might be worth asking...

Why are strings so expensive in Australia? A set of D'Addario medium gauge strings cost $18-something AUD at a music shop in Launcheston. I could've got the same strings for like $7 in Vancouver.

Thus far I have

- Nearly gotten an ATV stuck in the bush when I made a wrong turn on a trail on my dad's property. It took me 20 minutes of forward-reverse action to get un-stuck and turned around (the trail was barely wider than the vehicle). I was well and truly stuck until I realized the thing wasn't in 4WD mode. I switched and things suddenly became much easier.
- Met a professor at Monash University on the flight from Melbourne to Launcheston.
- Been told that I'm supposed to help my dad castrate a bull.
- Played fetch with the old family dog that got left with my dad when the divorce happened. He's getting pretty old now (he's 11 now and labradors don't live much past that age) and has a number of lung and heart problems (his breathing is pretty laboured) as well as a small skin cancer that will probably be what will kill him eventually. He also was attacked by a rotweiler and both of his ACL's (anterior cruciate ligaments) are gone. He can't run very much because they were repaired with shark cartilege or something like that. I'll post pictures of him.
- Helped dad repair an electric fence.
- Started (re)-reading Always Ready - Directions for Defending the Faith by the late Dr. Greg Bahnsen.
- Went into a paddock with three (young) Clydesdale-Shirehorse crossbreeds (read: really big horses for their age) at the place where my dad stays during the week, who came up to me and started getting uh..playful. Before I could blink I had two horses on either side of me who stood easily a foot and a half taller than me and another one close by. I reached up to start rubbing one's head and it started bucking its head and showing teeth (at one point it bit my sweater and started pulling on it) and I started freaking out, and I slowly backed away. Thankfully the horses didn't seem angry (they weren't giving me that equine anger signal with the ears pressed to their head), I think they were just curious, and they let me back away and then walk away without incident, but needless to say I was a little scared.

I resolved to stay away from any horses until I know what I'm doing somewhat. That was scary. :/ Maybe I'll go help my sister look after the horses at Dad's place and learn a thing or two that way.

[ICTHUS]

Staying in Beaconsfield, Tas with my dad at the moment. I'm going to be volunteering at the mine museum here in town. You might remember Beaconsfield because it was publicized a great deal all over the world back in 2006 when a cave-in (the mine is siesmically active) killed one miner and trapped two for 14 days until they were rescued.

I went to Wynyard Baptist last Sunday. Most of their congregation was away at a retreat so it was all of the older folk there, however the pastor and his wife invited me over for lunch. The offering was dedicated to a fund to help dairy farmers who are being adversely affected by tanked milk prices (I think my dad was telling me the cost of producing is $0.30 AUD/Litre and the price of milk is $0.23/Litre at the moment) - I don't know if this is just Tasmania or Australia-wide or what, though - but it was really interesting seeing how a rural church in an agricultural area cares for their neighbors, versus an inner-city church. The sort of poor that they face is different, but they still have neighbors that need love.

Dad has been supportive in trying to get my health in order. He seems to really take the time to understand what's wrong with me. This is definitely a good thing.

[ICTHUS]

Currently at a backpacker hostel in Launceston, Tas. Launceston is only about a 40minute drive out of where my dad works, and Dad had to work a weekend (and I happened to be with him) and seeing as there's absolutely nothing to do in Beaconsfield over the weekend I decided to spend a couple of nights in Launceston, the nearest major city. It's the second largest city in the state after Hobart (I was thinking of going to Hobart but the bus alone is almost $90) and has a population of about 65,000.

There's a huge church that I got a picture of that I'm going to go to tomorrow, if only because they have "Jesus Only, Mighty to Save" in big bold lettering on the facade of the church and I'm curious if they match up to it on the inside.

Last weekend my uncle and aunt were visiting from Kelowna, BC and we went to Strahan, on the southwest coast of the state. We had dinner at a seriously nice place that Lisa knows the chef at, and the following morning went on a boat cruise in Macquarie harbour, which is Strahan's port. This particular body of water is notable because it has a very narrow inlet to the ocean and is fed by 3 river systems, resulting in water that, although directly connected to the ocean, is brackish (of lower salinity than ocean water) throughout.

There's also a UNESCO world heritage site (Gordon River) and a former convict camp there whcih I'll talk more about next time.

I'll say more later, right now I have a pretty crummy internet connection.

[ICTHUS]

Church this morning was fantastic. Absolutely amazing. The words on the outside of the church that so clearly proclaim the sole hope of mankind - "Jesus Only, Mighty to Save" were clearly reflected in the service.

Apparently that church is one of the oldest in Launceston and has a long history of missionary work, particularly in China.

[Skeeter]

I'm glad you're having an excellent time. I never got down to Tasmania when I was in Australia. Is it nice?

[Ted Logan]

Ryan!!!

I hope you're bringing back pictures!

[BillSPrestonEsq]

The only Unesco world heritage site I have gotten the privilege of visiting is newgrange/knowth.

I'd love to hear about it.

[ICTHUS]

I'm absolutely bringing back pictures, guys. Some of them, especially from the Gordon River walk, didn't turn out very well (I think I've got some dust on my camera lens?) but they're still great nevertheless.

Something you Tolkein fans might find interesting. Queenstown, Tas, where my dad used to work, is the site of a copper mine that's over a hundred years old. Back in the early days of the mine they used to put their copper smelters into the open air and belch sulfur fumes into the air, as a result very little will grow around Queenstown - even the rock itself is a dull light brown colour that makes it look very bleak. Also, in the early days, they used to dump their sulfide tailings into the Queen river, which basically turned the river into a mild sulfuric acid solution. The result, as you might expect, is that the Queen river, past Queenstown and down to Macquarie harbour, is dead: nothing will grow in it.

