Waipara — in search of dinosaurs
Bringing The Flood of Genesis 6-9 closer to home
© Angel’s original . Written 23 November 2001, New Zealand
The water levels rise high as the winter rains fall. The trees and vegetation along the river are submerged in water. The river is deep and the currents fierce and strong, washing away sediments from the cliffs.
Today, however, the sun peeks through this unusually fine late-spring morning. Seven hopeful fossil-seekers make their way up to the Waipara River north of Christchurch New Zealand. The team is led by journalist Sandy Fairservice and his wife Judy. The couple who do not consider themselves “scientists but informed journalists” have been on the trail of fossils for about ten years.
The river is low and the vegetation is green and new. We unloaded our gear and set out to track up the river. I dipped my foot into the clear icy water. For a brief moment I have second thoughts about continuing our venture. With some encouragement, I pushed on, braving the chilly shin-high water till my cold feet became accustomed to the cold. The water levels varied as different turns. We waded through rushing waters at some places. The rocks were slippery and uneven. Right foot first to anchor ourselves, and then followed by the left, one step at a time. I had to learn how to walk in the water. At some places we were able to walk on dry rivers beds. Our shoes dried quickly in the warm sun.
Majestic mountains and fresh green foliage surrounded us. The quietness was only broken by the sound of rushing water, the rustling of leaves and the chirping of birds. Sandy pressed us forward – beautiful as the scenery was, we had not got to what we were there for – to find fossils.
As we turned around the bend, we were suddenly faced with high sediment cliffs to our right and left. The sediment stretched some distance before us. Some of the team excitedly hurried on ahead. Beate, Anne and later Sandy found three pieces of fossils that day. Judy said that it was an unusually good day – there were days when they found none. The winter rains had washed the sediments off the cliff. Throughout the river, large round concretions or boulders lied in the water. The fossils embedded in the concretions had been washed off the cliffs and fallen into the river and on the riverbeds.
Sandy and Judy explained that a sudden catastrophic flood had caused the land formation of the earth. High pressures and gushing waters from inside and around the earth pushed the land causing the mountains to rise and deep gorges to be formed. The sudden flood killed all life forms. All living things buried caused a chemical reaction to the land surrounding it resulting in the formation of solid concretions.
We were able to break the smallest of the three concretions that we had found and were able to see the fossils embedded. Along the river, we were also able to see other fossils embedded in the large boulder. Waipara River is particularly known for the Plesioaur and Masasaur fossils, marine reptiles that are supposedly extinct. In the mid-1800s, truckloads of fossils were shipped to Museum of Natural History in London. The Canterbury Museum of New Zealand also had a display of a large fossil of a rib cage.
Though fossils may mean little to the untrained man of the street, in them lie many great secrets of the origin of the earth and creation. Many philosophies and consequently beliefs originate from what is understood or not understood of the origins of mankind.
4 P’s To Help You Write Better Project Papers
I wrote this in response to requests from friends for help with their project papers
© Angel’s original . Written 21 December 2003
Sweating over your course project paper? Here are some helpful steps you can take to make the writing process an enjoyable one.
A. Planning
A1. Start early . I can’t emphasis this enough. Most lecturers give out their project topics early in the course. Know what is required of you. Ask your lecturer to clarify if necessary. Pace yourself out to ensure that you meet your deadline.
A2. Pick a topic that you are personally interested in or passionate about . Remember, you will be stuck with the subject for some time. An interest in the subject helps.
A3. Establish the purpose of your essay . What are you trying to say or prove? Can you state this in a sentence or two? No amount of padding can rescue your paper if you are unclear about your objective.
A4. Brainstorm . Jot down everything that comes to mind. I find mind mapping a helpful tool at this stage.
A5. Draw out an outline or framework for your article . Decide on how much space you will allot to each point, depending on its importance. At this stage, it would be helpful to show your proposal or draft to your lecturer to ensure that you are on the right track. I have found lecturers extra helpful when they meet with conscientious and interested students.
B. Perspiration
B1. Do your research . Be an expert in the subject, almost to the point where you feel you can teach it. Find more material than you need as it gives you a wider range of what to use when you finally put your paper together.
