Born and bred in Perth WA, Alf joined the RAAF in 1978 and graduated from the RAAF Academy four years later with a Science degree and a Graduate Diploma in Military Aviation. Following RAAF Pilot’s Course, Alf’s operational tours included flying the AP-3C Orion, and then 20 years as an Experimental Test Pilot with the RAAF’s Aircraft Research and Development Unit (ARDU). On promotion to Wing Commander, Alf Commanded ARDU for four years. Alf was awarded the D.J. Knight's Award for Flight Test Excellence (‘Test Pilot of the Year’) two years running. A four year posting at the Defence Force Safety Bureau (DFSB) as an Aviation Accident Investigator (AAI) culminating in being the Chief of Staff.
Alf left Defence in early 2016 and joined the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) as the National Manager of Aviation Safety Advisors. Late 2017, Alf moved on to become the Chief Pilot of a medium-sized, Canberra headquartered airline called Corporate-Air. He currently flies the SAAB 340B on Regular Public Transport operations, and the Cessna Conquest in Charter and Aerial work operations.
Alf has flown over 60 different aircraft types (ranging from gliders, a Pitts Special through to the P-51D Mustang, the Seahawk helicopter, F/A-18, F-16, up to the C141 Starlifter), has flown 1.5 times the speed of sound, pulled +9.0G and flown up to 50,000 feet; with over 10,000 flying hours in his Logbook, Alf has been extremely fortunate to have seen the world through aviation.
Alf became a Christian on the night of 29 Aug 1989 in Adelaide. Over the years, Alf has been actively involved in evangelistic outreach, leading homegroups and spoken at numerous churches and venues as God has led him. He is currently a member of Tuggeranong Baptist Church, ACT.
Alf is married to Lori and have five children between them. He is a life member of the International Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP), Vice President of the Australian Society of Air Safety Investigators (ASASI), and in the final stage of completing a Masters in Aviation Management. An avid snow skier, bushwalker and sailor, Alf is also a current black belt instructor in International Taekwondo.
If you are looking for perfect safety, you will do well to sit on a fence and watch the birds; but if you really wish to learn, you must mount a machine and become acquainted with its tricks by actual trial.’ — Wilbur Wright, from an address to the Western Society of Engineers in Chicago, 18 September 1901
Various groups will have a holiday break over the school holidays including:
Explorers - break commenced 21 June - recommences 2 August 2022
Women's Bible Study group meeting in Greenway recommences in school term 3
Coffee with Rob and Craig - last get together 29 June - recommences 20 July 2022
Boys' and Girls' Brigade - last meet on 30 June - recommence 21 July 2022
Keep warm and safe and see you next term!
Text of email received from Michele today, 22 June 2022
Hi there Friends,
We are home, we're cold and we've tested positive for Covid but we don't feel sick at all - we should be out of isolation by the end of this week.
Please find enclosed a short newsletter with an invitation to join us for a Celebration service in August.
Many blessings,
Michele and Flora. Hi there Friends,
July 3 “Is Christianity Irrational?” Communion
July 10 “Is Christianity Narrow Minded"?
July 17 “Is Christianity Anti-Other Faiths?”
July 24 “Can We Believe In The Bible And Science?
July 31 Guest - Alf Jonas
Updated Seating Arrangements - easing of COVID restrictions
In response to the latest easing of restrictions on Places of Worship, we have replaced the seating arrangements in the Auditorium with rows of chairs placed 1.5m apart and, because you have been attending our in-person services, you have now been allocated a seat until the end of the Public Health Emergency. A single chair (to remain empty) is between you (or your group) and the next person – a distance of approximately .5m.
A number of single chairs (in pairs) have also been used so that we can fit everyone in. This is now our regular seating plan.
Seating Plan Management – playing your part
This means that, you will no longer have to book each week that you intend to attend. Your seat will be waiting for you.
Please use the NO THANKS event if you know that you will not be attending (hopefully because you are going on holiday – not because you are sick or in isolation). This will help us to allow others who may wish to return to in-person services or to visitors.
