Communion on the Moon: July 20, 1969. How did I not know this??

(This is an article by Eric Metaxas)

Forty years ago two human beings changed history by walking on the surface of the moon. But what happened before Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong exited the Lunar Module is perhaps even more amazing, if only because so few people know about it. “I’m talking about the fact that Buzz Aldrin took communion on the surface of the moon. Some months after his return, he wrote about it in Guideposts magazine.

And a few years ago I had the privilege of meeting him myself. I asked him about it and he confirmed the story to me, and I wrote about it in my book Everything You Always Wanted to Know About God (But Were Afraid to Ask).

The background to the story is that Aldrin was an elder at his Presbyterian Church in Texas during this period in his life, and knowing that he would soon be doing something unprecedented in human history, he felt he should mark the occasion somehow, and he asked his minister to help him. And so the minister consecrated a communion wafer and a small vial of communion wine. And Buzz Aldrin took them with him out of the Earth’s orbit and on to the surface of the moon.

He and Armstrong had only been on the lunar surface for a few minutes when Aldrin made the following public statement: “This is the LM pilot. I’d like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way.” He then ended radio communication and there, on the silent surface of the moon, 250,000 miles from home, he read a verse from the Gospel of John, and he took communion. Here is his own account of what happened:

“In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup.
Then I read the Scripture, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.

I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute [they] had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madelyn Murray O’Hare, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at
Christmas. I agreed reluctantly.

I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility . It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements.

And of course, it’s interesting to think that some of the first words spoken on the moon were the words of Jesus Christ, who made the Earth and the moon – and Who is Himself the “Love that moves the Sun and other stars.”

If we are in a dark room don't we, without thinking, reach out to the light switch or call out for it to be turned on? Do we first try to build a fire or look for a flashlight? Do we work ourselves up to expect the light to come on? Do we remind the light that we expect it to illuminate? Do we give up and fall on the floor if it doesn't come on? From the darkness reach or call out to your Light. YHVH bless us all.

Gotta love American media! WRONG!

From: Adam Gabbatt and agencies. The Guardian, Tuesday 25 January 2011

Forget turning water into wine, the feeding of the five thousand, even the resurrection. The "miracle of all miracles" occurred last night, when Oprah Winfrey revealed she had a half-sister.

Do you ever feel that you are all the bad examples of a Christian in the bible? The seeds sown on the path, the man unstable in all he does, the resounding gong etc...? And don't say it is satan trying to get at me. These people exist, otherwise YESHUA wouldn't have mentioned them.

Well, I had an excellent blog started but my window got closed and it was lost! So, here is draft 2. hehe

Rita was able to get Thursday and Friday off as the Doctor is out of town. Although, she still had to be "On Call" for the phones. Some vacation day! Thursday wasn't to bad but since we tried to go out Friday the phones were off the hook!

In the days since my last entry I have spent a lot of time following the NASA STS-127 Endeavour Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station. They finally launched on the 6th attempt on July 15, 2009, 6:03:10 p.m. EDT (22:03 UTC). Hydrogen leaks and bad weather delayed them multiple times. All told the mission had been delayed a little over a month. The main focus of this mission is to deliver the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility (JEM EF), and the Kibo Japanese Experiment Logistics Module - Exposed Section (ELM-ES). The exposed facility is a part of Kibo that will allow astronauts to perform science experiments that are exposed to the vacuum of space.

The 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which culminated with man's first steps on the moon, also began on July 16, with a real time re-broadcast of the original radio production of the launch and mission of the Apollo 11. The contrast and correlatins of both missions were quite interesting.

Have also been spending time taking Nana to Doctor's appointments. She has been feeling pretty rough and having a lot of sleeping, stomach and aching issues. We set her up with Dr Megna, our family doctor, for a physical. He found a slight Urinary Tract Infection and an abnormal ECG and so referred her to a cardiologist, prescribed her antibiotics, and also reccomended a mamogram. She also had some teeth that were hurting and some broken ones that need to be removed. They reccomended a Dr Haney in Waxahachie and so I took her there a few days ago. He reccomended the removal of the offending teeth and prescribed her a course of dental antibiotics to clear up a tooth infection before he can do the work.

Larra and Benn came in town the afternoon of the 16th. They plan on staying with us for a couple weeks. Larra has plans to go see the latest Harry Potter movie with Tiffy (her best friend).

Well...that catches us up to today! Today I woke around 1130am. I think everybody sleep in pretty late. Actually though, Larra and Rita did go to the store and pick up some things before I woke up. Nana had her appointment for her mammogram at 230pm. Larra wanted to go to the mall (Hot Topic) to get a Harry Potter shirt to wear to the movie. So, after we got Nana home from the hospital, Larra, Benn, Rita and I headed off to get some food and go to the mall.

We went to eat at Mexican Inn in Mansfield. VERY good! I had the "Tres Amigas" meal, 3 chicken enchiladas made in 3 different styles. YUM. Rita had beef enchilada's and Larra had taco's. After dining heavily on this, chips, queso and gorging on tea and diet coke, we headed off for our shopping spree.

First stop was the Parks Mall in Arlington. Barnes and Noble's was our first stop to find a word search puzzle book for Nana which we did. As a bonus buy I found The first three books of the Edgar Rice Burrough's series John Carter of Mars in a trilogy collection. I read the 10 book series when I was a teen and want to read them again as they are making  the story into a movie for 2010-2012. Larra's stop at Hot Topic was a flop as they had no shirts in a size she could wear. Sooo...we decided to go to the Towne East Mall in Mesquite. Larra was sooo sad.

Success!! Larra was able to find a shirt she liked that fit at Hot Topic in Mesquite. Man, were we tired by then!

Headed home then, and are currently watching King of Queen's and conversating as Nana chows our leftover queso and chips! Rita is sad.

Well, that is PLENTY for now! Talk to you cats later. Love, hugs and kisses, Charles "Slinkyman" Gotcher.

Hey family, friends, neighbors and nuisances!

I have been so busy learning and following and posting tweets on twitter that I have failed to update my blog! BAD SLINKYMAN! I have really enjoyed twitter. It is an interesting insight into peoples day to day lives and a great source for breaking news and trends. I am mainly following celebrities and people from the racing, political and news fields as well as several NASA feeds. It is interesting to see the day to day thoughts of people that we sometimes think of as so very different from ourselves. Some have turned out to be VERY strange and some are very down to earth. Just like one of us!

I have been following the  mission of Endeavour STS-127. After a little over a month of delays and 6 launch attempts, she is finally on her way to the International Space Station. Onboard she carries the Japanese outdoor experiment pod called Kibo or Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility (JEM EF), and the Kibo Japanese Experiment Logistics Module - Exposed Section (ELM-ES).^[4] The exposed facility is a part of Kibo that will allow astronauts to perform science experiments that are exposed to the vacuum of space.

Also have been following the various events centered on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon which resulted in the first man to set foot on the moon. Amazing story and made that much more fascinating as I can remeber following the mission when I was a child of 7.

Wow, it has been 12 days since I last blogged here. I cannot seem to remember anything else happenning! hehehe Larra and Benn arrove today from Sinton and will be staying with us for a few weeks. YAY! I am so glad she was able to work out coming again. It was touch and go there for a bit.

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