Anyway, on the turnoff to Queenstown, on the roadsign, someone has crossed off "Queenstown: (X) KM" and put "Mordor" in place of "Queenstown" in spraypaint.
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I just finished reading "The Reason for God - Belief in an age of Skepticism" by Timothy Keller.

All I can say is I'm blown away. I've never read a clearer, yet more intellectually honest, defense of the reasonableness of the Christian faith, combined with a clear Gospel presentation, to date.

I'm going to leave my copy for my dad to read, along with a letter. He says that he doesn't read very often, but we'll see if he'll read it simply because I asked him to.

He's also reading this book called Heaven and Earth - Global Warming: The Missing Science by Ian Plimer, apparently a geologist based out of Monash University in Melbourne. I'm interested in borrowing it at some point. Basically it argues that a) CO2 is not the most significant cause of climate change, water vapour is. b) Historically (and pre-historically), planet earth has seen much greater climatological changes than in recent history. c) Human CO2 emissions have negligible to no impact on climate change.

I was under the impression that only the likes of intellectually dishonest "Creation Scientists" believed that because it fit in with their worldview of a soon-coming apocalypse and the permissibility, therefore, of being environmentally irresponsible - rather than the Biblical view of stewardship of an environment that God is interested in redeeming. It's interesting therefore, to hear the viewpoint from a secular scientist.

[BillSPrestonEsq]

Originally Posted by ICTHUS

I was under the impression that only the likes of intellectually dishonest "Creation Scientists" believed that because it fit in with their worldview of a soon-coming apocalypse and the permissibility, therefore, of being environmentally irresponsible - rather than the Biblical view of stewardship of an environment that God is interested in redeeming. It's interesting therefore, to hear the viewpoint from a secular scientist.

Just FWIW, that is what my chemistry profs, two of them, (both very interesting unbelievers), and the evangelical authors I heard earlier this semester have been saying.

Also, if you look at the actual data from where ice core data and measured temperature overlap, I think the info is interesting. (I got those from posts by JerryLove a long time ago, but have since seen some from my dad's work which pretty much verified JerryLove's posts) There is a deviation. To me anyways, it looks like the icecore data is compressed. That the recorded temps have higher highs, and lower lows for identical time frames.

And then throw in the Roman and medieval warm periods which are much warmer than now. Add in the fact that the first earth day was to counter the threat of global cooling and I think the big picture will be far more interesting.

My belief is that this is somehow cyclical by mechanizations far bigger than humans. I would not be surprised to find out it had something to do more with the earth sciences and less with biology myself.

Then again, I think the problem is a failure to look at the big picture. Yeah, we are in a warming trend. But that does not mean the equation is linear, or that we humans are the cause. I have seen some data that looks like it might predict global cooling in as few as 20 years.

[ICTHUS]

Prayer request.

I'm in Launceston again this week. I'm going to a bible study with someone I met at Gateway Baptist a couple of Sundays ago and then staying at his place for a night.

I'm starting to feel a bit ill. I'd appreciate some prayer for me not to be sick, at least until I get back to Canada and have access to free health care.

[ICTHUS]

Brief update: Andrew, the guy I met, whose home I stayed at, is actually the pastor, Steve's, son. So I stayed in the home of an absolutely fantastic minister of the Gospel for two nights (his wife, Robyn, invited me to stay another night). Steve and I had great talks about everything from soup to nuts about theology and the gospel. Turns out (and I had suspected this from the way he preaches) that Steve is actually a bit of a Reformed Baptist. He'd grown up in the Presbyterian Church of Australia and really the only reason he isn't a Presby still is because he disagrees with their sacramentology of baptism. Fair enough.

I'm at the airport in Melbourne right now. I'm out of Australia fairly soon, and back to Vancouver.

Dad got me an iPod Touch for an early Christmas gift. I'm seriously loving this thing. So far I've only found WiFi in the airport in Wynyard, but at least I know it works. It's also got a world clock so I've set it up with AEDST (Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time) and Pacific time.

[ICTHUS]

cgr from my iPod! the best thing since sliced bread

[Skeeter]

Nice!

[Ted Logan]

Originally Posted by ICTHUS

Turns out (and I had suspected this from the way he preaches) that Steve is actually a bit of a Reformed Baptist. He'd grown up in the Presbyterian Church of Australia and really the only reason he isn't a Presby still is because he disagrees with their sacramentology of baptism. Fair enough.

And this is why I'm not a Presbyterian, too.

I'm at the airport in Melbourne right now. I'm out of Australia fairly soon, and back to Vancouver.

It sounds like you've had a great time. I'm glad you'll be back on this continent soon.

[ICTHUS]

Well, I'm back..

My flight didn't go so well. Serious stomach problems on the flight - it wouldn't have been so bad if it was on the Melbourne to Auckland leg as that's only a 4 hour flight, but it happened on the Auckland to Vancouver leg - a 13 hour flight.

Ugh.

The exchange rate on the New Zealand dollar sucks. I withdrew $20 NZD in Auckland and didn't end up spending more than $10, so I had to exchange a NZ $10 bill and I only got $6 CAD for it.

I'll post more later when I'm not jet-lagged (my body still thinks its only 9:00 at night and I don't typically sleep for another hour or so) and feeling like crap.

I have a doctor appointment tomorrow - a specialist I've been waiting a few months for. Please pray it goes well.