Risk Management – shared responsibility
As chairs are less than 1.5m in width, you may wish to wear a mask in line with ACT Health recommendation to wear a face mask where physical distancing is difficult. Congregational singing is also identified as increasing the risk of infection, but churches are no longer required to ensure that people are distanced 1.5m when they sing.
Wearing a mask provides a level of protection for yourself and others.
For further detail, open the attached COVID Safety Plan.
June 5 Life Happens Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
June 12 Guidance Happens Psalm 25
1 In you, Lord my God, I put my trust.
2 I trust in you;
do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
3 No one who hopes in you
will ever be put to shame,
but shame will come on those
who are treacherous without cause.
4 Show me your ways, Lord,
teach me your paths.
5 Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.
6 Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
for you, Lord, are good.
8 Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
9 He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.
10 All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful
toward those who keep the demands of his covenant.
11 For the sake of your name, Lord,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
12 Who, then, are those who fear the Lord?
He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.
13 They will spend their days in prosperity,
and their descendants will inherit the land.
14 The Lord confides in those who fear him;
he makes his covenant known to them.
15 My eyes are ever on the Lord,
for only he will release my feet from the snare.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
17 Relieve the troubles of my heart
and free me from my anguish.
18 Look on my affliction and my distress
and take away all my sins.
19 See how numerous are my enemies
and how fiercely they hate me!
20 Guard my life and rescue me;
do not let me be put to shame,
for I take refuge in you.
21 May integrity and uprightness protect me,
because my hope, Lord, is in you.
22 Deliver Israel, O God,
from all their troubles!
June 9 Grace Happens Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
June 26 Trouble Happens John 16:33
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Dr Raymond Wilson is a retired scientist and university associate professor and is a Bible expositor with over 40 years experience preaching and teaching in numerous churches and several Bible colleges in Australia and New Zealand.On 8 and 15 May he will be preaching at Tuggeranong Baptist Church from Isaiah chapter 40 on the Greatness of our God.Raymond would appreciate your prayers as he prepares and delivers these addresses on such an awesome topic.
Comfort for God’s People
40 Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
6 A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures forever.”
9 You who bring good news to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.
11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who can fathom the Spiritd] of the Lord,
or instruct the Lord as his counselor?
14 Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge,
or showed him the path of understanding?
15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are regarded as dust on the scales;
he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
16 Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,
nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
17 Before him all the nations are as nothing;
they are regarded by him as worthless
and less than nothing.
18 With whom, then, will you compare God?
To what image will you liken him?
19 As for an idol, a metalworker casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and fashions silver chains for it.
20 A person too poor to present such an offering
selects wood that will not rot;
they look for a skilled worker
to set up an idol that will not topple.
21 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
24 No sooner are they planted,
no sooner are they sown,
no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
25 “To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
The following message was received from Karl Faase of Olive Tree Media:
Lest We Forget
19 April 2022
I grew up believing that as our soldiers from World War 1 and World War 2 died, so too would the significance and involvement in ANZAC Day Commemorations.
Yet, research has shown that this is far from the case. In fact, Australians mark ANZAC Day as the most significant of all Australia’s national holidays.
I wonder if perhaps it’s because what we are marking on ANZAC Day is not simply one moment in history; but instead recognising all those who have given their life for the sake of our country and the freedom of those around the world.
To lay down ones life for the sake of others is a remarkable act. There is no greater gift that any human can offer another.
Join me tomorrow in a webinar with Dr Michael Gladwin as we look at what it means to mark and remember sacrifice, courage and mateship on ANZAC Day and how this speaks to the history of faith in Australia. Register for free here -
https://event.webinarjam.com/register/15/2360zaz
We have received the following message from Christine Kyalimpa
................................
Subject: Easter Greetings
Love Easter greetings from all of us here in Kyenjojo.
We do wish you happiness, Joy and Gods' protection at Easter.
We extend our love to all members at TBC.
Thanks so much for your prayers and support and encouragement.
God bless you,
kyalimpa Christine.