Our Solar System

Tonight, Tasha who's 11 asked me if I could type up her school project on the solar system for her. She had already done all the research and written it all out. She just wanted me to type it up for her. So I did. As I was typing, I got more and more fascinated by our solar system and how God created such an amazing galaxy. It totally baffles me, how anyone could possibly look at this, and then say it's all a result of some random bang. I'd like to share with you just a few bits from Tasha's project, and to make it more interesting, I even found lots of cool images from the internet to go along with it. Hope you enjoy reading this and I hope you marvel at what an awesome Creator God truly is...

The Solar System

The Solar System is made up from stars, the Sun, Moon, and the nine planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

The Solar System is also made up from minor planets, comets, meteoroids, and cosmic dust. It would take about 2000 years to get across the solar system, moving as fast as a 747 Passenger Jet. All objects in the solar system orbit the Sun.

Pluto

The smallest planet; It is the coldest planet.

Neptune

· Neptune has two thick and two thin rings surrounding it.
· It is approximately 2.8 billion miles away from the Sun.

Uranus

· Uranus is almost identical to Neptune.
· Uranus is made of Methane ice.

Saturn

· Saturn is the 2nd largest planet in the solar system.
· 755 Earths could fit inside Saturn.

Jupiter

· Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System.
· Jupiter is mostly made of a gas called hydrogen.
· Jupiter has a small rocky core at its centre and it is bigger than the Earth.

Mars

· Mars is often called the “Red Planet” because of its colour.
· It is about half the size of the Earth.
· In Mars, one day is 24½ hours long.

Earth

It is often called “The Water Planet” because it is the only planet in our Solar System which has liquid water on its surface (about 70% of the surface of Earth is covered by water).

Venus

· It takes Venus 243 days to spin around one full time.
· Venus is about the same size of the Earth.
· It is very hot all over the whole planet (465˚C).

Mercury

· It is the closest planet to the Sun.
· It has no moons.
· It is the hottest planet in the day; At night, because Mercury spins so slowly, you could freeze to death.

The Sun

· The Sun is a star.
· It is made of gases called hydrogen and helium.
· The outside temperature of the Sun is 11,000ºF.
· More than one billion planet Earths could fit inside the Sun because it is so big.

The Moon

· It is about 250,000 miles from Earth.
· The Moon is moving about one inch away from the Earth each year.
· It has a diameter of about 3,476 kilometers.

Stars

· There are roughly 100 billion stars in the galaxy.
· The Sun is the closest star to Earth.
· It would take about a hundred thousand years to get to the closest star using the fastest space ship on earth.
· A star is made out of a bunch of burning gas made of Helium and Hydrogen.

Cats and Dogs

Hello again.

I finally have some time to update my blog. Over the last few months, I've met some new people and made some new friends. One of those friends is a very lovely person called Sjanna who has four gorgeous kids and a lovely family. I was at her house last week and their cat had just given birth to 4 kittens a couple of days earlier, so I got to hold them for a few seconds. It was really cool. I'd never seen new born kittens before and I had no idea how tiny they would be. They are so small. They still had their eyes shut that day. I'll be going round to her house again tomorrow, so I don't know if they will have opened their eyes or not by then.

The four kittens

Look how small that kitten is and my hands are really small.

Sjanna and I

Another gorgeous Nova Scotian view

I will really miss the pretty scenery of Nova Scotia when I go back to England. I've booked my flight for early July. I will be going back to London, and at the moment, it looks like it will be for good, as I still don't have a valid work permit to allow me to stay and teach here. So that is kind of sad, but it will be nice to see my family and friends in England again.

Anja and Gina have a friend at school called Morgan, and Morgan has this cute Shitzou dog called Zoe. I'm not a fan of small yappy dogs, but I have to say that Zoe is just so cute! So I had to have a photo taken with her just to show you. (Elaine - I wish you could see her in real life - she really is sooo cute).

Today, I went to the Yarmouth Museum with Anja and Gina on their school trip. I really did enjoy the tour and it did make me feel like, 'I wish I could get a job and stay here', so I'm still hoping that a miracle will happen before September and I'll be able to come back here.