Search the Net. Check out the library. Talk to people in the field. Personally interview experts on the subject. Draw from your own or other people’s experiences. Write them down!
A word of caution here – beware of plagiarising. Lecturers and experienced readers can easily spot a cut-and-paste job. Some telltale signs include inconsistent writing styles, tenses and disjointed flow of thought.
B2. Take time to process the thoughts and ideas you have come up with . Look at them from a fresh angle and rephrase them in your own words. Keep the ideas flowing. Keep writing and don’t stop to edit your first draft. Leave that for a later stage.
C. Patience
C1. Allow the thoughts to incubate . When I think I am done with my first draft, I like to leave my article aside for a few days. Our amazing brain is capable of organising information in our minds to make things fall into place. Fresh ideas and perspective often surface after a break. It would also be helpful to allow your lecturer to comment on your work at this stage.
C2. Do several rounds of editing to ensure that there is a logical flow of thought from sentence-to-sentence and from paragraph-to-paragraph. Make sure that your article aligns with the objective of your paper.
C3. Eliminate (or at least minimise) typographical and grammatical errors .
D. Presentation
D1. Get someone to edit and proofread your work . Writers are too close to the article to spot mistakes. Attach all necessary appendices and references.
D2. Give your paper a nice finesse. It should look neat, readable and ecstatically pleasant. Select a clear and readable font size (11-12 point size is good). Check your margin setting, paragraphing, pagination, line spacing and colour. Conform to specifications given by your lecturer if any. The quality of your work is a reflection of you. Take pride in yourself and what you do.
I trust you these pointers will help take some of the sweat out of writing and make the process more enjoyable for you. All the best in your paper!
Don’t blink!
Many things happen in a blink…
© Angel’s original . Written April 2003
Published in The Frankelite, Editor’s column . April-June 2003
Several years ago, I was on a conducted tour around the quiet countryside of Ireland when our humorous tour driver said, “Don’t blink, everyone. We are going to pass through the smallest town in Ireland. If you blink, you will miss seeing it.” Sure enough, we zipped through the little town in a blink. I do not even remember its name.
Many things happen in a blink.
In a blink, we witnessed the total destruction of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. In a blink, the 24-year regime of Saddam Hussein was removed when superpower USA launched “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. In a blink, the world was hit with the mysterious Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), causing panic, paranoia and even paralysis.
In a blink, Singapore which prides itself on its First World status, saw PSA Corporation, Housing Development Board and Singapore Airlines go through “restructuring” (= “retrenchment”). In an instant, the rich are made poor when businesses collapse while surgical mask manufacturers are made rich because of the sudden demand.
In a blink, I saw the closure of my sister Cynthia’s short 37 years on earth.
How then should we live in a time when a blink could bring about cataclysmic changes in our lives?
In Psalm 103:7, David said that God “made known His ways to Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel.” Both the Israelites and Moses witnessed the same events, but only Moses had insight into God’s ways.
In a race, blinkers or hoods fitted to the horse’s head force the horse to look straight ahead instead of being distracted by surrounding horses. Jockeys will tell you that a little blinker can make a great difference to the racehorse’s performance.
Moses who wrote Psalm 90, had blinkers that kept his eyes and heart fixed on God. The Israelites on the other hand, had a different kind of blinkers that blinded them from understanding God’s heart.
If we are to thrive in such a time as this, we need to shield our eyes and heart with blinkers that will keep our focus on the Lord Jesus instead of on the many things that stir up our innate fears. We also need to ask God to remove whatever blinds us from understanding and responding to His ways.
In the midst of uncertainty, one more certain event will happen in a blink that will not only change our lives but also change us forever. The apostle Paul said, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (I Corinthians 15:51-52).
In a blink, all wrong will be set right. God will complete what He began at the Cross and permanently remove suffering and death. In a blink, Satan, God’s enemy, will be no more. In a blink, Christ, the Hope of our glory will be revealed, and we, His people, will be resurrected and transformed.
In a blink, I will be reunited with Cynthia .
It is in the light of this hope that the apostle urges us, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
There are many around us living between blinks and in much fear. There is still work to be done and a race to complete. Do you have blinkers that keep you from knowing and responding to God’s heart? How are you living between blinks?
