Astronaut Who Carried Piece of Missions Aviation History Into Space Reflects on His Flight

Teresa Neumann : Oct 28, 2009
Erin Roach - Baptist Press News

"Sometimes people will expect it to be almost a religious experience when you go up there, and I guess knowing God as Creator and the miracles that I see all around me on earth, it's less of that for me and sometimes more what He's taught me just through my experiences of being an astronaut."

(Houston, Texas)—Baptist Press News reports that Patrick Forrester, the space shuttle astronaut who carried a piece of the battery box from martyred missionary pilot Nate Saint's Piper PA-14 airplane when the space shuttle Discovery docked at the international space station in late August, reflected on his flight, and his faith, encouraging people to get personally involved in sharing the Gospel outside their comfort zones. (Photo: BPNews)

"I think we're all given certain talents and passions and gifts, and it's a matter of finding where those intersect with God's work, which is going on all around us. We have to figure out where we're supposed to have an impact on the world," he said. "Once my eyes were opened to people giving their lives to God's work and how little it takes from us to do some of the same things...whatever I can do to bring attention to that or support it with my own life and my own resources, that's what I want to do."

Forrester also described what it's like to see God's handiwork from above earth: "It's always a beautiful view that we have when we're up there looking back at earth and looking out toward the stars and moon, out toward the heavens," he said. "I'm just always amazed at what I see. Sometimes people will expect it to be almost a religious experience when you go up there, and I guess knowing God as Creator and the miracles that I see all around me on earth, it's less of that for me and sometimes more what He's taught me just through my experiences of being an astronaut."