Speaking of Anja and Gina and school activities, they had a Medieval theme and they made these lanterns at school, and I think they are so cool ... k

Also, they had a project where they had to make a musical instrument, so I enlisted the help of my good friends John and Wendy one weekend. Wendy helped Gina make this glass wind chime. Gina had to cut and grind pieces of coloured glass and Wendy helped her to hang them with thin fishing wire. It looks really cool, and makes a lovely sound, although the wires can get tangled quite easily.

Anja was very adventerous and decided she wanted to make a harp. So John helped her to cut some wood and nail it together to make it look vaguely like a harp. I tied the strings (again we used thin fishing wire). Anja sanded it down and painted it. It looks really cool, and it does makes a faint sound. I'm really proud of them both and really thankful to have such good friends as John and Wendy, who were willing so kindly, to help us out with this project.

So, as you can see, I've been busy with the girls and with making new friends. I also started attending a Bible Study group for Young Adults that is run by Hebron Baptist Church (which is where I met Sjanna - as in I met her at the church, not at the group). The Bible Study Group is quite informal and we meet fortnightly, and I am really enjoying it. And their church is going to be organising a Kid's club for one week in June, and I have signed up to help out with that, so I am really really excited about that and looking forward to it.

This Friday, Rachel and I are taking the girls to a church in Mahone Bay (which is like a 2 hour drive from here) and we're really excited and looking forward to that too.

In other news, my sister has signed me up for a 5K run in Regents Park (in London) on the 22nd of July, so I'm going to have to start training soon and do some running. It's to raise money for 'Cancer Research'.

I did a 5K run with her a couple of years ago in Hyde Park (that time I ran to raise money for a charity called 'Action Aid' that works to Make Poverty History). I enjoyed it, but I hadn't trained until 3 weeks before the run, and it took me 45 minutes to run it. Hopefully, this time, I'll get a lot more training in before the run.

That was us before the run - it was a very hot day!

After completing the run

Relaxing :)

Well I guess that is enough news for one post. For those of you, who have been waiting for my newsletter. I was going to write one and e-mail it to you over the Easter holiday, but then I got ill for a couple of weeks, then I got better but as usual have been quite busy. (Oh yeah, I've also been stacking some more wood recently - all good stuff for building up my non-existent arm muscles. I've also really enjoyed the gorgeous weather we've been having this week too). Hopefully, I'll manage to write a newsletter and e-mail it to you soon and give you a more personal update.

Another quiz

You Are a Prophet Soul

You are a gentle soul, with good intentions toward everyone. Selfless and kind, you have great faith in people. Sometimes this faith can lead to disappoinment in the long run. No matter what, you deal with everything in a calm and balanced way. You are a good interpreter, very sensitive, intuitive, caring, and gentle. Concerned about the world, you are good at predicting people's feelings. A seeker of wisdom, you are a life long learner looking for purpose and meaning. You are a great thinker and communicator, but not necessarily a doer. Souls you are most compatible with: Bright Star Soul and Dreaming Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

101 Things About Me

I saw this on Rebecca's blog, and decided to join in and do the same, especially as I am aware that I have been quite lazy at updating my blog, so this should be fun...

