A Leap of Faith...

Baptism... A public testimony of our faith and identification with Jesus Christ.

It's an act of our death, burial and resurrection in Christ, a leap of faith...
However, this guy takes it to a whole different level!

Love it... ^_^ (poor pastor)

I woke up at 6am this morning to witness a rare phenomenon that won't happen again for another 26 years - The transit of planet Mercury across the face of the Sun.

The weather forecasters were predicting rain and cloudy skies for the morning, but the Lord couldn't have blessed all of us sun-gazers with a better day! ^_^

A word of warning to all budding sun-gazers... Do not look at the sun directly through a telescope without first installing a solar filter, unless you want to end up burning a hole through your eye, or your camera. A telescope like mine has 130 times the light gathering power of the naked eye. Simply put, by the time you feel the pain, it's too late...

The filter is basically a mirrored surface with a safety film that blocks out 99.999% of visible light from the Sun and all the harmful UV rays. It's not that expensive and hey... It doubles up as a mirror too!

Mercury is about 1/285th the size of the Sun - a dot compared to the Sun, kind of like Singapore on the map of the world. However it didn't take long before I found it. See the dot at the top of the Sun? The bottom one's a sun-spot...

Yes... I was referring to that small miniscule dot.

A dot that I had to stare at for 10mins to make sure it wasn't a sun-spot ^_^

Mercury moving slowly towards the edge of the Sun...

Shot taken at maximum zoom of 12mm focal length, 1/500 shutter speed and an f-stop of 2.2... Just because I can ^_^

And what happens when you get your hands on a really really good telescope, like the 1 metre wide Swedish Solar Telescope (SST), compared to my 80mm Celestron?

You get pictures like these...

ChurchTogether 2006 was an absolute blast on Sunday night, with well over 18,000 people from over 175 churches attending. It is just wonderful to know that so many Christians can put their denominational differences aside to come together and celebrate as one Church.

Bumped into Ganesh and his friends from Perth Christian Life Centre. I met Ganesh while I was studying at the University of Western Australia. He works as pharmacist in the Guild Village.

From left: Sarah is a medical researcher at Royal Perth Hospital, while sisters Deborah & Esther are wanna-be drama queens (hey that's what you both told me! ^_^)

Deborah is an electrical engineer while Esther is a speech therapist. Angelina, Siew Yi & Lars down below.

I know you told me you're camera shy... But somehow or rather I didn't really care =)

The night started off literally with a bang!

What event would be complete without the ever-popular T-Shirt throwing contest?

Canon J. John from the UK was absolutely inspirational in his message. With the stature and accent of Mr Bean, he is not to be taken lightly as over 100 people accepted the Lord Jesus into their lives that night.

Lastly, the night ended off with an even bigger bang! Hillsongs United performed the closing concert, with thousands of us all singing our lungs out and jumping along to the music!

Till next year... 18,000 people, 175 churches, 1 faith... 1 Church Together. ^_^

Yes, I've done it again ^_^ This is the 3rd time I've moved in 2 years and I feel very much like a backpacker now; except this über lone ranger here is also carrying his mattress, sofa and dining table along with him on his adventures.


From the beautiful Swan River foreshore south of Perth city, I shoved my things into my ever-so-reliable 4 wheeler (innocently nicknamed "Bubbles", derived from its car licence plate 'BUB') and went to explore the land of the North, famed for its wide open spaces, pleasant people and giant houseflies. One of those things flying into your car windscreen explodes like a paintball... *ergh* (and I'm talking about the houseflies, not the people) ^_^


My home for the next 4 months was at a suburb called Clarkson, approximately 45km north of Perth; but just a breezy 10mins drive from my workplace at Joondalup Hospital. However my church is at Willetton, a jolly good 15 km SOUTH of Perth. Simply put, I have to drive a total of 120km, twice weekly for church activities. By the time I arrive for Sunday service, I would have listened to an entire sermon on CD while driving. (I'm so gonna win next year's bible quiz night)


Before long, it was time for me to move again. I don't think I'll bother to unpack my things this time. Right now I'm staying at a friend's place in Mindarie, a stone's throw away from the Indian Ocean (yes, literally...) This place is absolutely beautiful! The houses are lovely, the ocean view is breath-taking, the air is amazingly fresh, and the houseflies are just as large as the ones in Clarkson.

But hey... I'm happy!

And that's just me being cheeky... ^_^