1. I am a born-again Christian.
2. I love Jesus with all my heart.
3. I believe that Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE (John 14v6).
4. I believe that God is a God of LOVE.
5. I also believe that God is jealous for our love.
6. I fear God (fear as in the highest form of respect rather than being terrified).
7. I believe the Bible is the true word of God.
8. I love the Holy Spirit and my heavenly Father as much as I love Jesus.
9. I love Iraq and the diversity of the cultures within.
10. I love that I was born in Baghdad.
11. I was named after the Queen of Babylon and the goddess of love, fertility/life and war.
12. I have very smart parents.
13. I have two younger sisters: a lawyer (it's her birthday today - Happy Birthday gorgeous!) and an actress (I'm so proud of you for not giving up on your dreams).
14. I love all my family members.
15. I can speak, read and write Arabic and English fluently.
16. I know a little bit of German.
17. I have cousins who are half German.
18. I have more cousins than I can keep count of.
19. I was kidnapped and held at gun-point when I was a baby about 7 months old.
20. God saved my life.
21. I went on a plane for the first time when I was 11 months old, and have been travelling the world ever since.
22. I contemplated ending my life when I was 18.
23. Then I met Jesus, and He saved my life again.
24. I nearly got run over by a car countless times in my life.
25. God saved me each time.
26. I can't swim.
27. I fell in the river in Cambridge when I was 19 and nearly drowned.
28. God saved me again (my friend jumped in and got me out).
29. I've renounced my death wish ever since then, and have had no more 'near death' experiences.
30. I love the plans that God has for my life.
31. I have no idea what's next in the plan.
32. I love being in the presence of God.
33. I love to worship God and to tell others about him.
34. I love to pray for the sick and see God healing them.
35. I love it when God intervenes in someone's life and makes it better.
36. I can't live without God.
37. I love people who are honest, genuine, and down to earth.
38. I LOVE people who make me LAUGH. (They say that food is the way to a man's heart, well making me laugh is definitely the way to my heart!)
39. I have chocolate brown eyes, but I wear blue contact lenses when I go out.
40. I'd rather have one true godly friend, than a thousand friends who aren't.
41. I love to dance, although I'm not the best of dancers.
42. My dad is the best dancer I know.
43. I love the Lebanese TV show 'Star Academy'.
44. I was so happy last week when Shada Hasoon (the first Iraqi girl contestant) won this year's Star Academy. She's also the first girl contestant to ever win the show and you can see the final episode here.
45. I am so privileged to be living with my Pastor's family.
46. They are my spiritual family and they are awesome.
47. I love them (each and every one) and they will always be a big part of my life.
48. I try to always treat others in the same way that I would like to be treated.
49. I love people who are hungry for more of God and who are not afraid to be out of the box.
50. I love making new friends and getting to know people from different cultures and countries.
51. I love the colours blue, pink, lilac and red in that order.
52. I love Hagen-Das vanilla ice-cream.
53. My favourite alcoholic drink is Baileys.
54. I have never been drunk and never want to be either.
55. I love the Irish accent and the Jordi (New Castle) accent.
56. I made a commitment to serve God full time.
57. I want God to enlarge my heart, and let His heart flow through me.
58. I struggle with loneliness and rejection at times.
59. But I do believe that I am very special and valuable to God and that He never leaves me alone.
60. I am short.
61. I was born a month early and weighed only 2kg.
62. I hate it when people are two-faced.
63. I hate hypocrisy.
64. I love truth.
65. I love leading people to Jesus.
66. As you can tell from this list, I love talking about God.
67. I hate the occult, but I love the prophetic.
68. I hate injustice.
69. I like to read books, especially ones that challenge me to go deeper in my walk with God. 70. I like to listen to music and to sing along when no one's around to hear me.
71. I like to encourage others in their walk with God.
72. I like to have encouragement from other Christians around me.
73. I miss my really good friends.
74. I can be very quiet in group situations.
75. I like to think before I speak.
76. I don't like to offend others.
77. I relate best on a 'one to one' level.
78. I can be a chatter box at times.
79. I can be extremely patient with some people.
80. Yet I can have a very short and feisty temper with my youngest sister. Sorry babe!
81. I find it hard not to argue back at times.
82. I choose to die to my self and my selfish desires daily and I choose to live for Christ.
83. I very often FAIL miserably at doing that, but at least I try.
84. 8 is my favourite number and 4 is my second favourite number, followed by the number 2. 85. I love drinking fruit smoothies.
86. I love eating Iraqi kebabs and shawurma.
87. I love eating olives.
88. I love strawberries with ice-cream and sugar on top.
89. I would love to have identical twin girls one day.
90. I'd love to travel the world many times over.
91. I believe that God has a sense of humour.
92. I'm not afraid to be different, or to go against the grain.
93. I love adventure.
94. I love the countryside and natural beauty.
95. I love to go for long walks with a friend, I especially love to walk in the woods.
96. I love the word of God.
97. I want my heart and my life to be flowing with God's compassion and grace for others.
98. I believe it is better to forgive than to have unforgiveness in my heart.
99. I hardly ever cry.
100. I know that God is softening my heart when I do cry.
101. I love all my friends.